Evolutionary Anthropology Society Newsletter | April 2026

Evolutionary Anthropology Society Newsletter | April 2026

Greetings, Members of the Evolutionary Anthropology Society (EAS) and Friends, 

We recently returned from a successful and engaging meeting with the Human Biology Association in Denver, where we hosted a hybrid symposium featuring exciting research addressing the nexus of human biology and behavior. It was wonderful to see many new and familiar faces in the halls of the Downtown Sheraton.

Thanks to funding from the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the National Science Foundation, we were able to pursue some new directions, including offering stipends to award winners, as well as new awards, hosting a meet-and-greet, and supporting a team of student interns who helped to manage the myriad logistics of conference planning and follow-through. We should also not forget the co-investigators who helped to secure funding, including Sarah Alami, Agustín Fuentes, and Rebecca Sear. These are the people who make teamwork dreamwork and we are grateful for their continued collaboration and support. 

Before we go on, we want to offer our heartfelt thanks to the Human Biology Association, especially Amanda Veile and Rick Bribiescas, for hosting us. Without their partnership, we could not have gotten the Society back up and running this year. Working with HBA also yielded an innovative set of talks and intellectual engagement surrounding areas of overlap between evolution, human behavior, biology, and life history. We very much look forward to continued partnership as we continue to expand EAS’s intellectual and societal contributions. 

Awards Announced

	Amanda Kunkle (PhD Candidate, Dept of Anthropology at University of Washington) received our inaugural Student Travel Award. Kunkle’s work involves reframing attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as a product of a mismatch between natural neurobiological and behavioral variation with modern contexts. Amanda’s dissertation employs a mixed-methods approach, utilizing methods from genetics, anthropology, and demography to identify the possible benefits of ADHD in various contexts. You can contact Amanda at akunkle@uw.edu.
Dr. Jess Hlay (Postdoctoral Associate, Dept of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame & Co-Director of the Utila Child Health Project) was the recipient of our inaugural Engaged Anthropology Award for work on the interaction between psychology and physiology when balancing energetic needs in times of pathogen stress in humans. This is done at a field site in Utila, Honduras co-established by Dr. Hlay, where they are also interested in broader questions about children’s health and development. The establishment of this fieldsite was done in close collaboration with the local community. You can contact Jess at jhlay@nd.edu.
	Dr. Maud Mouginot (Postdoctoral Associate, Dept of Anthropology at Boston University) received our New Investigator Award. Dr. Mouginot examines coalition dynamics within and between genders in a subsistence-based community in Southwest Ethiopia. This research shows that women participate in coalitions to a similar extent to men and exhibit distinct partner preferences, highlighting the central role of female coalitions in human social organization. You can contact Maud at mmougino@bu.edu.
Marcela Pfaff-Nash (PhD candidate, Dept of Anthropology at Baylor University) won the Best Student Presentation Award for their work with the Shuar children in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Pfaff-Nash’s research provides some of the first direct measurements of intestinal energy absorption, showing wide variation in the ability to absorb calories from food. This research offers new insights into life history evolution and the developmental origins of metabolic health disparities. You can contact Marcela at Marcela_Pfaff1@baylor.edu.
	Finally, we delivered our first Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Eric Alden Smith (Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington) for a lifetime of work that helped to create and shape the discipline as we now know it, including seminal tests of optimal foraging theory, applications of costly signaling theory to humans, and co-editing the founding textbook for Human Behavioral Ecology, Evolutionary Ecology and Human Behavior.

Congratulations to all our award winners! 

Meet Our Conference Student Interns

EAS in Denver could not have happened without the support of our amazing student intern team. 

	Patrick Baca is a masters student at University of New Mexico currently studying human-environmental interactions and their impacts on the movement ecology of desert fishes. More broadly, he is interested in the ways human-environmental feedback impacts human health and evolution. Patrick is the genius behind our logo, award certificates, social media pages, and helping with website revisions. You can reach Patrick at pbaca2004@unm.edu.
	Khaled Bin Oli Bhuiyan is a doctoral student in Anthropology: Human Evolutionary Sciences at Rutgers University working with Dr. Siobhán Cully. His doctoral project in Vanuatu investigates how market integration shapes health and life-history trade-offs. Khaled coordinated much of the website revision, helped to refine our newsletter, and served as our staff photographer. You can reach Khaled at k.bhuiyan@rutgers.edu
	Kristine Maassen (PhD student, Dept of Anthropology/Human Evolutionary Sciences at Rutgers University) is working with Dr. Lee Cronk and The Human Generosity Project. She is studying how intentional communities (ex: communes) structure their interdependence and how this impacts both their perceived and physical measures of well-being and stability. Kristine managed the difficult task of finding an accessible venue for our meet-and-greet, helped with general organizational chaos, and created the EAS swag. You can reach Kristine at kristine.maassen@rutgers.edu.

Please feel free to reach out and thank our fantastic and fabulous student support team! 

Nominate Yourself for a Board Position, Newsletter Editor, Webmaster, or Student Nominations Committee Representative

To reconstitute the EAS in line with our by-laws, we need to run an election for many open board positions, including President-Elect, Secretary/Treasurer, two executive elected board members, and an elected student member. Each of these involves a four-year commitment, with roles defined by the by-laws. 

We are also looking for a new Newsletter Editor and Webmaster, each supported by a small annual stipend while funds allow.

Finally, we need one student member to serve on our nominations committee to prepare the slate for election. 

Please nominate yourself or a colleague by replying to this email as soon as possible and ideally before May 1. We aim to hold our election in early summer to have a board in place by fall of 2026, when we will gear up for our 2027 meetings.  

In the meantime, thank you to Mary Shenk and Karen Kramer, who have agreed to continue as Past-President and President, and to Alyssa Crittenden and Jeremy Koster, who have agreed to remain as Executive Board Members, until we have a fully reconstituted Board operating on its typical cycle.  

Send Us Your News and Job Opportunities

EAS strives to serve its members efficiently and responsively. Drop us a line with questions or thoughts or feel free to share directly via our list-serv to avoid delays!

Thank you for reading and supporting EAS! 

The Evolutionary Anthropology Society

Email: evanthsociety@gmail.com

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