Archaeologists bring experts on human evolution together with Kiem grant
Leiden University's Kiem grants aim to help develop new interdisciplinary and interfaculty collaborations and encounters. In the first round, a Kiem grant was awarded to a group of researchers from the Faculty of Archaeology, the Faculty of Social Sciences, and the LUMC for the organisation of a symposium on the role of fire in human evolution. ‘We brought together experts from the Leiden collective as well as from their international network. Our focus was very deliberately interdisciplinary and not just on archaeology.’
Ancient fire use
The symposium, held in June 2024, was organised in the context of the Human Evolution Collective, an initiative that connects Leiden-based scholars from various disciplines whose work touches on different aspects of human evolution. Femke Reidsma, as Postdoc involved in the collective, explains: ‘Fire use touches on so many aspects of human evolution that it was the perfect topic to explore with members of the collective, and bring together different perspectives.’
Five themes
Professor Amanda Henry is one of the initiators of the collective. ‘The symposium focused on five themes, ranging from fire in relation to social interactions to the use of fire as a landscape management tool. The speakers from different backgrounds gave short presentations around one of the themes, followed by a round-table discussion.’ Reidsma nods. ‘This gathering was also the collective's first big event. We plan to turn the ideas and discussions from the symposium into an open-access paper that sketches the state of research on fire in human evolution.’ This explicitly interdisciplinary perspective is innovative, since most academic output is focused primarily on archaeology. ‘The academics involved are quite varied,’ Henry adds. ‘From psychologists to ecologists, and researchers from the Leiden University Medical Centre.’
Inspired and happy
‘In this type of symposium, you can actually get something done,’ Henry explains. ‘People who had conflicting points of view or different interpretations, had the opportunity to work through these things in person. You cannot do that by just responding to articles.’ Reidsma concurs: ‘The topics were broad enough that everyone had a place in the theme, but specific enough that everyone was interested in all the talks. It became a nice exchange of data and ideas across different disciplines. Everyone left inspired and happy.’
The symposium attracted 45 attendees. ‘We also had a really helpful group of student volunteers, who could attend the event for free.’ Henry notes. ‘They were fabulous. I really want to thank them and give them a shout out.’
Next steps
So what's next for the Human Evolution Collective? ‘We need to have another meeting to evaluate where we are.’ Henry explains. ‘From joint research projects to expanding upon the very popular Human Evolution Minor, we need to brainstorm about our next steps.’
‘Another long-term goal,’ Reidsma adds, ‘would be to get the general public more involved, in collaboration with Naturalis, who are also a partner in the collective.’ This is facilitated by Henry's new position as a Professor by Special Appointment.