DySoC/NIMBioS Seminar and Webinar Series

The Center for the Dynamics of Social Complexity (DySoC) and NIMBioS hosted a series of seminars on topics related to social complexity (2019-2020) and a series of webniars on Cultural Evolution (Fall 2020). In Spring 2021, DySoC is presenting a series of twelve webinars on Human Origins and Cultural Evolution: Celebrating the 150th anniversary of The Descent of Man. These weekly webinars are streamed live on Tuesdays and are also recorded for later viewing.

Click on the video icons below to view recordings of past seminars and webinars: Video icon.

Date	Speaker	Topic
Fall 2021 DySoC / Exeter Webinar Series Evolution and Social Systems
Sep. 28 11:45 a.m.	Simon Levin (Princeton University)	*Public goods and environmental challenges: Learning from evolution*
Oct. 5 11:45 a.m.	Nathan Nunn (Frederic E. Abbe Professor of Economics, Harvard University)	*Cultural Mismatch*
Oct. 12 11:45 a.m.	Kristen Hawkes (Anthropology Department, University of Utah)	*Sexual selection, carnivory, and life history evolution in the human radiation*
Oct. 21 11:45 a.m.	Giulia Andrighetto (Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC) at CNR, Malardalen University, Vasteras, Sweden)	*Norm change and cooperation under collective risk in a long-term experiment*
Oct. 26 11:45 a.m.	Anne C. Pisor (Department of Anthropology, Washington State University)	*Long-distance social connections, collective-action problems, and climate-change adaptation*
Nov. 2 11:45 a.m.	Timothy Njagi (Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development, Egerton University, Kenya)	*A comparative perspective on the evolution and sustainability of pastoralist production systems*
Nov. 9 11:45 a.m.	Monique Borgerhoff Mulder (MPI-EVA Leipzig, UC Davis, Santa Fe Institute)	*How Many Wives? Tracing the Interdisciplinary Career of the Polygyny Threshold Model*
Nov. 16 11:45 a.m.	Stefani Crabtree (Assistant Professor in Social-Environmental Modeling, Department of Environment and Society, College of Natural Resources, Utah State University & Santa Fe Institute)	*Modern Lessons of applying Socio-Environmental Modeling to the Archaeological Record*
Nov. 23 11:45 a.m.	Matthijs van Veelen (Evolution and Behaviour at CREED, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)	*The evolution of morality and the role of commitment*
Nov. 30 11:45 a.m.	Heidi Colleran (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture)	*The impossibility of "natural fertility" in human cultural systems*
Dec. 7 7:00 a.m.	Naoko Matsumoto (Director of the Research Institute for the Dynamics of Civilizations, Department of Archaeology, Okayama University)	*What's so special about the Jomon?*
Spring 2021 Webinars on Human Origins and Cultural Evolution
Feb 2 12:15 p.m.	Joe Henrich (Harvard Univ.)	*The Secret of Our Success*
Feb 9 11:45 a.m.	Marta Lahr (Univ. of Cambridge, UK)	An extended origin: Climate, populations and palimpsests in the evolution of Homo sapiens
Feb 16 11:45 a.m.	Johannes Krause (Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History)	*The Genetic History of the Plague: What We Learn from Ancient Pandemics*
Feb 23 11:45 a.m.	Chris Stringer (Natural History Museum, London)	*What is Homo sapiens?*
Mar 2 11:45 a.m.	Polly Wiessner (Arizona State Univ.)	*The Embers of Society: Firelight Talk among the Ju/'hoansi Bushmen*
Mar 9 12:15 p.m.	Michael Muthukrishna (London School of Economics)	*Cultural Brain Hypothesis, Collective Brains, and the Evolution of Intelligence*
Mar 16 11:45 a.m.	Louise Barrett (Univ. of Lethbridge, Alberta)	*Thinking Outside the Head: Cognitive Ecologies and Evolutionary Psychology*
Mar 23 11:45 a.m.	Sarah Mathew (Arizona State Univ.)	*War and Peace: The Cultural Evolution of Large-scale Conflict and Cooperation*
Mar 30 11:45 a.m.	Fiona Jordan (Univ. of Bristol, UK)	*'A subject too large and complex' for Darwin: The Cultural Evolution of Kinship Terminology*
Apr 6 11:45 a.m.	Manvir Singh (Institute for Advanced Studies, Toulouse)	*Human Social Organization during the Late Pleistocene: Challenging the Nomadic-egalitarian Model*
Apr 13 11:45 a.m.	Thomas Currie (Biosciences, Univ. of Exeter, UK)	*The Descent of Rules: Investigating the Cultural Evolution and Ecology of Institutions*
Apr 20 11:15 a.m.	Maria Lapinski (Michigan State Univ.)	*Communicating Cultural and Social Norms*
Fall 2020 Webinars on Cultural Evolution
Sep 29 11:45 a.m.	Peter J. Richerson (Univ. of California, Davis).	Outreach for the Cultural Evolution Society: Everybody needs to know a little bit about cultural evolution
Oct 6 11:45 a.m.	Paul E. Smaldino (Cognitive and Information Sciences, Univ. of California, Merced)	How to teach modeling, or Thoughts on a pedagogy for cultural evolution
Oct 13 11:45 a.m.	Andy Whiten (Univ. of St Andrews, UK)	Animal cultures: Core discoveries and new horizons
Oct 20 11:45 a.m.	Joseph Stubbersfield (Psychology, Heriot-Watt Univ., Edinburgh, UK)	Cognitive biases in folklore: From fairy tales to fake news
Oct 27 11:45 a.m.	Adrian Viliami Bell (Anthropology, Univ. of Utah)	Cultural evolution in the field
Nov 3 11:45 a.m.	Bernard Koch (Sociology, Univ. of California, Los Angeles) and Erik Gjesfjeld (Archaeology, University of Cambridge, UK)	Modeling the dynamics of cultural diversification
Nov 10 11:45 a.m.	Peter Turchin (Complexity Science Hub Vienna and Univ. of Connecticut).	Cultural macroevolution: Understanding the rise of large-scale complex societies in human history
Nov 17 11:45 a.m.	Ruth Mace (Evolutionary Anthropology, University College London).	The behavioural ecology of religious beliefs and practices
Nov 24 11:45 a.m.	Patricia Izar (Experimental Psychology, Animal Behavior, Univ. of Sao Paulo, Brazil)	The impact of a tradition on the life of capuchin monkeys
2020 Seminars
Jan 14 Tue 3:30	Simon Carrignon, NIMBioS postdoctoral fellow	Content-dependent biases in social learning strategies: A multiscale approach
Feb 4 Tue 3:30	Carlos A. Botero, Biology, Washington Univ., Saint Louis, MO	Ecological and evolutionary modeling shed light into the evolution and spread of human agriculture
Mar 3 Tue 3:30	Christian Houle, Political Science, Michigan State Univ.	The political implications of ethnic inequality
Mar 10 Canceled*	Neil Johnson, George Washington Univ.	Online ecologies of distrust and hate
Apr 7 Canceled*	Michael Bailey, Research Scientist Manager, Facebook	The economic impact of social networks
Canceled*	Michael Muthukrishna, London School of Economics
Canceled*	Kelly Rooker, Amazon Web Services
2019 Seminars
Jan 22	Oleg Manaev, Political Science, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville; DySoC	Reshaping social structure for legitimation of power in resurgent autocracy: The case of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine
Feb 14	Frans B. M. de Waal, Living Links, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory Univ., Atlanta, USA, and Utrecht Univ., the Netherlands	Animal emotions and empathy, Strong Hall Auditorium 101
Mar 25	Stephanie A. Bohon, Assoc. Director of the Center for the Study of Social Justice; Sociology, Univ. of Tennessee	Structural conditions of police-involved killings in the United States
Apr 23	DySoC/NIMBioS Event: Baba Brinkman, rap artist and playwright	World Premiere of Rap Guide to Culture. The performance is free. Public welcome. 272 Student Union
Apr 25	Michele Gelfand, Psychology, Univ. of Maryland	Rule makers, rule breakers: How tight and loose cultures wire our world. Strong Hall Auditorium 101
Sep 10	Jeremy Van Cleve, Biology, Univ. of Kentucky	Components of cooperation: Synergy in structured populations and the evolution of guilt
Oct 15	Luke J. Matthews, Behavioral and Social Scientist, RAND Corporation; Faculty, Pardee RAND Graduate School; Co-Director, RAND Center for Applied Network Analysis and System Science	Cultural inheritance mechanics: Their affordances for evolutionary adaptation and applications to policy analysis
Nov 25	Simon Levin, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton Univ.	Public goods, from biofilms to societies
2018 Seminars
Feb 14	Alex Bentley, Anthropology, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville; DySoC	The acceleration of cultural evolution
Mar 19	Brandon Prins, Political Science, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville; DySoC	Pirate lands: Governance and maritime piracy
Apr 16	Garriy Shteynberg, Psychology, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville; DySoC	Not by imitation alone: Collective learning as a psychological foundation of human evolutionary success
Aug 27	Todd Freeberg, Psychology, EEB, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville; DySoC	Songbird social psychology: Flock complexity affects Carolina chickadee behavior
Sep 24	Damian Ruck, Anthropology, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville; DySoC	Cultural prerequisites for democracy and economic development
Oct 15	Sergey Gavrilets, EEB, Mathematics, NIMBioS, UTK; DySoC Director; Anthropology, Oxford Univ.	Evolution of social complexity in non-human animals and humans
Nov 12	Aleydis Van de Moortel, Classics, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville; DySoC	Understanding the rise and decline of complex society at prehistoric Mitrou, Greece, through practice theory and human agency

*Due to COVID-19 concerns, all activities that involve travel to NIMBioS through July 31st have been canceled. Read more »