Human Evolutionary Ecology and Health James Holland Jones

Human Evolutionary Ecology and Health

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About

A Professor of Environmental Behavioral Science and Earth System Science (by courtesy), I am a biological anthropologist with interests in human ecology and adaptability, demography and life history theory, and the human ecology of infectious disease. Biological anthropology is the study of the origins and maintenance of human diversity and the axis of diversity that defines my research interests is the stunning variation across populations and through time in the fundamental quantities of demography: age-specific mortality and fertility rates. My recent work has been organized around understanding the profound consequences of uncertainty for adaptation and decision-making. Related to this, I am increasingly interested in existential problems facing humanity and using the tools of evolutionary ecology to address these.

More about James Holland Jones

Research

My research focuses on human ecology and human adaptability broadly. Substantively, I focus in particular on livelihood, reproductive decision-making, and the diffusion of things like ideas, innovations, and viruses over networks. Understanding the profound impacts of uncertainty is a unifying theme of my recent research. Methodologically, I employ a variety of formalisms such as mathematical and computational modeling, formal demography, social network analysis, and decision theory and advanced statistics.

Teaching

I teach a variety of classes in Environmental Behavioral Sciences and Earth Systems. Classes such as Adaptation and The Social Science of Sustainability are core components of these programs as well as the program in Change Leadership for Sustainability. I teach more methodological classes such as Population and Environment and Biological and Social Networks. For Sophomore College, I teach a course called the Uncertain Future of Humanity, and have co-taught a course on climate fiction called Imagining Adaptive Futures. I've previously raught an Introductory Seminar called The Most Rational People in the World.

In addition to my Stanford teaching, I co-organize a number of workshop on topics such as social network analysis and formal demography.