Notre Dame Chair Elected to Academy of Arts and Sciences

Agustín Fuentes

Agustín Fuentes, chair in anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is among more than 250 members of the 240th class, which includes singer-songwriter Joan Baez, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and filmmaker Richard Linklater. 

Fuentes’ books include “Why We Believe,” which examines how religion became an essential aspect of human evolution; “The Creative Spark,” which argues that creativity and collaboration are the most important explanations for why humans are the way they are; “Evolution of Human Behavior,” which focuses on how and why humans evolved behaviorally; and “Health, Risk, and Adversity,” which provides a comparative approach to the analysis of health disparities and human adaptability and examines the pathways that lead to unequal health outcomes. 

Fuentes was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2011 and has served as chair of the association’s anthropology section committee. He is a fellow of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, the Institute for Latino Studies, the Kroc Institute for Peace Studies and the John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology and Values.