Urgent Support Needed for SAPIENS Magazine and their Staff Union

Please sign this letter for Chicago News Guild's newest bargaining unit, Sapiens United. The future of their magazine, and their union is at risk: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/urgent-support-needed-for-sapiens-magazine?source=direct_link&

We, SAPIENS staff, write to our supporters with an urgent request. We were informed this week that our funder, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, may choose to close SAPIENS Anthropology Magazine in the coming weeks to months. An email from you urging Wenner-Gren President Danilyn Rutherford and the Board of Trustees to continue funding our magazine and its staff could help save SAPIENS.

The timing of this threat couldn’t hurt more—for us staff, anthropology, and the publics we’re part of. As the Trump administration slashes research funding and authoritarian leaders around the world attempt to silence entire communities of life and thought, anthropology stands as both a target and a guiding light. As the only dedicated anthropology publication that reaches millions of readers per year with our open-access, digital content, SAPIENS is uniquely positioned to affirm our field’s value and relevance for global audiences.  

Internally, our magazine’s precarity coincides with negotiations for our first contract as unionized workers. In late 2024, our eligible staff unanimously voted to form a union, SAPIENS United; Wenner-Gren and their publishing partner, University of Chicago Press, agreed to joint voluntary recognition of our union. On Monday, May 19, we were notified by Wenner-Gren’s counsel that it seems “increasingly likely” the foundation’s Board of Trustees will shutter the magazine as early as July—mere months after we unionized and while we are searching for a new partner to replace University of Chicago when their contract ends December 31, 2025.

Since SAPIENS’ launch in 2016, our award-winning magazine has published more than 1,300 pieces—including journalism features, essays, op-eds, poetry, and podcast episodes. Our small, devoted staff has trained and worked with hundreds of anthropologists through developing stories for publication, hosting fellowships, creating teaching curricula, and leading workshops in public scholarship. In the last year, our website garnered 3.4 million pageviews from visitors around the globe.

Whether you’ve published with SAPIENS, assigned one of our articles or poems in a class, received a grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, or supported our unionization drive, we see you as part of our community. We ask that you encourage the Board to prioritize the magazine, and its staff, so that we can weather this moment into the future.

Please don’t wait. The future of SAPIENS could be decided in the next few days.

Sincerely,

SAPIENS United

Bridget Alex, Archaeology & Biological Anthropology Editor

Emily Sekine, Sociocultural & Linguistic Anthropology Editor

Christine Weeber, Copy Editor, Fact-Checker, Poetry Editor