[1] His dissertation, "The Cuicatlán Cañada and Monte Albán: Interregional Processes and Primary State Formation in Central Oaxaca," was published in 1982 by Academic Press.
He has trained a generation of graduate students in methodologies of field research, and he also has served on doctoral committees as primary advisor and as a reader.
At his induction ceremony in April 2008, NAS President Ralph Cicerone lauded Spencer as "the leading evolutionary archaeologist of his generation."
The citation continues: "His fieldwork has documented the rise of entrepreneurial rank societies, the origin of the stratified militaristic state, and the strategies of imperial colonization.
His work combines empirical data with evolutionary concepts like tempo, mode, biased transmission, and adaptive peaks.