I am sure that I don’t have to say that we have all been through a lot this year. For me personally, I have struggled in ways that are old and new and found that the unique circumstances have shown me what truly matters. 

I have spent a lot of my focus on building a career. My love of anthropology has always run parallel to my ambition to be able to make a difference in the world. It is that ambition that has allowed me to succeed and accomplish a lot. But looking through the prism of our current times, I have found that I need more… 

I have been a fan of The Geek Anthropologist for several years. It is a place on the internet where I feel like I can read and sometimes write with people who get me. I have also been a contributor with pieces about my love of data and anthropology, about finding innovation in reading about Margaret Mead, and writing about Luke Cage on Netflix. Being a practicing anthropologist, I am often the only one with my background in my workplace. It has been through creating an extended network through meeting and vibing with other anthros that I have felt a sense of belonging as well as a place to geek out and be understood. 

But this year, has been a more than trying year. 

Like many of you, my life has been turned upside down and sideways as I try to manage my everyday responsibilities. But beyond living in the new normal, what I have found is a profound urge to connect through story. I have been craving fiction and ways to build my own world, possibly to survive, but really just to have happiness and something to look forward to. 

It is with this perspective that I am proud to join as a new editor. 

It is my hope to continue to build on the catalog of fiction, non-fiction and essays written here by people coming from all perspectives and walks of life. For me, writing has always been a form of therapy and a way for me to make sense of the world that I live in. I hope to continue to develop that here and to co-create with all of you. 

In these times, I keep asking myself, “what is significant about being an anthropologist? What is it that an anthropologist can do?”. I believe that one of the answers to that is to remind us all of the power of community and storytelling. That what has been a constant in the 200,000 plus years of modern humans and possibly for millions of years before that is that we need each other to get through tough times. But that in the good times, we need the stories we tell to hold the memories that bond us together. 

I want to make this a place on the internet that is about that perpetual campfire. We need a place to come together and listen, grow, laugh and maybe cry. We need a place to find empathy and community. We need a place to be human. And the best humans are geeks, right?