
Barbara J. King The College of William and Mary Ph.D., University of Oklahoma Barbara J. King is a biological anthropologist and Professor of Anthropology at The College of William and Mary. Professor King received her B.A. in anthropology from Douglass College, Rutgers University, and earned her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. Professor King’s research interests concern the social communication of the great apes, the closest living relatives to humans. She has studied ape and monkey behavior in Gabon, Kenya, and at the Language Research Center at Georgia State University. The recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, she has published three books on anthropology, including The Information Continuum: Social Information Transfer in Monkeys, Apes, and Hominids. At William and Mary, Professor King has won four teaching awards: The William and Mary Alumni Association Teaching Award, the College’s Thomas Jefferson Teaching Award, the Virginia State Council of Higher Education’s Outstanding Faculty Award, and the designation of University Professor for Teaching Excellence, 1999–2002.

Putting Compassion to Work for Animals in Captivity and in the Wild
2021

Why We Are Obsessed with the Furry, Scaly, Feathered Creatures Who Populate Our World
2010

An Evolutionary Perspective
2013

A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion
2007

2013

The Lives and Minds of Animals We Eat
2017

2001

Nonvocal Communication in African Great Apes
2004

Understanding Animal Grief and Love
2013