Great work from a great team of researchers

AAA Urges Congress to Restore NSF Dissertation Research - American Anthropological Association December 18, 2025 The Honorable Ted Cruz, Chairman The Honorable Maria Cantwell, Ranking Member Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee 254 Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC, ...

All,

We have sent a letter urging our personal Congressional Reps, the Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee, & the Assistant Director of the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Directorate to restore doctoral funding for social scientists (i.e., the DDRIG) at NSF.

I just added a similar class last semester and titled it ‘Evolution of Human Behavior.’

I prefer shorter titles and I can basically teach any evolutionary social science approach under that name

Being a professor is so weird. You are constantly having to act like you know things.

It’s like the state of Indiana hates its own flagship university.

www.indystar.com/story/opinio...

Congrats, Ruizhe!

My new paper "Post-pandemic inequalities: Evolutionary anthropological frameworks for long-term impacts of the 1918 influenza pandemic" is now published in Evolutionary Anthropology!

Please check it out at the link below!

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Why are so many people getting therapeutic tattoos? Many cancer survivors get therapeutic tattoos to allow them to carve out a new interpretation of their changed bodies

This is an interesting piece on therapeutic tattooing complete with emic accounts of the power of tattoos for breast cancer survivors.

www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Indiana public colleges cut almost 20% of degrees Public Indiana colleges and universities have eliminated 19 percent of their degree programs to meet requirements added to the state’s budget, according to the Commission for Higher Education.

Wow. Public higher education in Indiana getting gutted one program at a time

www.ipm.org/news-section...

It was a pleasure to give a talk and discuss my research at Universitas PGRI Pontianak. Afterward, I was presented with a tengkolok, a traditional Malay hat (seen wearing in the second picture)

Depicted on the cover is an Iban ‘piring’—a ritual offering to god and the ancestors

We made the cover! Not as cool as it used to be with print runs shrinking, but I’ll take it

Ridiculous.

New paper exploring how cultural models of vaccines influence vaccine decision-making. Implications for the KAP framework, historical mistrust on healthcare decisions, & health promotion where formal education is rare.

Share link:
kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...

Tomorrow! #Disability in #anthropology. Join. Tell your friends. Register here: rutgers.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Universities are caving to Trump with a stunning speed and scope Some of the nation’s oldest and wealthiest institutions are swiftly bending to President Donald Trump, who is acting on longstanding conservative criticisms of universities as elitist and progressive.

Not a good look for higher education in this country when some of our best institutions are caving to this administration’s careless whims

www.politico.com/news/2025/03...

The priorities of this administration…

We find that we can detect some influence, but more work needs to be done.

DM me if the link is paywalled.

Iban Kinship and Cooperation - Human Nature Humans often display extensive forms of prosocial behavior, frequently beyond what is predicted by inclusive fitness. This observation has led to various models attempting to explain the unique extent...

While merely an initial test, I am proud of this paper. Rob Walker and I explore the extent to which we can measure ancestor influence on cooperative behavior in an Iban community.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Iron nutrition and COVID-19 among Nigerian healthcare workers AbstractBackground and objectives. The optimal iron hypothesis (OIH) posits that risk for infection is lowest at a mild level of iron deficiency. The exten

How does iron nutrition affect risk for COVID-19? 🧪

Both anemic and iron replete healthcare workers in Nigerian hospitals were at elevated risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection

This fits some - but not all - of the predictions of the optimal iron hypothesis: doi.org/10.1093/emph...

My kind of Christmas message

I’ve found these starter packs really useful for finding a community here so I’m passing along a good one!