Peter Coutros is an anthropologist and archaeologist who studies the interaction between communities and their environments across West Africa, with a specific focus on Senegal, Mali, and Mauritania. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University, focusing his research on social responses to climate change in what is today known as Senegal during the first millennium B.C. He is currently a lecturer at Southern Connecticut State University. His academic writings have appeared in Antiquity, African Archaeological Review, the Society of Africanist Archaeologists’ bulletin Nyame Akuma, and elsewhere. Follow him on Twitter @petecout.