Position Title
Assistant Professor
- zoom: Thurs 9:15-10am (https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/95564284095)
- Young 218: Thurs 10-11
Education
- PhD, Anthropology, UCLA, 2012
- BA, Anthropology & Psychology, UC Berkeley, 2003
About
I am an evolutionary anthropologist interested in how humans respond adaptively to culturally structured social worlds.
Research Focus
My research can be lumped into 3 broad areas:
1. Intergroup interactions and social cognition. Specifically, I examine humans’ psychological adaptations for processing ethnic social categories using cross-cultural and developmental research. My primary geographic focus has been among agro-pastoralists in the Peruvian Altiplano along the Quechua-Aymara linguistic border
2. Cross-cultural variation in social effects on reproduction. I examine why and how family members and religiosity affect fertility outcomes across space and time. I also work on why social learning processes influence reproductive decision-making so much and how this can give rise to puzzling phenomena such as the demographic transition, below replacement fertility, and cross-site variation in life history decisions.
3. Adoption of new behaviors: I am starting a longitudinal projects on the origins of ritual participation at a new pilgrimage site in the Peruvian Altiplano. Why do some adopt this behavior, while others think it the work of the devil? What are the cooperative consequences of adopting this new practice? And how do behavior and belief co-develop?