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.

Amanda Leigh Lichtenstein is the senior managing editor at SAPIENS. Before joining the team, Amanda worked with The World, a daily global news radio program, and Global Voices, a digital citizen journalism platform. Her writing has appeared with The World, Global Voices, NPR, Al-Jazeera, CNN, Tasting Table, Selamta, Hemispheres, The Poetry Foundation, AramcoWorld, CNN: Parts Unknown, Hypertext, Proximity, and Fortunate Traveller, among other outlets. Her work in arts, education, and cultural development includes projects with the European Union, Busara Promotions, and the Chicago Humanities Festival, among others. Amanda received her bachelor’s degree in English from Kalamazoo College and her master’s degree in arts in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. After a decade in East Africa, Amanda is based in Skokie, Illinois, where she serves as a board trustee with the Skokie Public Library.

Alma Simba is a poet, historian, and writer based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She is interested in the power of words in capturing the complexity of the human experience. At the same time, her work is also interested in moments where words are insufficient, particularly in instances of trauma, grief, and systemic erasure. Alma has an M.A. in history from the University of Dar es Salaam. Her areas of interest include histories of marginalized identities, heritage, memory, and Oral Traditions. Alma was a 2022 Sensitive Provenances Research Fellow at the University of Göttingen, where she engaged with ancestral human remains from Tanzania. Her writing has appeared in The Floor, SAPIENS, Myopia, and The Clare Market Review.

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.

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.