Past Webinars
AABA hosts a monthly webinar series to bring out community together in a time of social-distancing. On this web page, you’ll find a list of our past scientifically-oriented webinars. We also hosted three professional development webinars addressing how the covid-19 pandemic affects our professional lives.
For future webinars, please visit our main webinar page!
If you find our content useful, and you aren’t already a member, consider joining our association! If you are a member, is it time to renew?!
2024 WEBINARS
Towards A Publicly Engaged Biological Anthropology
The field of biological anthropology encompasses a range of fascinating but often socially contested concepts and issues such as human origins and evolution, genetics, race and racism, sex, gender and sexuality, and other dimensions of human difference. Some elements of the discipline, including common practices of fieldwork and local collaboration (or lack thereof), continue to reinforce harmful patterns of behavior grounded in colonialism, racism, and Eurocentrism. The US and the world at large face a social climate of growing polarization and distrust of science and scientists, and (in some cases) active political censorship and sanction. Given these challenges, how can biological anthropologists engage with their students and diverse communities about the work of our discipline in ways that are inclusive, equitable, just, and impactful?
This webinar will highlight examples of impactful education and public engagement activities by AABA members as well as voices from beyond our discipline. The session will include an open discussion as well as a breakout session for attendees to share and learn with other members. We will also invite attendees to share resources and reflections on a shared “Miro” board. This webinar is co-organized with the AABA Education Committee.
Date/time: January 30, 2024, 1:00 pm EST
Webinar panelists:
- Dr. Kathryn (Katie) Ranhorn (she/her). Assistant Professor, School of Human Evolution and Social Change & Research Scientist, Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University
- Dr. Elaine Guevara (she/her). Lecturer, Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University
- Dr. Eshe Lewis (she/her). Project Director, Public Scholars Training Fellowship Program, SAPIENS Magazine
- Dr. Rob O’Malley (he/him) (moderator). Public Engagement Associate, Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School & AABA Education Committee Co-Chair
Webinar recording
Post-webinar resources:
Resources on community-centered research
Article on teaching undergraduate biology to undermine racial essentialism (Guevara et al., 2023)
Teaching resources related to the article linked above
2022 WEBINARS
The 4-Part #Hackademics Series (Hacks for Succeeding in Academia)
Does the academic career path seem like a mystery? An unsolvable puzzle? Maybe you could use some insider insight as to how to make it all work? AABA has the webinar series for you: #Hackademics
Building off of the series recently published in the American Journal of Human Biology by our sister organization the Human Biology Association, we bring you a series of discussions by those same authors. For details about these four conversations, be sure to check out the #Hackademics webpage.
#Hackademics 1: Balancing Family, Drama, Fieldwork, AND Teaching?
#Hackademics 2: On Mentoring and Un-Teaching in Anthropology
#Hackademics 3: The Cultureshocks of Coming Home and Communicating across Disciplines
#Hackademics 4: Sharing with the Public & Getting the Academy to Count It
2021 WEBINARS
Planning for the 2022 Annual Meeting
December 13, 2021
Join in for updates and a Q&A on the plans for the 2022 annual meeting scheduled for March 2022.
- Steve Leigh, AABA President
- Leslea Hlusko, AABA Vice President
- Lori Strong, AABA Conference Executive Director
2021 Dialogues in Decoloniz(s)ation Series
This webinar series explores two questions:
What does decolonization entail?
What strategies might be employed to achieve a decolonized biological anthropology?
Our goal is to provide a space where participants can explore the impact that colonial practices have had on biological anthropology, including on our curricula, our practices, and our narratives. To facilitate grounding general topics (e.g. decolonizing curricula, fieldwork, authorship) within regional issues and concerns (e.g. decolonizing African palaeosciences), and with an eye towards incorporating diverse views and perspectives, these webinars will feature experts from around the world actively engaging in these issues in their home countries.
Part I: AFRICA
July 13, 2021
Co-organizers: Lauren Schroeder and Rebecca Rogers Ackermann
Panelists:
- Dr. Wendy Black (Iziko Museums of South Africa)
- Ms. Robyn Humphreys (University of Cape Town)
- Dr. Fredrick Manthi (National Museums of Kenya)
- Dr. Charles Musiba (University of Colorado Denver)
- Dr. Yonatan Sahle (University of Cape Town)
- Moderator: Prof. Rebecca Rogers Ackermann (University of Cape Town
Co-sponsored by AABA COD-International and COD-TASK
Co-organizers: Dr. Lauren Schroeder and Dr. Rebecca Rogers Ackermann
Part II: Southern, Southeastern and Australasia
October 6, 2021
Co-organizers: Sheela Athreya, Martin Porr, Rebecca Rogers Ackermann, and Lauren Schroeder
Panelists:
- Dr. Amber Aranui, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
- Dr. Matthew Go, SNA International, supporting the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, HI, USA
- Dr. Kaberi Kar Gupta, Urban Slender Loris Project, Bangalore, India and North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
- Mr. David Johnston, Australia National University, Canberra, Australia
- Dr. Erin Riley, San Diego State University, CA USA
Moderators:
Dr. Sheela Athreya, Texas A&M University-Qatar
Dr. Martin Porr, The University of Western Australia
The Insider’s Guide to AABA’s 2021 Virtual Conference
March 8, 2021
Organizer: Anne Grauer, AABA President
Description: Join us for a demo of the virtual platform AABA will be using for our annual conference scheduled for April 7-28, 2021. See all the cool features, get a sense of how the events will work, and learn how to upload your presentation. You can also learn more about the meeting on our 90th annual conference webpage.
Panelists:
- Steve Leigh, AABA President-elect
- Leslea Hlusko, AABA Vice President & Program Chair
- Lori Strong, Burk Associates
Black in BioAnthropology: Journeys, Belonging and Legacy
February 4, 2021
Organizer: Dag Abebe (City University of New York)
Description: This panel discussion explored Black scholars’ experiences in biological anthropology as part of the #BlackinBioAnth week (February 1-7, 2021) created and organized by Black in BioAnthropology (BiBA). This live event was co-hosted by the AABA.
Panelists:
- Dr. LaShanda Williams (EMD Serono/Merck)
- Delande Justinvil (PhD Student, American University)
- Myeashea Alexander (@TheRockStarAnthropologist, Sci. Communicator)
- Dr. Denné Reed (University of Texas at Austin)
- Dr. Allison Nesbitt (University of Missouri, School of Medicine)
Black in BioAnthropology: Kick-off Keynote by Dr. Stephanie Poindexter
February 1, 2021
Organizer: Megan Henriquez (City University of New York)
Description: This keynote address by primatologist and conservation biologist Dr. Stephanie Poindexter (University of Buffalo) was part of the #BlackinBioAnth week (February 1-7, 2021) created and organized by Black in BioAnthropology (BiBA). This live event was co-hosted by the AABA.
2020 WEBINARS
The Ups, Downs, Ins & Outs of Computational Genomics in Anthropology
November 23rd, 2020
Many thanks to our sponsor for this webinar, The Royal Society. Follow them on twitter @theroyalsociety
Organizer: Xinjun Zhang (postdoc, anthropological geneticist at UCLA)
Description: Over the last decade, computational genomics has brought a whirlwind of new insights to human evolution. We have so far witnessed a rapid emergence of genomics data and quantitative methods. This month, AABA brings you a panel of four experts to talk about their fascinating research in human demographic history, with a particular focus on the start-of-the-art analytical methods used in anthropological genomics nowadays, including their assumptions, strengths, and weaknesses.
Panelists:
- Dr. Katherine Korunes, postdoc at Duke University
- Dr. Shyamalika Gopalan, postdoc at University of Southern California
- Dr. Torsten Günther, group leader at Uppsala University
- Dr. Melinda Yang, assistant professor at University of Richmond
Voices from Down Under: Biological Anthropology in Australia and New Zealand
October 13, 2020
Organizer: Tanya Smith, Griffith University
Panelists:
- Rebecca Kinaston, University of Otago, Recent bioarchaeological research from Indonesia
- Cyril Grueter, University of Western Australia, Secondary sexual traits and complex sociality in primates
- Clare McFadden, Australian National University, Situating bioarchaeology in multidisciplinary approaches to palaeodemography and palaeoepidemiology
- Andy Herries, La Trobe University, New hominin fossil discoveries from Drimolen Cave, South Africa, and their relevance to the evolution of Paranthropus and Homo erectus
Co-sponsored by The Australasian Society for Human Biology (ASHB) www.australasianhumanbiology.com
Community Discussion on AABA’s 2021 Annual Meeting
September 15, 2020
Organizer: Anne Grauer, AABA President
Panelists:
- Steve Leigh, , AABA Vice President & Program Chair
- Leslea Hlusko, AABA Vice President & Program Chair
- Brett Burk and Lori Strong, Burk Associates
The evolution and history of human diseases: from the archaic hominins to the Black Death and Sars-Cov-2
August 24, 2020
Organizer: Eduardo Amorim (University of Lausanne)
Panelists:
- A New History of the Black Death (and Why It Matters for the History of Pandemics: Monica H. Green (Independent Scholar)
- The impact of infectious diseases on human evolution: Lluis Quintana-Murci (Institute Pasteur and Collège de France)
- Patterns of genomic diversity in SARS-CoV-2: Lucy van Dorp (University College London)
Questions, comments, or webinar ideas? Please email AABA Vice President Leslea Hlusko.