Building Back Kinder: How Who We Are Affects How We Rebuild

Speaker: Professor Penny Spikins, Professor in the Archaeology of Human Origins, University of York

Synopsis

In recent years we have faced challenges that are global in scale, from the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change to inequality and discrimination. Through this, we increasingly view ourselves as part of a shared humanity, experiencing shared threats. But what does it mean to be human? Will we pull together when the going gets tough or are we naturally competitive?

This talk aims to explore how our answers to these questions and our assumptions about innate competitiveness and aggression have affected the societies we have created in the past few decades. We will turn to evidence from the distant past to see how this can help retrieve our understanding of ourselves. I hope to prompt us to better understand human compassion and vulnerability, and find routes to rebuilding a kinder and more connected society.

Update: Eventbrite registration has now closed for this event.