AAPA Addresses Sexual and Other Harassment

To
foster a community of inclusion and respect in which we can focus all of our
attention on our science, the AAPA Executive and other committees have developed
a number of resources, initiatives, and new programming. Following an open letter from the President
and Past-President in April, 2015, in September we instituted a registration
statement of Ethical Conduct during the AAPA Annual Meeting. This statement affirms each registrant’s
commitment to follow the AAPA Code of Ethics while attending the Annual Meeting. (The above statements can be found at http://physanth.org/about/position-statements/aapa-code-ethics-sexual-harrassment/sexual-and-other-harassment/). In November, the AAPA Executive Committee
endorsed a Statement on Sexual Harassment and Assault (http://physanth.org/news/631/) that represented two years of work by the Ethics
Committee and which covers inappropriate behavior across a variety of
spaces. The statement has since become
the template for one endorsed by the Paleoanthropology Society. The statement expands on the AAPA Code of
Ethics (http://physanth.org/about/position-statements/), which all members
should read and are expected to adhere. Additional resources can be found at (http://physanth.org/about/position-statements/aapa-code-ethics-sexual-harrassment/ethics-resources/). And, all field
schools advertising on the AAPA website must now provide a link to their own sexual
harassment statement.

The
2016 meeting in Atlanta features programming on these topics as well. A talk and workshop on Title IX resources will
be conducted by an outside professional on Thursday from 5-6:30pm. We will discuss ethics and harassment at the
Business Meeting Friday at 5:45 pm. The
Atlanta meeting also features the inaugural Presidential Panel “Working Together to Change the Future: A dialog
on harassment in biological anthropology” Saturday afternoon
(2-4pm). The panelists will discuss how
sexual, racial, gender, and disability harassment manifest during different
career stages (trainee, pre/non-tenure, tenured faculty) and how responsibilities
to others change with rank and across different institutional settings
(institutional and field program responsibility). Discussion will include effective
strategies for surviving, thriving and accessing resources, how to be effective
allies, and what we as a discipline need to do to change our culture.

We are pleased that our community feels
empowered to discuss our shortcomings and motivated to change them.