Christine Webb
@christinewebb
Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies, NYU Primatologist, Author of THE ARROGANT APE
TEDx talk just went live! Originally daunting to distill a 300+ word book and 5+ years of work into a 10min talk. But the TED format is incredible - you become a better storyteller, and get to the heart of the matter. Let me know what you make of it 🐒 m.youtube.com/watch?v=zGGB...
THE ARROGANT APE has been named a New York Times Notable Book of 2025. Floored to be on this list and in such good company. And grateful to all who helped make it possible 🫶 www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/b...
A world beyond human exceptionalism is worth imagining. Join us at @TEDxBoston this weekend.
I witness my students undergo major transformations as they learn to see past the basic ways their sense of the world has been framed by human exceptionalism. As the wool is pulled from their eyes, they come to experience Nature as more alive, animate, and aware. (1/2)
Pioneering scientists past and present have broken from the pressures and limitations of human exceptionalist thinking. Charles Darwin, Lynn Margulis, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Frans de Waal–their work looms large in my own research (1/3).
Corporate greed and deception, capitalist economics, and a lack of political will certainly play an outsize role. But we don’t just need an overhaul of these institutions; we need a new relationship to the world (1/2).
What does it mean to be human? The word “human” itself derives from the root world humus, meaning “earth.” To be human thus means to be of the earth, not apart from or better than any of the other beings with whom we share this planet.
More praise for THE ARROGANT APE (Avery / Penguin Random House), available now wherever books are sold. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/717436...
THE ARROGANT APE IS OUT TODAY! The idea for this book began in 2019 in a seminar course I taught at Harvard. With each class discussion, it felt like my students and I were imagining and crafting a world beyond human exceptionalism. It was the world we wanted to live in. (1/3)
Once delusions of human superiority and separateness are broken down, we can no longer stand by a watch Nature’s destruction. Nature is not a means to human ends but an interdependent system whose well-being ultimately determines our own.
Consumed by a human superiority complex, the arrogant ape mirror Hamlet—a hubristic character caught in a tragedy of its own making. (1/3)
Join us at P&T Knitwear September 3! @jeffsebo.bsky.social www.eventbrite.com/e/christine-...
The renowned sociobiologist E.O. Wilson popularized the term “biophilia” (from the root bio, meaning “life,” and philia, meaning “love of”) to describe the natural tendency to seek connections with other forms of life.
I am humbled to have received much praise for THE ARROGANT APE (Avery / Penguin Random House) out September 2. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/717436/the-arrogant-ape-by-christine-webb
Once delusions of human superiority and separateness are broken down, we can no longer stand by and watch Nature’s destruction. Nature is not a means to human ends but an interdependent system whose well-being ultimately determines our own.
The argument of THE ARROGANT APE is that human exceptionalism—a.k.a. anthropocentrism or human supremacy—is at the root of the ecological crisis, giving humans a sense of dominion over Nature, entitled to commodify earth and other species for our own exclusive benefit.
I wonder, if we truly believe we are so much better than other species, why have we spent thousands of years driving home the point?