AAPA IDEAS Program: Increasing Diversity in Biological Anthropology

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Increasing Diversity in Evolutionary Anthropological Sciences (IDEAS) is a major new initiative that aims to increase minority participation in the field of physical (biological) anthropology, a discipline that studies the variation and evolution of living humans, non-human primates and their extinct ancestors, and features researchers who provide insights on everything from forensic identification to human ergonomics to understanding climate influences on human systems. Although the discipline would seem to be in an ideal position to attract scientists from a variety of backgrounds, it is remarkably non-diverse, a lost opportunity in light of the scientific gains that are realized by groups working from multiple perspectives. By bringing together multiple perspectives, diverse teams lower their levels of confirmation bias and produce better scientific outcomes. In addition, fields with ethnically diverse researchers are more likely to have individuals who can successfully anticipate, recognize and navigate potentially delicate social and political issues, including those that are commonly encountered by our leading field investigators in countries across the globe. This project will build infrastructure to train and retain minority students currently in physical (biological) anthropology and create outreach programs to raise the discipline's visibility in minority communities. The program further provides for the enhancement of scientific education in K-12 classrooms through the development of teacher training, lesson plans and visiting scientist programs.A main focus of the IDEAS program is mentoring and outreach activities at the annual American Association of Physical Anthropologists (AAPA) meeting, the main interchange of scientific information in the discipline. The IDEAS Workshop will bring minority and first generation college students to the AAPA meeting for a pre-meeting, science and mentoring workshop and networking activities throughout the meeting. IDEAS Faculty, matched with students based on scientific area, will serve as on-site and year-long mentors. Social media and community outreach efforts will aim to foster interest in human and primate biology and evolution. In conjunction with the annual meeting, IDEAS Scholars will participate in AAPA K-12 teacher training workshops and conduct classroom visits at local minority serving schools. IDEAS Scholars will also present science talks at local minority serving colleges. The IDEAS web portal links to social media, including a YouTube channel that will host video interviews with minority scientists (some in Spanish) about their scientific work and career path, and connect minority students with targeted research and training opportunities. The IDEAS team will partner with minority serving societies such as NESCent and SACNAS to bring physical anthropology to minority college communities and will develop promotional materials including a booklet entitled How I Became A Physical Anthropologist (in English and Spanish) to engage school-age children. The Broader Impacts infrastructure will offer a variety of means for partner scientists to build and expand their own Broader Impacts program and develop synergies between Broader Impact programs across the discipline. This infrastructure includes the web portal for connecting their research opportunities with minority students, satellite IDEAS Workshops, topical video production for a YouTube channel, and class lesson plan development for our visiting classroom library. The influence of our programs on the AAPA and discipline will also be monitored via yearly demographic and climate surveys of the membership and will be assessed by a professional evaluator for effectiveness.