2010 Keynote Speaker
Barbara J. King is a biological anthropologist with a research specialization in primatology. She received her B.A. from Douglass College and M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. Her awards include a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a Wenner-Gren Foundation research grant, and several awards for teaching excellence. Currently she is Chancellor Professor of Anthropology at The College of William and Mary.
Professor King's research and writing transcend traditional divisions in anthropology in that they concern key issues in social communication, socialization, emotional expression, language evolution, and the nature of culture. Recently she has turned her attention to the analysis of religion and religious belief as well as writing for general audiences. She has a new book called Being With Animals: Why We Are Obsessed with the Furry, Scaly, Feathered Creatures Who Populate Our World (Doubleday, January 2010).
Dr. King has studied great ape and monkey behavior in Africa, at the National Zoo, and at the Language Research Center at Georgia State, among other places. Her books include The Information Continuum: Evolution of Social Information Transfer in Monkeys Apes and Hominids (1994); The Dynamic Dance: Nonvocal Communication in African Great Apes (2004); and Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion (2007). She also edited with Richard G. Fox a cross-the-fields collection of essays titled Anthropology Beyond Culture (2002). She serves on the editorial board of American Anthropologist.