By applying for, renewing, and maintaining membership, or participating in any American Association of Biological Anthropologists (AABA) sponsored events (including, but not limited to participation as a volunteer, vendor, exhibitor, registrant, member of the public, or guest), as well as for registering to attend an AABA Annual Meeting, you agree to follow this AABA Code of Conduct, along with the AABA (AAPA) Code of Ethics and the AABA (AAPA) Statements on Sexual and other Harassment, which are incorporated in this Code of Conduct. You also agree to abide by all sanctions imposed by authorized adjudicating bodies.

Among other things, these documents recognize that:

• The AABA is committed to providing safe spaces that are free of threats, harassment, or assault, to all our members regardless of age, ethnicity, race, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disabilities, religion, marital status, or any other reason unrelated to professional performance.
• It is unethical in any professional setting to use the inequalities of power that characterize many professional relationships to obtain personal, sexual, economic, or professional advantages. It is also unethical to engage in any type of harassment, including sexual, sexual identity, or racial/ethnic harassment. Due to their centrality in professional training and networking in our discipline, conferences (such as the AABA Annual Meetings) are clearly an extension of the workplace environment. As such, all college, university, or institutional rules regarding appropriate behavior apply in these contexts. The AABA will not tolerate harassment of conference participants in any form or retaliation for reporting of misconduct.

The AABA reserves all rights to take any lawful and appropriate remedial and/or preventative action with respect to any individual who does not abide by this Code of Conduct and/or the incorporated policies, or disregards or violates sanctions imposed by other adjudicating bodies (e.g., court orders, universities) including without limitation removal from a meeting, reporting of incident(s) to appropriate authorities at the individual's home institution(s), barring the individual from future AABA meetings or events, and termination of the individual’s membership in the organization.

The Code of Conduct was unanimously accepted by the AABA Executive Committee in July 2019.

To download a PDF of this statement click here.