Bits and Bobs

I am currently running a funding competition on behalf of the Cultural Evolution Society, thanks to a very generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

For more information see the website here.

Or read a short blog piece in This View of Life that outlines hot topics in the cultural evolution field and the funding competition

Awards have now been made and we are working on publishing our process for enhancing equity in research funding (blog).

I am also a CoI on an MRC-GCRF funded project

Factors Affecting Childhood Exposure to Urban Particles (FACE-UP)

My part of the project involves applying knowledge of learning behaviours, such as social learning biases, to the design of informational products. We will host workshops with children and carers to understand their learning biases and use this to inform the design of products to transmit messages regarding how children can protect themselves from urban air pollution. Once we have produced the products we will evaluate them.

The research takes place in Kathamandu (Nepal) and Bandug (Indonesia). See our website for more information.

Awards

Merit Award (Durham University, 2022) for excellent contribution to Department and University

Merit Award (Durham University, 2021) for excellent contribution to Department and University

Margo Wilson award for best paper (Kendal et al. 2015) of the year in Evolution of Human Behavior (Human Behavior & Evolution Society, 2016)

Excellence in Doctoral Supervision Award (Durham University, 2016)

Discretionary Award (Durham University, 2015) for exceptional contribution to Postgraduate Admissions.

Selected Grants

Leverhulme Trust Fellowship awarded to Rachel Harrison: Tolerance and transmission: social tolerance and cultural complexity in primates (2023: mentor, £332,598)

John Templeton Foundation: Transforming the Field of Cultural Evolution and its Application to Human Futures (2021: PI, £2,847,410)

MRC-GCRF 'Health in Context': Factors Affecting Childhood Exposures to Urban Particles (FACE-UP) (2020: Co-I, £2,000,000)

ESRC Impact Acceleration Account: Designing for innovation and creativity in informal science learning environments (2015: PI, £25,800)

Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship: Identifying social learning in the wild (2006: PI, £269,989)

Learned Society Activities

Oct 2020-4 Past-President (Jan 2021-Jan 2022 Acting President) of the Cultural Evolution Society

Oct 2018 President of the Cultural Evolution Society (President-Elect from March 2018)

2009-12 Convenor and founder of the Research Working Party on council of Primate Society of Great Britain

2000-3 Student Representative on council of Primate Society of Great Britain

Conference Co-Organisation

Cultural Evolution Society Conference (chair; CES Durham 2024)

CES Transformation Fund Capstone Conference (chair; Durham 2024)

Inclusivity committee member of Cultural Evolution Society Conference (Arizona, 2018)

Primate Society of Great Britain conference (Durham 2017)

Evidence for Animal Minds (IAS symposium, Durham 2016), including public event "A chimpanzee on Trial"

Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour conference (ASAB, Durham 2015)

European Evolution and Human Behaviour conference (EHBEA, Durham 2012)

Symposium Identifying Social Learning in the Wild at International Primate Society Congress (Edinburgh 2008)

Social Learning and Cultural Evolution Workshop (Durham, 2007)

Animal Social Learning International Meeting (St Andrews, 2005)

Editorial Boards

Plos One (2013-2017)

Frontiers in Comparative Psychology (since 2011)

Invited to act as Section Editor for Springer’s first Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behaviour (2016, declined).

Examining

External PhD Candidates:

Claudia Martina (ZSL & UCL, 2019)

Jennifer Morinay (Lyon (France) & Upsalla (Sweden) Universities, 2018)

Rachel Harrison (St Andrews University, 2017)

Charlotte Brand (St Andrews University, 2017)

Edwin van Leeuwen (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (Netherlands) 2015)

Claire Watson (Stirling University, 2011)

Internal PhD Candidates (Durham):

Sammy Mason (2023)

Diane Austry (2021)

Lauren Powell (2018)

Miles Woodruff (2017)

Marius Kempe (2013)

Internal MRes Candidates (Durham):

Marie-Claire Pagano (2017)

Daniel Redhead (2016)

Rachel Sassoon (2011)

External MRes Programmes:

Newcastle University - Animal Behaviour & Evolution and Human Behaviour (2017-2020).

Media Interest

2018: Interviewed by Inverse for an article "International Archaeologists are being banned from crossing the US border"

2018: Interviewed by Psychologie Heute for an article translated as "We are all copycats and this is a good thing".

2017: Research of PhD student (Camila Coelho) on wild capuchins featured in the BBC's Wild Brazil documentary series.

2016: Interviewed by Nautilus for an article entitled "Social learning in nature is ubiquitous".

2013: Interviewed by Science for an article entitled "Signs of culture in whales and monkeys".

Advisory Roles

International Scientific Advisory Board member for the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig (Germany); 2022-2027.

Academic consultant for The Centre for Life (Newcastle) regarding gallery content, gallery evaluation and grant applications.

Equity Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives

2024-2025: Co-leading an EDI fund & Research Culture funded project to develop an EDI Toolkit for application processes.

2021-2024: Running a large funding competition to enhance EDI in the field of cultural evolution [Transforming the Field of Cultural Evolution and its Application to Human Futures]

see blog outlining our work to enhance equity, diversity, and inclusion in the funding landscape.
see our 'how to guide' for automating a sequential anonymised-deanonymised review process for reducing bias.

2018-2024: Working for better EDI in the field of cultural evolution, and associated disciplines, is a key aspect of my Presidential roles for the Cultural Evolution Society.

2018: Part of a small team reviewing mentoring provision for academics at Durham University and providing a strategic report/recommendations for a University wide mentoring scheme.

2017-2018: Part of Self Assessment Team (SAT) for equality diversity and inclusion (EDI) in the Anthropology Dept.