Barbara J. King
is a contributor to the NPR blog 13.7: Cosmos & Culture. She is a Chancellor Professor of Anthropology at the College of William and Mary. With a long-standing research interest in primate behavior and human evolution, King has studied baboon foraging in Kenya and gorilla and bonobo communication at captive facilities in the United States.
Recently, she has taken up writing about animal emotion and cognition more broadly, including in bison, farm animals, elephants and domestic pets, as well as primates.
King's most recent book is How Animals Grieve (University of Chicago Press, 2013). Her article "When Animals Mourn" in the July 2013 Scientific American has been chosen for inclusion in the 2014 anthology The Best American Science and Nature Writing. King reviews non-fiction for the Times Literary Supplement(London) and is at work on a new book about the choices we make in eating other animals. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for her work in 2002.
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When it comes to finding and preparing food, we're a continually inventive species. Anthropologist Barbara J. King asks: What are the food trends of the future? -
A storm of this magnitude affects many animals. Uplifting videos show people rescuing all kinds of animals from Hurricane Harvey's floodwaters, says anthropologist Barbara J. King. -
Sending your child off to college? It's important to appreciate what happens after move-in day — especially now, as there is a growing hostility to higher ed, says anthropologist Barbara J. King. -
Being miserably bored is no fun. It's a feeling animals can develop, too, including in zoos, labs and our own homes, says anthropologist Barbara J. King. -
Animals are depicted in rock art in more than 100 countries, not just in the famous "painted caves" of Europe. Barbara J. King talks to an archaeologist with a global view of human meaning-making. -
Robots are getting lots of bad press lately, but there is also positive news on robot-human relating to be found, says anthropologist Barbara J. King. -
We schedule our work and leisure dates, why not the birth dates of our babies? Anthropologist Barbara J. King looks at this trend in evolutionary perspective. -
Can anthropology help us think skeptically about DNA ancestry testing? Barbara J. King interviews anthropologist and author Jonathan Marks about racism in science. -
Fresh thinking about primates' attention to fire points to a gradual evolution of fire-making skills, says anthropologist Barbara J. King. -
When reducetarians meet, they eat plants and talk community, says anthropologist Barbara J. King. She reflects on taking part in the first Reducetarian Summit.
