Embracing Socio-ecological Complexity As a Way of Life.
CARTA Member Shirley Strum is Emerita Professor of Anthropology at UC San Diego, where she has remained a longtime participant in the Faculty of Anthropogeny. Prof Strum's fieldwork in Africa was recently profiled in the Fall 2021 edition of UC San Diego's Triton Magazine. Over the course of 50 years worth of research, Strum has developed an affection for the much-maligned baboon and also directs the Uaso Ngiro Baboon Project in Kenya. The project's research "focuses on the socio-ecology and cognition of wild baboons as they make the transition to the modern context of human-dominated ecosystems."
As an added bonus, this feature article is accompanied within the same issue of Triton by a shorter alumna profile on daughter Carissa Western '08, who shares recollections growing up in Kenya, raised by Strum and conservationist David "Jonah" Western. And next year, Western (who is chairman of the African Conservation Centre), will share his own perspectives on anthropogeny as a speaker in CARTA's virtual public symposium, "HUMAN ORIGINS AND HUMANITY'S FUTURE: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE ANTHROPOCENE" on March 05, 2022. More details on that event to come.
You can read more:
"In Defense of Darwin's Monkey: A fresh look at baboons from five decades in the field." (Kiderra, I. 08 Sept. 2021) Vol. 18, No. 3:30-35. Triton Magazine, Fall 2021.
"Wild Youth." (Danziger, M. 10 Sept. 2021) Vol. 18, No. 3:32. Triton Magazine, Fall 2021.
