Jim Funaro is an anthropology instructor at Cabrillo College in Aptos, Calif., and founder of the Contact Conference, an interdisciplinary conference on the future focused on contact with aliens. One of his main areas of interest is the cultural impacts of contact with alien life.

Albert A. Harrison is a professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of California, Davis. He is the author of Starstruck: Cosmic Visions in Science, Religion and Folklore and After Contact: The Human Response to Extraterrestrial Life.

Kathryn Denning is an associate professor of anthropology at York University  in Toronto, Canada, where she teaches a course called “Anticipating the Alien.” Her focus is on what it means to be human in the universe and she works with SETI on studying the way scientists search for aliens.

Fuji Lozada is a professor of anthropology and environmental studies at Davidson College in Davidson, N.C., where he specializes in Chinese society. He teaches a course titled “Science, Religion and Society.”

Elayne Oliphant is an assistant professor of anthropology in the religious studies program at New York University. She is an expert on Catholicism and art and is the author of the forthcoming book Signs of an Unmarked Faith: Contemporary Art and Secular Catholicism in 21st Century Paris. She organized a 2015 exhibition, “The Art of Invisibility,” featuring […]