Academic career
Fagan was visiting associate professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, in 1966/67, and was appointed Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1967.
Fagan was an archaeological generalist, with expertise in the broad issues of human prehistory. He was the author or editor of 46 books, including seven undergraduate college texts. Fagan contributed over 100 specialist papers to many national and international journals. He was a contributing editor to Archaeology Worldwide, American Archaeology and Discover Archaeology magazines, and formerly wrote a regular column for Archaeology Magazine. He was on the editorial boards of six academic and general periodicals, and contributed to Scientific American and Gentleman's Quarterly.
Fagan chose to teach introductory archaeology to large undergraduate classes at Santa Barbara. Avoiding traditional lecture formats, he experimented with technology from the 1970s to provide basic information, leaving his class periods for wide-ranging discussions of interest to students.
In conjunction with this interest in college teaching, Fagan began writing a series of archaeology textbooks beginning in 1972 that are still in print. These include In the Beginning (13th edition, 2013, with Nadia Durrani), People of the Earth (15th edition, 2018, with Nadia Durrani), Ancient North America (5th edition, 2019), Ancient Lives (7th edition, 2020, with Nadia Durrani), World Prehistory (9th edition, 2016, with Nadia Durrani), Ancient Civilizations (4th edition, 2016, with Chris Scarre), and Archaeology: A Brief Introduction (12th edition, 2016, with Nadia Durrani). These are designed for beginners. His approach melds traditional cultural history with more recent approaches, with an emphasis on writing historical narrative using archaeological data and sources from other disciplines.
Fagan was an archaeological consultant for organisations including National Geographic Society, Time-Life, Encyclopædia Britannica, and Microsoft Encarta. He lectured about archaeology and other subjects at venues including the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the National Geographic Society, the San Francisco City Lecture Program, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Getty Conservation Institute.
In addition to experience with the development of public television programs, Fagan was the developer/writer of Patterns of the Past, an NPR series in 1984–86. He worked as a consultant for the BBC, RKO, and many Hollywood production companies on documentaries. In 1995, he was senior series consultant for Time-Life Television's Lost Civilizations series. Fagan was awarded the 1996 Society of Professional Archaeologists' Distinguished Service Award for his "untiring efforts to bring archaeology in front of the public." He also received a Presidential Citation Award from the Society for American Archaeology in 1996 for his work in textbook, general writing and media activities. He received the society's first Public Education Award in 1997.
Fagan wrote critiques of contemporary archaeology and advocated non-traditional approaches, as well as writing extensively on the role of archaeology in contemporary society. His approach was a melding of different theoretical approaches, which focuses on the broad issues of human prehistory and the past. He was an advocate of multidisciplinary approaches to such issues as climate change in the past.
