Evolutionary Anthropology Society Newsletter | February 2026

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

We are excited for the Human Biology Association Meetings in Denver. This newsletter provides updates about related activities and includes a few related requests.

TOC

• **Full HBA (preliminary) agenda is here

• **Invited Session; hybrid; Friday, Mar 20, time 11:30 am to 01:00 pm; Governor’s Square 14; 

• **PARTY and Award Ceremony; Friday, Mar 20, 7-10 PM, (RiNo Room @ Improper City)

• Awards. Let us know you’re eligible or that you want to be a judge by replying to this email. DUE 3/1.

• Travel subsidies! Apply here. Rolling until 3/1, after which no guarantees!

• Nominate yourself or someone else (including a student) to serve on the nominations committee by replying to this email.

• Volunteer to help with comms or the website! Reply to this email. 

• **Website and logo updates.

• Call for news, job openings, recent articles you’d like to highlight. 

• Forward this to anyone who might want it and make sure they add themselves to the list-serv!

EAS Activities at the Human Biology Association Annual Meeting in Denver

HBA has released its preliminary agenda, which you can find here. EAS has finalized its symposium. Please see speakers and abstracts here. The symposium will take place on Friday, 20^th, from 11:30 am to 01:00 pm and will be available both in person and online. We are also rebooting our party, which will include both in-person and virtual components, as well as our award ceremony. The party will be hosted at the RiNo Room at Improper City (3201 Walnut St), only an 8-minute drive from the downtown Sheraton, where HBA is hosted. We have tried to find a venue that is as accessible as possible, but if you need accommodations that we may not have anticipated, please feel free to email us to let us know. First 50 people get a free beverage (food trucks will also be available at your own expense).

Awards

Please nominate yourself or others for awards and consider serving as a judge if you are not up for one, yourself. This year, we will offer four awards:

1)        Eric Alden Smith, a founding EASer, will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award! Please join us in celebrating Eric at the party and awards ceremony (see attached flyer)!

2)        We will offer a Student Presentation Award for … the best student presentation at the conference. All students in our session and any student who is on our list-serv and otherwise presenting at HBA will be eligible for the award. Sign up here by March 1! And feel free to reply to this email to let us know you are eligible. 

3)        We will offer a New Investigator Award for investigators who are between receipt of the PhD and pre- or non-tenure (or the non-US equivalent); same deal as above in terms of eligibility (sign up here by March 1). 

4)        We will offer an Engaged Evolutionary Anthropology Award. This is a new category of award and will recognize an EASer at any stage who conducts their work in a way that intends to thoughtfully engage diverse audiences. The description is deliberately open-ended. For this award, we request nominations, along with evidence of engagement (a paper, a website, outreach efforts, etc.), via this portal. This awardee will be determined in advance and will be asked to present a brief summary of associated efforts. Nominate yourself or someone else! We are excited to learn more about our members’ efforts. DUE March 1. 

All awards will be accompanied by a fancy certificate and a $$250$$ stipend.

If you are not eligible for an award and would like to serve as a judge, please reply to this email. 

Travel subsidies for students, post-docs, or people in precarious positions

We have some funds to allocate toward travel stipends for the above categories of potential attendees. Please drop us a line here by March 1 to let us know what you need, whether you have alternate funding available, and what you hope to accomplish by engaging with EAS at the HBA meetings (250 words). Several awards of around $500 (but tell us what you need) are anticipated to ensure no one is excluded due to a lack of funding. 

We need volunteers to serve on the nominations committee

We need one student and faculty (or non-academic) member to serve as judges, on the nominations committee, and a new comms person. We hope to hold elections in April of 2026. If you would like to serve, please reply to this email. 

Share Your News with Our Community

Send us your papers, job openings, and announcements, and we will add them to our newsletter blasts. Reach a wide audience of researchers and professionals and keep the community informed about the latest opportunities and developments in our field.

Social media and growing the society

Please use social media tags @evanthsociety (bluesky) and hashtag #EASHBA2026 (pronounced eeshbuh) to help promote events! 

If you are amazing at comms, please, please, please be in touch. We can offer a small subsidy for your efforts while we have the funding to do so. If you’d like to be our new web-master, please also let us know. Send this email to anyone who might be interested in EAS and ask them to join our list-serv!

In the meantime, please enjoy our new logo, designed by Patrick Baca, and stay on top of latest news via our website. 

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Thank you for reading and supporting the re-launch. We look forward to seeing you in Denver or online! Drop us a line with questions or thoughts!

Mary Shenk (past president)

Karen Kramer (president)

Brooke Scelza (former president and co-conspirator)

Siobhán Cully (session organizer and principal investigator)

Kristine Maasen, Patrick Baca, and Khaled Bin Oli Bhuiyan (outrageously fantastic student assistants)