Sheela Athreya

Following on the Dialogues in Decolonization webinar series held by the American Association of Biological Anthropologists in 2021, we propose a special issue that does a deeper dive into the ideas presented by the speakers. Contributors to this issue will challenge longstanding canonical beliefs, theoretical approaches, and practices in Biological Anthropology that have developed in a colonial framework. They will share how their research reconceptualizes major issues in primatology, paleoanthropology, skeletal biology, forensics, bioarchaeology, and human biology in ways that move our discipline into a postcolonial space. Their papers will demonstrate how knowledge-building in this space is dynamic and scientifically sound, and is an important, inclusive improvement over the existing scientific paradigms that dominate the bioanthropological canon