AAA’s aim is to highlight anthropology’s contributions to increased understanding about important social matters, including some that are difficult to talk about. For the past 15 years, we have undertaken a Public Education Initiative, tackling timely topics like Race and Migration. Through the lens of science, history, and lived experience, we have been shaping public conversations with hundreds of thousands of museum goers and visitors to our web sites. We offer guides for classroom teachers, community groups, and curriculum materials.

The RACE Project explains differences among people and reveals the reality – and unreality – of race. The story of race is complex and may challenge how we think about race and human variation, about the differences and similarities among people.

Our new initiative, World on the Move: 250,000 Years of Human Migration™, draws on scholarship concerning the depth of human history and the breadth of cultures across the globe to help people rethink their ideas about moving, displacement, and belonging—and to use what they learn to better understand their own migration histories and those of others.

This initiative is made possible by the generous support of the Ford Foundation, National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, and AAA members. We have undertaken this work in partnership with the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage in Washington, DC, the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul, and the San Diego Museum of Man.

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