Looking at the Past, the Present and to the Future: What Is to Come for Primatology?

With the 50th anniversary of the incorporation of the American Society of Primatologists (ASP) approaching in 2026, and then through to the 50th ASP conference in 2028, we are interested in brief commentaries from primatologists regarding the past, present and future of Primatology.

This is a call for a special poster symposium at ASP 2026 dedicated to the past, the present and the future of primatology.

Where is the field going? Where should the field go—what kinds of questions should future scientists work toward answering? How does our past inform our work and help us to see where the field of primatology is going? These are the kind of questions we want to address with this symposium. We ask the community to consider the future of our discipline.

After the 2026 conference, our intention is to organize the results of this symposium into a special issue of American Journal of Primatology, on the same topic. 

This brief introduction to both the ASP 2026 conference and potentially to the future special issue will serve to orient you to the contents of the framework that we anticipate. We encourage authors to address several overarching themes. These seem to us to best represent the chief matters as pertains to the future of our field.

There are several themes we would like to invite:

  1. Primatology before ASP
  2. Family trees of Primatology and ASP
  3. History and Potential of Specific Primate Resources
  4. Seminal Influencers on Primatology and ASP
  5. Outreach Education
  6. Animal Care and Welfare 
  7. Conservation of Nonhuman Primates and/or Primate Habitats
  8. New Approach Models (NAMS)
  9. Philosophy of Science
  10. Scientific Practices

Overall, we would like the posters and papers to share one major connection: how the past and present inform the future of primatology. We hope for both the symposium to include a great variety of species, and approaches. We encourage a look at how paradigms were, are, or can be interdisciplinary, collaborative, and the value of longitudinal approaches. Those conducting the research have also changed as well.

This call is open to everyone working in the field of primatology, broadly defined. As we look to the future, we are also especially interested in receiving submissions from early career primatologists.

Please do reach out to us (mnovak@cocc.edu) if you are interested in participating in this special symposium and/or publishing your work at AJP. The deadline to be considered for inclusion in this session is 5th January, 2026. If you have a preliminary sense for a submission but are not sure whether it is appropriate, we may have ideas about how to reach meeting attendees and ultimately the journal’s readers, which can help you as you prepare your presentation/manuscript.

Matthew Novak

Past-President, ASP

Special symposium organizer and potential special issue editor

American Society of Primatologists