Anthropology of climate change

The Department of Anthropology’s spring 2023 speaker series featured a set of internationally acclaimed anthropologists from a variety of anthropological fields and backgrounds. Their research and community engagement demonstrated the many ways that people respond to climate change and changing ecologies. The speakers helped us understand these problems from multiple perspectives, while underscoring the importance of anthropology's role in our climate future.

Gwen Robbins-Schug, a Professor of Biology at University of North Carolina at Greensboro spoke about health, environment, and climate change from the perspective of her research on the archaeological past. Herman Pontzer, a professor of evolutionary anthropology and global health at Duke University, presented on health issues (especially metabolism) from an evolutionary perspective. Pasang Yangjee Sherpa, an assistant professor of Asian studies at the University of British Columbia, discussed climate change and Indigenous issues in the Himalayas.​

Gwen Robbins-Schug, Professor of Biology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

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Herman Pontzer, Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology and Global Health, Duke University

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Pasang Yangjee Sherpa, Assistant Professor of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia

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​​At the same time as the speaker series brought diverse perspectives on climate change to our campus, three UD anthropology faculty members were awarded course development grants from the university's Climate Change Hub. Their courses — Georgina Ramsay's Refugees and Forced Migration, Vikram Thakur's Environmental Anthropology, and Jennifer Trivedi’s Culture, Health, and Environment — received awards to expand the options that exist for UD students to explore how climate change affects people around the world and how they understand and respond to it, as well as anthropology's study of climate change.​