From the President: Happy New Year

In 1899- disappointed in the social science of his era- physicist Franz Boas launched an initiative to study the world, its people, and the relationships that exist among them through research based in empathy. Boas' approach to anthropology birthed countless social scientists who navigated the world through ethnographic research in an attempt to document, preserve, and promote the humanity in us all.

     Anthropologists frequently conduct thankless work in which we are often alone in unfamiliar places, tasked with gathering critical information about the human experience to publish findings made famous more often when the research exposes controversial results than in results that expose our shared humanity.

     The work of anthropologists is- in a single, acknowledged, yet rarely uttered word- lonely. But there's a twisted sense of camaraderie in that loneliness knowing there are- across the globe- numberless members of an exclusive fraternity of lonely empaths working alone together.

     That is why effective January 2025, the team here at Anthro International will be launching an initiative to organize, strategize, and mobilize the world's social scientists like never before to realize Boas' once quixotic dream to bring together the remarkable people in each of us, to have us see the world, to find each other, and to feel.

     As the sun slowly sets on a year bereft in grief and inhumanity, let us welcome the coming of a new year greeted with empathy, humanity, and a world brought closer together.