AABA 2026 Workshops and Training Opportunities
We have an exciting lineup of workshops, discussions, and training opportunities at #AABA2026! All workshops will be in person at the conference in Denver. Workshop locations, times, and registration forms are also listed in the online program and app.
Wednesday, March 18
COD-WIN and BAWMN Workshop: Language in a Time of Uncertainty: Walking the Walk When You Can’t Talk the Talk
2:00 PM – 5:00 PM, Governor’s Square 16
This workshop offers women and gender-minoritized folks across career stages guidance in crafting inclusive job ads and articulating teaching philosophies through collaborative discussion and activities.
There is a need for transformation in the academy now more than ever, despite not being able to use more radical language we can still carry on the mission without abandoning the goal.This workshop aims to support and advance AABA women* navigating both sides of the job hiring process, those of the search committee and the hopeful applicant, with a focus on academic communication during a rapidly shifting U.S. political and institutional climate. Participants will explore how language shapes career opportunities using interactive and skills-based strategies. Both job seekers and those involved in hiring or mentoring others will leave the session with practical tools for communicating values of inclusion and belonging even as institutional priorities evolve. Throughout the workshop, participants will benefit from the shared experiences of peers and invited mentors representing varied career stages and institutional contexts. The session concludes with opportunities for networking and collaborative reflection.
*This workshop is aimed for folks that face sexism or discrimination based on their gender identity, anyone who feels this description fits them is welcome.
Organizers: Stephanie Poindexter, Megan Holmes, Alexandra Kralick, and Sarah Lacy
Thursday, March 19
The Wenner-Gren Foundation: Grants and Opportunities
9:30 AM – 11:30 AM, Governor’s Square 16
Join Foundation representatives Chip Colwell and Chris Robinson for a discussion of the Wenner-Gren’s history, mission and programs supporting anthropology and anthropologically oriented scholars, worldwide.
Wenner-Gren provides support for individual and collaborative research projects, including engaged projects benefiting marginalized and minoritized communities. We also provide funding for meetings and capacity building projects of various kinds. And we award fellowships to doctoral students from countries where advanced training in anthropology is less accessible, and to scholars bringing a writing or media project to completion.
Chip and Chris will describe our grants and fellowships, offer some tips on applying for them, then open the floor for questions. If you are an early career researcher or a senior researcher with a doctorate in anthropology or a related field, or, a doctoral student pursuing your degree, Wenner-Gren can be a great source of support.
RSVP to join the workshop using this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/H9KBML7
Organizer: Chris Robinson
Effective Science Communication Strategies in an Age of Willful Disinformation
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM, Governor’s Square 16
The workshop will include a keynote, a panel with Q&A, and breakout sessions, to provide training in science communication during a sensitive sociopolitical moment.
This workshop will consist of a 15–20-minute keynote presentation by Lisa Marshall (UC Boulder, Associate Director of Science Storytelling) addressing critical factors for consideration when communicating science to the general public at this critical moment in time, when science is undervalued and funding is threatened. This keynote will be followed by a 40-45 min panel discussion led by three award-winning AABA science communicators. These include Cara Ocobock, Sang-Hee Lee, and Agustin Fuentes, each of whom is experienced at using different media (e.g., YouTube, books, blogs, podcast) for communicating the science of biological anthropology to the public. For the remaining 25-30 minutes of the workshop we plan to divide the attendees into small, facilitated group discussions, each centered around a different form of media, with Lisa Marshall and the three panelists each facilitating a different group. We will end the workshop with a debriefing session amongst the whole group. The number of groups will remain flexible until we determine an estimated number of attendees.
This workshop will serve as a culmination of a series of online webinars hosted by the Science Advocacy Committee on training AABA members to communicate their science to a broad audience, with the first one in November centered on writing op-eds. These workshops leading up to the in-person AABA are designed in tandem with this year’s Pollitzer Prize essay, which asks students to write their essay in the form of a letter to the editor advocating for the importance of their science.
RSVP using this link to reserve your spot
Organizers: Kate Clancy and Andrea Taylor with sponsorship from the Professional Development and Science Advisory Committees
Building Ethical Pathways: Transforming Stewardship of Legacy Collections Through Institutional Collaboration and the Development of Consented Donor Collections
2:00 PM – 4:00 PM, Governor’s Square 16
A workshop discussing ethical skeletal collections, emphasizing consent and donor-based frameworks, sharing strategies, and collaboratively addressing challenges in teaching, research, legacy collections, and community engagement.
This workshop will create an informal, conversational space for colleagues to exchange ideas about the ongoing work of building and using ethically obtained skeletal collections, while fostering collaborative problem-solving.
We recognize that many important sessions have addressed the ethics of using legacy collections for teaching and research. Our aim is not to duplicate that work, but to take the next step. This workshop responds to the many “calls to action” with a concrete “how-to” approach focusing on applied strategies, institutional models, and community engagement pathways for ethically stewarding both legacy and donor-based collections.
Colleagues such as Dr. Dawnie Steadman, Dr. Arion Mayes, and Dr. Yasmin Carter, among others who work closely with donated collections, ethically sourced archaeological collections, and legacy collections have agreed to help lead this important discussion and offer collaborative problem-solving for participants. We will invite all who are interested to participate.
The aim of this workshop is to produce concrete, ethically grounded outcomes for teaching, research, and institutional practice with human skeletal material. The list below outlines our overall goals.
Goals of the Workshop:
*Facilitate discussion on the creation of ethically obtained, consented skeletal collections for teaching and research.
*Share experiences and challenges from participants who are currently creating, managing, or working with collections.
*Explore: Varied approaches to creating ethical collections, strategies for handling legacy collections, student involvement and educational integration, community collaboration, the benefits and limitations of donated collections, and institutional challenges and successes.
This workshop invites open dialogue, problem-solving, and the exchange of tools and ideas. Participants will leave with tangible strategies to implement at their own institutions. Our shared goal is simple: Action.
Organizers: Sarah Reedy and Ventura Perez
Biological Anthropology is People: An Art, Culture and Science Engagement Exhibition
4:00-7:00 PM, Plaza Exhibits
The AABA Art, Culture and Science Communication Expo will RETURN for a third year, with support from the AABA Education Committee and The Leakey Foundation! We seek to showcase the humanity of our membership through creative works such as photography, sculpture, poetry, educational games, and outreach/engagement activities. There is no cost to participate, and participants may submit entries for the expo regardless of any other presentations they are giving at the meeting. Submit entries at the link below, and contact Education Committee co-chair Rob O’Malley at romalley@pged.med.harvard.edu with any questions. The submission deadline is Saturday March 7.
RSVP using this link.
Organizers: Rob O’Malley and Malorie Albee with support from the Leakey Foundation
Friday, March 20
Navigating Academic Landscapes: Innovations, Challenges, and Networks in Biological Anthropology Across Institutional and Modal Contexts (RSVP for your seat here)
9:00AM – 12:00PM, Governor’s Square 16
Biological anthropologists work as educators, researchers, and academics in a wide range of institutional settings, including but not limited to, large research institutions, community colleges, liberal arts schools, regional public universities, community-based work, and in an unaffiliated capacity. Within our established institutions, we operate in various modalities (e.g., in-person, online, hybrid, etc.). These different contexts offer unique opportunities, but also come with challenges. This workshop turns attention to the less visible, but equally critical, terrain of how teaching and research are practiced, particularly in institutions and roles where undergraduate instruction is central.
By featuring teaching-focused and resource-variable contexts, we explore how biological anthropologists balance sustainable instructional loads with research expectations, approach uneven access to resources within institutions, and create networks within isolated positions. From navigating ethical challenges in handling human remains to integrating biological anthropology into diverse curricula, alongside solutions to logistical and funding constraints, and strategies for sustaining research in under-resourced settings, participants highlight their hands-on and innovative approaches to teaching. Across all discourses, the strengths of these positionalities, such as close student mentorship, community-based engagement, curricular innovation, and flexible teaching formats are evident.
A central theme of this workshop is connection: how we build and sustain networks, share resources, and collaborate across institutional boundaries. In reframing the conversation from one centered on challenges to one about actionable strategies, we aim to spark broader conversations about equity in the discipline, visibility of underrepresented institutions and scholars, and how we can structure support for diverse forms of scholarship and teaching. This workshop is not centered on the challenges we face as educators and researchers, but rather the many ways that biological anthropologists are finding to thrive, adapt, and connect across the changing landscape of academia.
This workshop will include presentations, guided discussions, and collaboration toward potential shared products (e.g., group-authored publications, resource sharing, and other collaborative outcomes). The workshop will provide an opportunity to refine ideas, develop contributions, and strengthen connections across institutions and professional roles.
RSVP using this link.
Organizers: Malorie Albee and Madelyn Green
Rethinking Risk: Integrative Approaches to Fieldwork Safety
2:30PM – 4:30PM, Governor’s Square 16
A practical workshop introducing systems based approaches to fieldwork safety, guiding participants to recognize interacting risks and develop more resilient, adaptive, NSF aligned safety plans.
Fieldwork often unfolds in settings where risks emerge from interacting human, environmental, and logistical factors. Traditional linear models rarely capture this complexity. This workshop introduces participants to systems based approaches to field safety that reflect the dynamic reality of primate and human focused field research. Through short presentations, guided activities, and structured reflection, participants will examine how risks interact, reinforce each other, and shift over time.
The session begins by contrasting familiar linear frameworks with systems based perspectives that draw attention to feedback loops, interdependent hazards, and the influence of team dynamics and decision making. Participants will complete several hands on activities that help them identify risks in their own field sites, map interactions among subjective and objective factors, and assess how environmental change, communication, preparation, and stress shape safety outcomes. Activities include constructing a risk matrix, transforming single hazards into interconnected systems maps, and discussing real world scenarios where cascading factors played a role in shaping incidents or near misses.
The workshop emphasizes shared responsibility for safety and collaborative planning. Facilitators will guide discussions on roles within field teams, power dynamics, and how to create structures that strengthen accountability and communication. Participants will also be introduced to systems based safety planning tools, including templates aligned with NSF expectations for safe and inclusive field environments.
By the end of the session, each participant will have begun drafting a field specific safety plan that identifies hazards, outlines potential correlates, and highlights conversation points for engaging collaborators, local partners, and other stakeholders within their own research systems. The workshop provides practical frameworks that can be adapted to diverse field contexts and supports researchers in building sustainable, resilient approaches to safety that extend beyond individual decisions and protocols.
Organizers: Katherine Thompson and Amanda Rowe
COD-NAIBA Workshop: NAGPRA and Biological Anthropology 35 Years Later: Continuing the Conversation
5:00PM – 6:30PM, Plaza E
Passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) in 1990 significantly altered the trajectory of archaeology and biological anthropology alike. Discussion of NAGPRA within the AABA has been minimal compared to similar conferences held by our archaeological counterparts, such as the Society for American Archaeology and the American Anthropological Association. This workshop aims to renew dialogue surrounding NAGPRA to the general AABA membership in order to dispel misconceptions about the law and its impact on teaching and research, particularly in light of the updates to the NAGPRA regulations in 2024.
Using the framework of Duty of Care (43 CFR 10.1(d)), this workshop will emphasize: the necessity of building positive, equitable, and ongoing relationships with Native American Tribes; respecting Tribal sovereignty and Indigenous ways of knowing; and framing NAGPRA not as a compromise between researchers and Indigenous peoples, but as a pathway for initiating restorative justice. It also will draw from a panel of experts from a variety of institutions to discuss the praxis of ethical stewardship and repatriation – providing guidance on relationship-building with sovereign Tribal nations, training students in ethical scholarship and repatriation, leveraging action from institutional leadership, and identifying all collections and elements subject to NAGPRA. Finally, this workshop aims to identify unspoken structural barriers embedded in our discipline’s treatment of NAGPRA and call biological anthropologists to practice dismantling those barriers through systemic change. We hope that this workshop can inspire coalition-making by bringing conversations together that have been happening in siloed spaces across anthropological disciplines. By the end of the workshop, participants will have ways to convert theoretical ethics into action, even if those actions are small.
Registration for the workshop is not required, but folks who plan on attending the workshop should fill out the RSVP form so that the workshop can address all the questions and needs of attendees.
Organizers: Jessica Rothwell and Emma Lagan
Saturday, March 21
Biological Anthropology For People: Creative Approaches to Education and Community Engagement
9:00AM – 11:00AM, Governor’s Square 16
Biological anthropology encourages ways of thinking that extend beyond the discipline and help learners analyze information, evaluate evidence, and apply knowledge in meaningful and impactful ways. This workshop brings together classroom- and community-based approaches that use anthropological perspectives to build broadly applicable skills that benefit learners across many fields and career paths. The three modules demonstrate how these skills can be taught and applied in different contexts, from practicing observation and interpretation to analyzing claims and working collaboratively in conservation and community engagement.
Part 1: Teaching to De-automate: From Gut Feelings to Critical Thinking. An undergraduate teaching exercise for articulating observations in the form of evidence and questions rather than claims/assertions, using a short primate communication video. Attendees will practice describing evidence that builds toward a motivating question, moving from reactions to evidence to questions to “against-the-grain” interpretations.
Part 2: A Biological Anthropology Approach to Assessing Health Claims. Exercises will demonstrate how to help students evaluate evidence and understand what shapes credibility, using examples of health claims that draw on evolutionary concepts such as adaptation, mismatch, or ideas about what is “natural.” Students will analyze how these claims are constructed, what evidence is used, and how such reasoning can be manipulated or misrepresented.
Part 3: Primates With People: Centering Community in Local Primate Conservation Efforts. This module will highlight educational materials created through the work of the Red Colobus Conservation Network to support red colobus conservation across different countries and communities. As part of the module, participants will share and learn about integrating community-centered conservation strategies into education and research. The workshop is framed around teaching and engagement in classrooms and other contexts where most students (or community members) are not anthropology majors.
Organizers: Rob O’Malley, Joe Califf, Frances Forrest, and Florence Aghomo with support from the Education Committee