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Dr. Sarah A Lacy

@professorlacy.bsky.social

Paleoanthropologist, Biological Anthropologist, and Paleolithic Archaeologist at the University of Delaware Department of Anthropology. I <3 Neanderthals.

12 Posts613 Follower101 Folgt
Matt Seybold@mattseybold.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The AAUP chapters at Vanderbilt & Wash U have issued a joint statement denouncing the “State of Scholarship” report commissioned by their chancellors. Please, let’s make this as widely read as the gaslighting to which it responds.

Joint Statement on the "State of Scholarship" Report The Vanderbilt University and Washington University chapters of the American Association of University Professors express our profound disagreement with the "State of Scholarship" report commissioned by our universities' chancellors. The report distorts the state of humanistic and social scientific scholarship at our universities and in the academy overall. Worse, it proposes a shocking intrusion of university administration into faculty governance and portends greater threats to academic freedom that should concern all faculty. The report currently appears on Vanderbilt's website under the insignia of both Vanderbilt and Washington Universities. It is already receiving public condemnation. As the American Council of Learned Societies makes clear, the report is founded on false premises and anecdotal evidence and thus does nothing to "ensure deeper and more meaningful relations among scholars and members of the public." No doubt more rebuttals from scholars, departments, and professional societies will follow. It suffices for us to say that the report falls far short of the standards of political neutrality and disinterested inquiry it claims to champion. Historians, literary scholars, and anthropologists are singled out for caricature while the authors fail to acknowledge their own public biases against scholarship performed in the name of social justice. Nor does the report divulge its source of funding or conflicts of interest that may entail - standard practice for any work of humanistic or social scientific scholarship. In sum, the report is itself a clear example of "politicized" research that its authors attempt to decry. What is most alarming is the guidance the report offers to its intended audience of university chancellors and presidents. By falsely arguing that humanities and social science departments are in the throes of an epistemological crisis, the authors lay the groundwork for university adminis…Weakening faculty governance does nothing to solve the real challenges facing our universities, and undermines our ability to effectively address society's most profound problems and challenges, from the inequalities of wealth and white supremacy to the political consequences of climate change. Indeed, the direst threats to public trust in higher education are not philosophical debates about the nature of truth. Currently, the federal government is dramatically cutting funding for the humanities and social sciences as well as for the natural sciences, engineering, medicine, public health, and the arts. In response, university administrations have instituted austerity measures, even as administrative salaries and administrative positions have taken up an increasing share of decreasing budgets. The best way for scholars to cultivate diverse opinions and advance knowledge is by strengthening academic freedom. Political threats to higher education have degraded, and will continue to degrade, the quality of all fields of our universities' research, to the detriment of America's global standing. We note that the organizations now working most actively and successfully to defend academic free inquiry from politicized federal interference are not university leaders but the American Council of Learned Societies, the Modern Language Association, and the American Historical Association - professional societies of the very disciplines chastised by the report. We call on our chancellors to rescind the report and affirm their commitment to the intellectual autonomy of faculty, academic departments, and governing faculty bodies. Administrative interference into academic departments, as licensed by this report, is a violation of the standards of academic freedom that have made American universities the envy of the world. Rather than undermining these bedrock principles, administrators should vigorously and publicly defend them. Vanderbilt University AAUP vanderbiltaaup@gmail.com Wa…
Dr. Sarah A Lacy@professorlacy.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Are you looking for a summer field school? My Neanderthal one is paused right now, but my Macedonian colleagues are at Amzabegovo, one of the earliest Neolithic sites in Europe (and Gimbutas worked here all the way back in the 60s). I can promise fantastic food! www.bhfieldschool.org/program/birt...

Birth of Europe - Excavations at the Neolithic site of Amzabegovo

Balkan Heritage excavation and field school at the Neolithic Settlement Amzabegovo , North Macedonia.

bhfieldschool.org

Dr. Sarah A Lacy@professorlacy.bsky.social · 4mo ago

The connection between masculinity and meat-eating in our culture is likely what fueled some of the very negative reactions on the internet to the idea that ::gasp:: women hunted too! (and I'm quoted!)

Kenny Torrella@kennytorrella.bsky.social · 4mo ago

A few months ago, nutrition and fitness influencer Jacob Smith talked up the benefits of tofu and... some guys totally lost it. How did meat become a measure of manhood for a lot of men, and what can be done to separate meat from masculinity?

Dr. Sarah A Lacy@professorlacy.bsky.social · 5mo ago

I love reading John's substack, but this one has me particularly chuffed since he is highlighting the part of this new paper that got me most excited (and was ignored in a lot of the coverage). He gives a great summary of identifying matrilineal kin networks/ -based migration in the human genome.

John Hawks@johnhawks.net · 5mo ago

I'm pretty excited about a new study of the African influence on Neanderthal X chromosomes. It's because a pattern of dispersal of early modern people based on matrilineal kin networks makes a lot of sense. www.johnhawks.net/p/matrilinea...

Dr. Sarah A Lacy@professorlacy.bsky.social · 5mo ago

@bawmn.bsky.social is offering an intimate World Café luncheon March 19th at the AABAs on the timely theme of Collective Action ~ a chance to really connect and reflect in a relaxed setting over a delicious Italian meal. Register here: forms.gle/vXsTK8EWPf9A...

BA WMN World Cafe Registration

The Biological Anthropology Women’s Mentoring Network (BA WMN) is open to graduate-level women and gender-minoritized AABA attendees regardless of academic rank or current employment status. Our missi...

forms.gle

UoL EvoAnth Seminar Series@liverpoolevoanth.bsky.social · 10mo ago

There's still time to register for this week's talk, given by @professorlacy.bsky.social ! Sign up here: liverpool-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi... We hope to see you there!

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: UoL Evo Anth Seminar Series: Dr Sarah Lacy. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

Please join us this week for a talk by Dr Sarah Lacy, University of Delaware, titled: 'Neanderthals Never Went Extinct: How we talk about, understand, and relate to deep history'

liverpool-ac-uk.zoom.us

UoL EvoAnth Seminar Series@liverpoolevoanth.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Please join us next week, 9th October 2025, at 13:00 BST, for our next seminar of the semester. We will be joined by @professorlacy.bsky.social, University of Delaware - more details 👇 If you'd like to join, please register here: liverpool-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/regi... We hope to see you there!