How can evolutionary and biological anthropologists engage broader audiences?

Abstract

Objectives: With our diverse training, theoretical and empirical toolkits, and rich data, evolutionary and biological anthropologists (EBAs) have much to contribute to research and policy decisions about climate change and other pressing social issues. However, we remain largely absent from these critical, ongoing efforts. Here, we draw on the literature and our own experiences to make recommendations for how EBAs can engage broader audiences, including the communities with whom we collaborate, a more diverse population of students, researchers in other disciplines and the development sector, policymakers, and the general public. These recommendations include:(1) playing to our strength in longitudinal, place-based research, (2) collaborating more broadly, (3) engaging in greater public communication of science, (4) aligning our work with open-science practices to the extent possible, and(5) increasing diversity of our field and teams through intentional action, outreach, training, and mentorship. Conclusions:We EBAs need to put ourselves out there: research and engagement are complementary, not opposed to each other. With the resources and workable examples we provide here, we hope to spur more EBAs to action. | INTRODUCTIONAnthropologists have the capacity to contribute to debates about matters of pressing social importance, from climate change to crises of morbidity and mortality, poverty, migration, parochialism and tolerance, and beyond.

Human adaptation to climate change: An introduction to the special issue

“…Second, even though the climate community is already making policy decisions that affect the communities with whom we collaborate-communities that are often among the most vulnerable to the downsides of climate change-few of us are bringing what we know about these communities to the table to help inform decision-making on the part of local, regional, or national governments, policy think tanks, or intergovernmental institutions charged with responding to climate change. Assuming the communities with whom we collaborate agree that we can share their data and stories, or the data and stories of their ancestors, we need only build the bridge so that our empirical work and ideas can reach climate change stakeholders (see Jones et al 2021a, for tips on how to do so). EBAs will then be better positioned to help support communities vulnerable to climate change as they cope.…”

“…In short, EBAs have both a theoretical approach and data that would greatly contribute to ongoing conversations about climate-change adaptation. Participating in these conversations, however, requires that we engage in outreach and make these resources available to the climate community and the general public (Jones et al, 2021a). It also means that we need to engage with and listen to the communities with whom we collaborate (Broesch et al, 2020;Kramer & Hackman, 2021;Ready & Collings, 2021).…”

“…Given that EBAs have a theoretical approach and an array of data relevant to both the climate community and the general public, how do we reach these stakeholders? Based on the experiences of many of the contributors to this special issue, in Jones et al (2021a) we make explicit recommendations for how to build bridges to the climate community and the public. We include illustrative examples that readers may find useful for increasing their engagement and outreach while simultaneously collaborating with and listening to local, Indigenous, and descendant communities.…”

“…In this introductory article, we review concepts that will be used throughout this special issue, including what we mean by "climate change" and "adaptation"; briefly introduce the role of climate change in shaping human evolution; and identify some of the major topics studied by EBAs that are relevant to the climate community, providing examples from contributions in this issue. We close by providing a short overview of strategies that EBAs can use to better engage with the climate community, strategies that we cover in more detail in a large collaborative piece (Jones et al, 2021a).…”

Addressing the growing fossil record of subadult hominins by reaching across disciplines

“…[25][26][27] Synthesizing an approach with shared theory and application to investigate the fossil record will further the understanding of human evolution, selective pressures shaping maturity patterns in hominin species, and provide a collaborative base across research paradigms to integrate data. [28][29][30] Current computing power has affected growth modeling, and in particular, the ability to efficiently run time-series analyses has become a powerful tool in the Auxologists' armamentarium. 31 Use of parametric and nonparametric models has allowed us not only to describe the pattern of growth but also to investigate the underlying biology of the control of growth and its response to endogenous and exogenous factors.…”