Evolution of Human Life Histories
All of my technical and applied research emerged from longstanding interest in the evolution of human life histories. The principal questions that drive this area of my research include: (1) Why do humans begin reproducing so late, have such low fertility, and live so long? (2) What role has environmental variation played in shaping human life histories? (3) How does biodemographic heterogeneity arise? My work in demography and life history theory ranges from the analysis of life history data from long-term chimpanzee research sites, to theoretical analyses of the impact of stochastic environments on human life histories, to models for the evolution of pair-bonding and biparental care, and has led to my more recent interests in evolutionary economics.
Of relevance to my interests in life history theory, I taught a variation of my seminar on life history theory that focused on one classic paper per week. The course materials (including video lectures deriving the key results for each paper) are available on this webpage.