Zaneta Thayer: Each of Us Is Born

Описание: A 2025-2026 School for Advanced Research Scholar Colloquium
Each year, SAR resident scholars present their research to the public in the Scholar Colloquia series. Presentations take place in SAR’s historic Dobkin Boardroom for an in-person audience and on YouTube Live for online audiences.

Zaneta Thayer, Associate Professor of Biological Anthropology, Dartmouth College
2025–26 Weatherhead Fellow

Join Zaneta Thayer, SAR’s 2025–26 Weatherhead Fellow, for a program exploring how evolution and culture shape pregnancy, birth, and the stories we tell about them. Drawing on research from places like Brazil and Bali, and her background in evolutionary biology and anthropology, Thayer will examine topics such as menstruation, fertility challenges, food cravings, cesarean birth, and the postpartum period. In her talk she considers what is rooted in human biology and what comes from medical systems, media, and cultural expectations.

This talk is designed for current and expecting parents, those who support them, and anyone curious about how humans come into the world—and how shifting our expectations can make reproduction feel less frightening and more deeply understood.

About the artist:
Akilah Martinez is an award-winning futuristic artist, technologist, and culture bearer who uses XR (extended reality) technology (an umbrella term that includes augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality) to create immersive storytelling experiences rooted in Navajo culture and language.

Martinez, who spent her early childhood years on the Navajo Nation with her grandparents, discovered her calling at a young age after watching her Diné bizaad speaking grandparents struggle to engage with media that was only offered in English. Shaped by these experiences, Martinez pursued a Fine Arts degree at the University of New Mexico with the intention of using video production and electronic immersive art to disseminate Diné bizaad in new and progressive ways. Over the course of her program, Martinez was introduced to XR technology and immediately understood it as a powerful tool for Indigenous storytelling. Since completing her degree, Martinez has continued to make a name for herself as both an artist and technologist, earning various awards and fellowships.

SCHOOL FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH
Established in 1907, the School for Advanced Research (SAR) advances creative thought and innovative work in the social sciences, humanities, and Native American arts. SAR is home to the Indian Arts Research Center (IARC), a leader in community-advised and collaborative Indigenous arts engagement and collections management. Through scholar residency, seminar, and artist fellowship programs, SAR Press publications, and a range of public programs, SAR facilitates intellectual inquiry and human understanding. SAR’s historic sixteen-acre campus sits on the ancestral lands of the Tewa people in O’gah’poh geh Owingeh or Santa Fe, New Mexico. SAR is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational institution.

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