Winter 2026 Speaker Series: Alexa Duchesneau

Alexa Duchesneau will give the second talk in the annual Anthro & Friends Winter Speaker Series, titled “Simians and the Story of Us: What Biological Anthropology Brings to STEM.” In an increasingly divided world, Biological Anthropology and Primatology are a bridge between divided academic disciplines: the social sciences and the hard sciences. The combination of observational studies and hypothesis testing places these fields in the unique position of being truly interdisciplinary. This talk introduces Biological Anthropology and Primatology and makes the case for why such fields should be present at a liberal arts institution. Alexa’s research on a population of wild white-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus imitator) is used as a case study.