Evolution, Cognition, and Culture Seminar Series (a.k.a. The Better Beer Hour)

What is it? Each week we will have a speaker from the University or the surrounding area whose reasearch draws from evolutionary theory, or has relevance for the core objectives of the Evolution, Cognition, and Culture program. We will also take turns provisioning beer and snacks for the group. To see when it's your turn to bring in beer/snacks, click here.

When? Every Tuesday, 5:00 - 6:00, during the 2009 Spring semester.

Where? Anthropology Graduate Student Lounge.

Who? Any students or faculty who are interested.

Why?  It is an excellent opportunity to learn about research going on in the area.

Questions? Contact Richard Sosis at richard.sosis@uconn.edu

Dates:

January 27: Alexia Smith, Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut - "New Approaches to Examining Ancient Agriculture."

February 10: 4 p.m. at Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts, historian Dr. David R. Contosta will discuss his new book - "Rebel Giants: The Revolutionary Lives of Lincoln and Darwin."

February 17: Keith Chen, Yale University School of Management & Department of Economics - "Rationalization and Cognitive Dissonance: Do Choices Affect or Reflect Preferences"

February 19 (Archaeology Beer Hour): David Watts, Department of Anthropology, Yale University - "Do Chimpanzees Have Culture?"

March 3: Dan Adler, Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut - "Competitive Exclusion and Neanderthal Extinction."

March 17: Erica Harris, Department of Neurology, Boston University - "Religiosity in Patients with Parkinson's Disease."

March 19: Darwin Lecture Series: Mark Hauser - "The Evolution of a Moral Grammar." 4:00PM in Konover Auditorium, Dodd Center. Marc Hauser is Professor of Psychology, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and Anthropology, Harvard University. Marc Hauser is an expert on the evolution of animal communication, behavioral ecology, and the evolution of mind. His work integrates animal behavior, cognitive neurosciences, anthropology, and philosophy. He is the author of a number of influential books, including The Evolution of Communication (1996) and Moral Minds: How Nature Designed our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong (2006).

March 24: Eric Kaufmann, Harvard University and University of London - "The Role of the Second Demographic Transition in Secularism's Evolutionary Demise."

March 31: Tuva Day 2009 - Genghis Blues at the Student Union Theater from 2:00-4:00 pm. FREE!!! Alash Ensemble at the van der Mehden Recital Hall @ 8:00 pm. Doors Open at 7:30 pm. FREE!!!

April 15: Darwin Lecture Series: Paul Ewald - "Darwinian Medicine." 4:00PM in Konover Auditorium, Dodd Center. Paul Ewald is a Professor of Biology, University of Louisville. He began his career as a behavioral ecologist, but more recently has turned his attention to the study of evolutionary medicine, a field he helped to establish. He is a member of the interdisciplinary Program on Disease Evolution at the University of Louisville and the author of Evolution of Infectious Disease (1994) and Plague Time. The New Germ Theory of Disease (2002).

April 21: James Boster, Department of Anthopology, University of Connecticut - "Design Features of Patriarchy."

April 28: Elaine Bennett, Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut - "If He's Hungry, He'll Eat: Conceptualizing Childhood Malnutrition in a Mayan Village." (CANCELLED)

April 30 (Thursday / 3:45 - 4:45): Karen Kramer, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University - "How Young is too Young? Teen Motherhood among Pumé Foragers."

Fall 2008 schedule of speakers.