Agustín Fuentes

The Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Endowed Chair in Anthropology

University of Notre Dame

There are few in our field who have done as much as Dr. Fuentes to reach out to the lay community and effectively communicate the significance of modern research in biological anthropology to critical issues in the contemporary world.

Dr. Fuentes is currently the Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Dr. of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame and is well known in the AAPA, having been a member since 1994. He was one of the founders of the highly successful AAPA Committee on Diversity and continues to be an active participant in the committee and its activities. His research centers on the question of what it means to be human and he has made significant academic contributions to basic primatology as well as larger integrative questions focusing on creativity and community in human evolution, multispecies relationships, and engaging race and racism. His interests have been described as focusing on both the big questions and the small details of what makes humans and our closest relatives tick (World Science Festival).

Dr. Fuentes is also an active public scientist. His recent and ongoing outreach activities have included most all forms of media to reach the general public. He has published a number of popular books, is an active blogger, is an enthusiastic participant in public science events, and regularly appears in the broader media (e.g. video and pod casts, etc.) as an advocate for the significance of our discipline.

Highlights are his recent blogging activities for Psychology Today and The Huffington Post, both of which have resulted in wide exposure. In addition to these he has blogged for other popular outlets including SAPIENS, AAA Engagement, and National Geographic, among many others. His significant popular books include Race, Monogamy, and Other Lies They Told You: Busting Myths about Human Nature (2012 University of California Press), which won the American Anthropological Association’s WW Howells award for excellence in informing a wider audience of the significance of biological anthropology. The Creative Spark: How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional (2017 Dutton/Penguin) has also been well received and to date has been translated into four other languages (Romanian, Chinese, Spanish and Korean). His most recent book Why We Believe: Evolution and the Human Way of Being has just appeared (September 2019) and addresses the important issue of belief in human society. In this book he argues that belief in religion is only a small part of a “larger and deeper human capacity to believe” (Good Reads). The book provides case studies from love, economics, and religion and explores this fascinating question from evolutionary, neurobiological, and anthropological points of view. It is too soon to know the general impact of this book, but if a very positive recent review (October 8, 2019) in Psychology Today and the reception of his earlier books, this new contribution can also be expected to make a significant public impact.

There are few modern anthropologists who have been so successfully involved in outreach activities while maintaining a rigorous academic life. It is also important that Dr. Fuentes addresses a broad range of issues of general interest to human society today. His outreach is not restricted to the narrow confines of his specific primatological research but extends far beyond this to address questions and issues that are significant in the modern world. For this we should applaud him and for this he would be an outstanding recipient of the inaugural AAPA Communication and Outreach award.