Conversations in Human Evolution

Conversations in Human Evolution is a science communication project, coordinated by Lucy Timbrell, exploring the breadth and interdisciplinarity of human evolution research at a global scale. Through informal interviews, this project delves deeply into topics concerning the study of our species’ evolutionary lineage, covering the current advances in research, theory and methods as well as the socio-political issues rife within academia. This project also provides important insights into the history of human evolutionary studies. Conversations in Human Evolution is also in the process of being made available in print through the Access Archaeology series with Archaeopress – Volume 1 and Volume 2 are out now!

The idea for Conversations in Human Evolution arose in March 2020 during the escalation of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Following the cancellation and postponement of in-person events, it became a creative project to encourage engagement with human evolutionary research during this time of isolation and confinement. It was noticed that, whilst there is great public interest in this area of research, there are few freely accessible online resources about human evolutionary studies itself. What’s more, science engagement initiatives are almost always concerned with communicating exciting results and discoveries, and whilst this is obviously the most important aspect of science communication, it can lead to the neglection of the personal experiences of the scholars behind the science. Broader socio-political issues within subject-specific academic circles are also rarely discussed through publicly accessible communicative forums, somewhat depersonalising the science and perhaps even romanticising academia in certain ways. CHE fills this void by asking –

What does it mean to study human evolution in the 21st century?