Why do research if you can’t share it?
Collaborative research takes a team of specialists, but behind that team stand all the people – probably you, reading this site – who support our work. The most important form of support is their curiosity and the simple human drive to know more about our origins. Giving back a piece of what we discover is one of the most rewarding parts of my work.
WITH COMMUNITIES
As I have written in the magazine SAPIENS, communities of people who live around human origins sites are the long-term custodians of these important places.
In July 2024 I organized a workshop at the Catholic University of Malawi (CUNIMA). The primary aim was to bring together for discussion about the future of archaeological heritage in Malawi people who could represent the Mzimba community where we have been doing our research, the Malawi Department of Museums and Monuments, students from Mzuzu University (MZUNI), the University of Malawi (UNIMA), and the Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST).We also used the opportunity to return results of our research to community leaders.
One of the more exciting parts of our research in Malawi has been discovery of some of the most ancient human DNA in Africa. Sampling for and analyzing ancient human DNA has many ethical ramifications that require attention beyond that required for many other archaeological materials, and there is no universal set of agreements about how to navigate this. I have contributed to this work through conversations with a range of interested parties, transparency in research motivations and methods prior to sampling, returning results to communities, advocating for a modified version of informed consent, and participation in a feedback session at the National Genome Research Institute.
WITH THE BROADER PUBLIC
Outside of the university classroom, I have engaged in outreach to school children, community members at our field site, and the general public through site visits, activity days, public lectures, and the production of educational materials – including even an interview at Radio Dinosaur, the Karonga Community Radio in Malawi, and the Malawian Airlines Tiyende! in-flight magazine.
I am happy to share ideas about the human story on podcasts, including On Humans and Re-Educated. You can also hear me weighing in on the most interesting discovery in human evolution in 2021 at the Leakey Foundation’s “Origin Stories” podcast (spoiler alert: it’s DNA from dirt!). And at Peak Human I ramble about the evolution of human diets from start to finish. What do we know, and what do we only hope we can know?
You can also check out my part in the CARTA Anthropogeny symposium “Humans: The Planet-Altering Apes“, where I talk about the “Human Transformation from Environmental Managers to Ecosystem Damagers“. A dire trajectory indeed! But hopefully we can learn to better leverage the tools of archaeology and paleoenvironmental science to understand and gain insight from the truly long-term connections between humans as a part of their environments. Have a look at what I say about it in my TEDx talk in Johannesburg Salon LIFE.
In addition to commenting in the media, have also written articles for The Conversation, a platform for academics to write FOR YOU:
The world’s oldest adult cremation pyre
Ethical considerations in ancient DNA analysis
Early ecosystem change in central Africa
Ancient human DNA across eastern Africa
WITH EVERYONE
I have learned to not only have opinions, but also how to make them heard, through the Public Voices Fellowship, where I was a member of the 2022 cohort of the OpEd Project. My first opinion piece was published in The Scientist about why we need to recognize disparities in field science. This work was also featured in Chinese Social Sciences.
I am curator for the new Human Origins exhibit at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History during its massive, multi-year renovation.
As research began to ramp up again after the Covid-19 pandemic, my trip back to Malawi in 2022 was the first I had taken for three years. It is a good example of all the key parts of research and public liaison.
I developed relationships with community stakeholders…
…liaised with media such as local radio…
…and organized a major improvement to archaeological collections infrastructure at the National Repository.
While there, I also managed to work with representatives from the Uraha Foundation and Malawi Department of Museums and Monuments to develop a new exhibit on the Stone Ages of Africa at the Cultural and Museum Centre, Karonga.
