Graduate Group in Ecology, Human Ecology Area of Emphasis, Seeking Graduate Students
If you are a student with interests in cultural or behavioral ecology, evolutionary anthropology or archaeology, or related fields such as environment and conservation, UC-Davis has exceptional graduate training opportunities through both Departmental and Graduate Group degree programs. The Graduate Group in Ecology (GGE)’s Area of Emphasis in Human Ecology (HE-AOE) examines human populations and behavior using concepts, theory and methods drawn both from the natural and the social sciences. If you have any questions about this program, or the Graduate Group in Ecology more generally, please feel free to e-mail Monique Borgerhoff Mulder (Chair) or Peter Richerson (Master Advisor) directly. This program offers:
An unusually large, diverse and internationally recognized faculty covering all of the key varieties of human ecological research, complemented by exceptional bio-ecological, agricultural and economic faculties in the University at large.
An interdisciplinary atmosphere for graduate education and research that is campus-wide, pervasive and robust.
An apprenticeship model of close and energetic collaboration among faculty and students, one that includes regular formal and informal venues, such as lunchtime “lab” classes, for group discussion, presentation and critical review of scholarship, and an atmosphere combining relaxed social ambience with intense dedication to scholarship that matters.
Multiple sources of support (see Funding Sources).
Our faculty is trained in a diverse set of disciplines: ecology, evolution, anthropology, demography, economics, political science, human development, and sociology, and our graduate group curriculum mirrors this orientation. (See "What is a graduate group?" for more information). Students generally chose to work with professors in the following areas:
Cultural Ecology (Boyd, Brush, Cramer, Orlove, Winterhalder). Cultural ecologists develop the pioneer efforts of anthropologist Julian Steward through empirical research on the reciprocal interactions between human populations, communities and societies, and their environments. We give balanced attention to ecosystem dynamics and to knowledge, culture, and institutions. Representative topics might include the sustainability of smallholder agriculturalists, preservation of genetic diversity within indigenous systems of cultivation, the ethno-ecological knowledge and practices of hunters, gatherers, and fishermen, or relationships between ritual, belief and environmental practice. We believe that such knowledge is essential to preserving a pluralistic and sustainable world of human-environment relationships; we encourage you to explore this topic area further through the classes and research described on our personal web pages, and with the International Agricultural Development Program.
Cultural Evolution (Bettinger, Cohen, Lubell, McElreath, Richerson). Humans in all societies rely upon a large body of culturally evolved knowledge in order to survive and make their living. Social scientists interested in cultural evolution seek to understand the nature of the psychology that makes cultural learning possible as well as the temporal and spatial dynamics of cultural systems. We work on broad issues of cultural evolution, as well as specific empirical cases. One particular area of emphasis is cooperation in human societies, as well as the evolution of collective action in general. Among cultural evolution faculty, we span the breadth of research traditions, from mathematical theory to laboratory studies to anthropological fieldwork and archaeology. Prospective graduate students interested in working on theoretical or empirical problems in cultural evolution or the evolution of cooperation should feel free to contact any of us.
Human Behavioral Ecology (Bettinger, Borgerhoff Mulder, Hrdy, McElreath, Winterhalder). HBE is a exciting and expanding subfield of anthropology that examines foraging, food production, cooperation, reproduction, and family and social organization from the perspective of neo-Darwinian theory. UC-Davis faculty in this group are using behavioral ecology theory to investigate such topics as: hunter-gatherer economies and the origins of agriculture; male-female reproductive tactics in the context of polygamous mating systems; the evolution of parenting and sibling interactions; the archaeology of transport costs and field processing of resources; the evolution of cooperation; and, the interaction of adaptation and cultural inheritance in the production of socio-cultural diversity. HBE research typically draws on optimization and game theory, uses models and other formal techniques, and gives particular emphasis to observational and experimental methods for empirical testing. Students in this area take courses in Anthropology, Psychology, and Animal Behavior, and often conduct fieldwork in developing countries.
People & Conservation (Borgerhoff Mulder, Boyd, Brush, Darwent, Lubell, Orlove). On a crowded planet conservation is as much about people and their behavior as biological diversity. Natural resource use, endangered species, and degraded ecosystems must be studied in their social, political and economic context, and this requires an understanding of peoples’ decision-making processes regarding resource use, and their social institutions regulating land and water use patterns. Students typically conduct projects relating resource use decision-making, traditional ecological knowledge, conflicts between conservation and development, ecotourism, and conservation education. Biogeography in both modern and archaeological time frames is another interest amongst this group.
