About SAPIENS

Bridget Alex is an anthropologist and writer living in Somerville, Massachusetts. She earned her Ph.D. in archaeology and human evolutionary biology from Harvard University. Supported by the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright Program, and other awards, her research focused on the spread of Homo sapiens and extinction of other humans, such as Neanderthals, over the past 200,000 years. Prior to joining SAPIENS, Bridget taught anthropology and science communication at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena City College, and Harvard. Her pop-science stories have appeared in outlets such as Discover, Science, Archaeology, Atlas Obscura, and Smithsonian. Follow her on Twitter @bannelia.

Chip Colwell is the founding editor-in-chief of SAPIENS. He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from Indiana University and has held fellowships and grants from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Science Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and U.S. Fulbright Program. For 12 years, he was the curator of anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. He has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and 12 books, many of which have received honors, including the National Council on Public History Book Award and the Gordon R. Willey Prize of the American Anthropological Association. His essays and op-eds have been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Atlas Obscura, Aeon, and more. Follow him on Twitter @drchipcolwell.

Eshe Lewis is the project director for the SAPIENS Public Scholars Training Program. She holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Florida and has spent the past 10 years working with Afro-descendant peoples in Peru on issues of social movements, women’s issues, Black feminism, and gender violence. Eshe is based in Toronto, Canada.

Marlaina Martin earned her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Rutgers University-New Brunswick in 2019. Her anthropological research and writing explore learning, creative, and community-building practices of Black women and nonbinary media makers. She has received fellowships and grants from the National Science Foundation, the Association for Feminist Anthropology, the Social Science Research Council, The Phillips Collection, and Rutgers University. Marlaina has been published by The Feminist Wire, OMERTAA, Current Anthropology, and PBS. Prior to joining the SAPIENS team, she held the first-ever Presidential postdoctoral fellowship in University of Maryland, College Park’s anthropology department.

Sophie Muro is the digital editor at SAPIENS. She earned her M.A. in museum studies from George Washington University in 2022. Her previous research focused on community-based curation techniques and increasing the accessibility of museum collections through the use of digital tools. Prior to working at SAPIENS, Sophie served as the social media coordinator at the George Washington University Museum and the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C.

Negar Razavi is the public humanities postdoctoral fellow at the Kaplan Humanities Institute at Northwestern University. As a political anthropologist, her research examines the intersections of security, expertise, gender, humanitarianism, and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Her current book project looks at the role of think tanks and elite security experts in Washington, D.C., in shaping U.S. policies toward Iran and Egypt. Negar received her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Emily Sekine is an editor and a writer with a Ph.D. in anthropology from The New School for Social Research. Prior to joining the team at SAPIENS, she worked with academic authors to craft journal articles and book manuscripts as the founder of Bird’s-Eye View Scholarly Editing. Her anthropological research and writing explore the relationships between people and nature, especially in the context of the seismic and volcanic landscapes of Japan. Emily’s work has been supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Society of Environmental Journalists, among others, and her essays have appeared in publications such as Orion magazine, the Anthropocene Curriculum, and Anthropology News.

Jason Vasser-Elong’s research focuses on identity in a postcolonial context. He is the 2022 SAPIENS poet-in-residence. He studied anthropology and later received his MFA from the University of Missouri, St. Louis, where he is currently a teaching professor in English and African American studies in the Pierre Laclede Honors College and a doctoral student in the College of Education. Vasser-Elong is the author of the poetry collection Shrimp. His essay “Treading the Atlantic” was presented at the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Netherlandic Studies conference as an introduction to the keynote lecture on postcolonial memory. He also presented that essay at the American Anthropological Association’s conference “Truth and Responsibility” in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2021.

Christine Weeber is the copy editor/sub-editor and poetry editor at SAPIENS. She earned an M.A. in cultural anthropology and a graduate certificate in women’s studies from Colorado State University in 2005. From 2009–2017, she served as the editorial manager of Museum Anthropology. Prior to working at SAPIENS, she ran Stonefly Editorial Services, a freelance writing and editing business. Christine’s poetry chapbooks are In the Understory of Her Being and Sastrugi. You can also find her creative work in The Fourth River, the Kyoto Journal, the Wild Roof Journal, Solo: On Her Own Adventure, and other publications. Follow her on Mastodon @christineweeber@mastodon.world.