GRIB 2026 Speakers
Keynote Speakers
Dr. Erin Vogel
Dr. Erin Vogel, our headlining keynote, is a professor in The Department of Anthropology and the director of the Center for Human Evolutionary Studies at Rutgers University. Her research aims to understand how ecological variation shapes feeding behavior, social systems, and morphology in non-human primates, with broader implications for understanding early hominin as well as early hominins and human evolution.
More specifically, her work addresses three central questions:
- How does primate feeding behavior and diet selection respond to spatial and temporal variation in food availability?
- How do nutritional intake and food availability modulate energy balance, stress physiology, and immune function in primates?
- How do morphological and genetic adaptations influence dietary selection during environmental flux?
Spanning more than two decades, Dr. Vogel’s research is distinguished by its breadth and integrative approach, combining long-term international fieldwork and bench-top research to bridge biological anthropology, evolutionary biology, physiology, immunology, ecology, animal behavior, and functional morphology fields. By examining how primates respond to fluctuating and constrained food landscapes, her work offers critical insight into the evolutionary roots of modern nutritional challenges in humans and the biological consequences of ecological instability for health, behavior, and survival.
Dr. Joseph LeDoux
Dr. Joseph LeDoux is a Professor Emeritus at New York University, where he was a University Professor, Henry and Lucy Moses Professor, Professor of Neural Science and Psychology, and Professor of Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at NYU Langone Medical School. His work directly ties into the idea that as a species, our greatest strength is our greatest weakness: theory of mind. In fact, much of his publications center on understanding that our ancient hardware (neural circuitry associated with fear and reward) is highly conserved evolutionarily. This is separate but nonetheless interconnected with higher-order cognitive systems (language and memory) in order to perpetuate survival. The unconscious operation of survival circuity resides behind our brain’s processing functions that work to interpret these “primal” signals, ultimately giving rise to feelings. Complex thought patterns often misinterpret these signals due to environmental mismatch placed upon humans as a trade-off for the rewards offered by the advancement of civilization. Therefore, maladaptive responses such as psychological disorders and self-fragmentation arise from such chronic internal conflict. Since instinctual drives and reactions cannot be removed, agency can thus be gained through awareness.
Dena Seidel
Dena Seidel is an interdisciplinary social scientist who combines Anthropology, science storytelling and ethnographic documentary filmmaking as part of science communication and STEM learning and food systems research. Seidel has spent years working in Micronesian island nations with local and cultural leaders supporting community led sustainable development projects. Seidel is an award winning science filmmaker and the director/producer of several original feature films about Rutgers research. She is the Founding Director of the Rutgers Center for Digital Filmmaking and the former Director of Digital Storytelling in the Rutgers English Department. Seidel has a Masters Degree in Anthropology with years of experience learning from Pacific indigenous cultures. She has developed innovative International and university programs combining anthropology, filmmaking/storytelling, sustainable development including traditionally based food systems and interdisciplinary education pedagogy.