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Copyright © 2021 University of Florida Press

DOI:  10.5744/bi.2020.5143
Volume 4, Numbers 3–4: 151–152

From the Foundation to a Vision of the Future:  
A Note from the Founding Editors
Sabrina C. Agarwal  and Brenda J. Baker

In April 2015, over a rushed lunch in a noisy and 
packed conference-hotel restaurant, we began to con-
ceptualize a new journal dedicated to the field of bio-
archaeology. We excitedly shared our enthusiasm 
and brimming ideas, and quickly realized we had a 
common vision: to create a unified place for rigorous 
peer-reviewed bioarchaeological research that was 
global in scope, focused on well-contextualized stud-
ies, highlighted early career scholarship, and pro-
moted topics of public interest. Prior to the 
publication of Bioarchaeology International there was 
no dedicated journal available to the discipline as a 
whole, despite the ever-increasing percentage of bio-
archaeological research being published in the flag-
ship journals of biological anthropology and 
archaeology. More importantly, no journal offered 
researchers an integrated source where osteological, 
archaeological, funerary, and archival data could be 
published in one place, with analyses that empha-
sized both biological and social interpretation. We 
hope that Bioarchaeological International has become 
a home for that kind of rigorous and transformative 
work.

Building a new journal is challenging, particularly 
with a publisher just starting a journals division from 
scratch. The nuts and bolts of identifying a manu-
script management system and website platform, get-
ting them set up, creating an author/style guide, 
bringing together a formidable editorial board, gar-
nering interest, soliciting papers, and more, required 
substantial time and energy. Bioarchaeology Interna-
tional was born of this effort, opening for submis-
sions in June 2016. Since then, our initial vision of a 
journal devoted to publication of contextualized 

bioarchaeological research (see Baker and Agarwal 
2016, vol. 1, nos. 1–2) has developed into four years of 
published volumes and a growing reputation in bio-
archaeology. Under our editorship, we have shep-
herded the publication of four volumes and 16 issues 
(including the present one), with 59 articles. Our ini-
tial commentary pieces have addressed timely issues 
such as collaborative practice and continued conver-
sations around repatriation (Boutin et al. 2017, vol. 1, 
nos. 3–4; Kakaliouras 2017, vol. 1, nos. 3–4), high-
lighted state-of-the-art methods in molecular and 
chemical analyses (Velsko and Warriner 2017, vol. 1, 
nos. 1–2), discussed a way to identify consumption of 
fermented beverages in the archaeological record 
(Gagnon and Juengst 2018, vol. 2, no. 3), and consid-
ered biases in facial reconstructions (Wilkinson 
2020, vol. 4, no. 1). We have been particularly grati-
fied by the range of the research papers published in 
these first years of the journal. Topics include tapho-
nomic processes and mortuary practices, individual 
and population-level health, growth and activity pat-
terns on the skeleton, and discussions that include 
famine, stress, disability, euthanasia, mortality, and 
social complexity from a variety of contexts, includ-
ing cremation and multiple burials as well as ana-
tomical collections. These first volumes cover an 
extensive geographic breadth with bioarchaeological 
studies that span the globe, including Australia, 
Austria, Canada, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Croatia, 
Czech Republic, Egypt, England, Germany, Greece, 
Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Nepal, the Nether-
lands, New Zealand, Palau, Peru, Romania, Spain, 
Sudan, Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, the United States, 
and Vietnam.

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Note from the Founding Editors152

During these past years of our editorship, there 
have been several significant advances and challenges 
in the field, set in a global landscape of sociopolitical 
and environmental turmoil and change, including a 
global pandemic. Bioarchaeology, as a maturing field, 
continues to provide essential insight into issues of 
current significance in the modern world. Bioarchae-
ology International offers a home for engaging re-
search on issues of current import, including the 
social responses to and biological consequences of 
climate change (e.g., Williams and Larsen 2017, vol. 1, 
nos. 3–4) and famines (e.g., DeWitte and Yaussy 2017, 
vol. 1, nos. 3–4; Horocholyn and Brickley 2017, vol. 1, 
nos. 3–4). Research on past pandemics and epidemics 
provides insights into social responses, including 
stigma and blame, and reveals health disparities, just 
as we are witnessing today with the COVID-19 pan-
demic. Systemic oppression and marginalization of 
certain groups of people is also evident in the re-
mains and funerary contexts we study from the re-
cent past and long ago, and the bioarchaeological 
investigations of such health disparities (e.g., Gow-
land et al. 2018, vol. 2, no. 1; Olsen et al. 2018, vol. 2, 
no. 2; Redfern et  al. 2018, vol. 2, no. 1; Ward et  al. 
2020, vol. 3, no. 4), and structural violence (e.g., 
Dabbs 2020, vol. 3, no. 3; Dittmar and Mitchell 2019, 

vol. 2, no. 4) continue to provide a critical long view 
of the toll over multiple generations. Bioarchaeolo-
gists all over the world have engaged deeply in recent 
years with issues of racism and racialized violence 
and have begun to contribute to decolonizing prac-
tices in the field, lab, and classroom. The future of our 
field depends on our contributions to these conversa-
tions, and the Editorial Board of Bioarchaeology In-
ternational remains committed to highlighting such 
work. Finally, we believe the journal can continue its 
mission to increase the contributions of diverse 
voices, from the journal’s editorial board members 
and its authors. This work has only just begun, and 
we are confident that the new coeditors, Gwen Rob-
bins Schug and Siân Halcrow, will build on the foun-
dation we have laid.

We thank the University Press of Florida and the 
Provost of the University of Florida for their invest-
ment in Bioarchaeology International and their sup-
port through its first years of development. Our 
advisory board, our associate editors, and our edito-
rial assistant have worked hard to make this journal a 
success. Their efforts are greatly appreciated, and we 
will miss working with them. We will continue to 
foster the journal in a supporting role and look for-
ward to its further growth.

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