Duke Kunshan University (DKU) Invites Applications for Faculty Position in Evolutionary Anthropology

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Duke Kunshan University (DKU) invites applications to a faculty position in evolutionary anthropology, beginning in the academic year 2022-2023. We seek a candidate working at the intersection of psychology and biology, who is eager to contribute to our new interdisciplinary major in Behavioral Science. We encourage especially candidates capable of teaching classes in the comparative analysis of behavior, evolution, evolutionary and population genetics, or physiology. We are open with regard to a candidate’s research focus. Our interest includes but is not limited to scholars studying cultural evolution, evolutionary psychology, human evolutionary genetics, cognitive development and evolution, evolutionary neuroscience, primatology and human behavioral ecology. This position is open with regard to rank, including tenured, tenure track and non-tenure track. Mid-career and senior faculty are especially encouraged to apply.

As an international intellectual community that encourages diversity, openness and creative learning, DKU welcomes outstanding faculty from around the world who contribute diverse perspectives and experiences to a global learning and research environment. DKU particularly welcomes applications from underrepresented groups and minorities.

In order to meet Chinese visa requirements, prior to the position start date international (non-Chinese) candidates must have worked full-time (work experience obtained while studying full-time is not considered as full-time work experience) for at least two years in a relevant area (including post-doctoral work) after receiving their Bachelor’s degree, or begin their appointment at DKU within 12 months of obtaining their master’s degree/Ph.D. and without having work experience between graduation date on master’s degree diploma/Ph.D. diploma and position start date.

DKU is a collaborative partnership of Duke University, Wuhan University and the Municipality of Kunshan, China (https://dukekunshan.edu.cn/). Our campus provides an innovative and robustly interdisciplinary undergraduate liberal arts experience to a student body that will number 2000 students and 150+ faculty, with an acceptance rate of <8% and a student body represented by over 60 countries. We also offer a discrete number of Master’s level graduate programs. The DKU pedagogical model draws on the best of Duke’s educational experience and resources to reimagine undergraduate instruction on an intimate campus setting.

Similar to the best liberal arts colleges in the United States, DKU values dedication to teaching excellence in a liberal arts environment, as well as a strong commitment to successful scholarly engagement and research. This includes research with undergraduate students. As a whole, the Duke Kunshan faculty will have strong commitments to teaching and research, and outstanding quality in both areas will be highly valued.

Candidates must hold a Ph.D. degree or equivalent in a relevant field. Research experience at a postdoctoral level (or greater) and teaching experience are desirable, as is experience working in an interdisciplinary setting. Applicants should provide a cover letter including a clear statement of the candidate’s specific interest in DKU, a curriculum vitae, a research statement, a teaching statement, and three reference letters. All materials should be submitted through Academic Jobs Online: https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/19343. The search committee also invites and encourages letters of nomination for potential candidates. Nominations and questions about the positions may be sent to integrated-science-search@dukekunshan.edu.cn using “Evolutionary Anthropology” as the subject line. Priority will be given to applications received by October 15, 2021; we will accept applications until the positions are filled.

The DKU campus is 37 miles west of Shanghai in Kunshan, and is connected to Shanghai via an 18-minute high-speed train and a subway-light rail train system. DKU provides internationally competitive compensation, housing allowance, child education benefits (for applicable faculty positions), and a discretionary fund or start-up package.

Early Career Writing Group Sign-Up

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Early Career Writing Group!

A virtual writing group is being organized by Stacey Makhanova for early career evolutionary psychologists and evolutionary scientists more broadly who want some external motivation to get writing done and an opportunity to network (and commiserate) with people in similar career stages. For this group, “early career” means assistant professors, post-docs, and graduate students at the dissertation stage.

If you are interested, see the Google Doc for details and to add your contact info to the email list.

Postdoc Fellow for the Geography of Philosophy Project at UCLA

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The Geography of Philosophy Project (https://www.geographyofphilosophy.com/) is seeking a postdoctoral research fellow to work with Professor Clark Barrett in the UCLA Department of Anthropology, for a period of one year. The start date for the position is October 1, 2021 or as soon as the position is filled.

Submit applications here: https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF06748

The Geography of Philosophy project seeks to understand diversity and universality in philosophical concepts around the world—particularly in the concepts of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. We are studying these concepts empirically using a mixed-methods, comparative approach spanning ten countries and multiple languages. Our methods are diverse and include focus groups, structured interviews, surveys, and experimental techniques. The structure of the project is collaborative, involving local research teams in ten countries, and experts from across the social sciences and humanities. The PIs on the project are Clark Barrett (Anthropology, UCLA), Edouard Machery (History and Philosophy of Science, Pitt), and Stephen Stich (Philosophy and Cognitive Science, Rutgers). The project is funded by the John Templeton Foundation (https://www.templeton.org/).

The project is entering its final year of funding, and we are beginning our final wave of data collection. The postdoc position at UCLA will involve analyzing results from these studies, collaborating in designing and running follow-up studies, co-authoring papers and edited volumes, and helping to administer the grant at UCLA. The postdoc will be housed in UCLA’s Department of Anthropology, a large, four-field department with a thriving community of diverse academic interests, including the Center for Behavior, Evolution and Culture (http://www.bec.ucla.edu/), the Center for Language, Interaction and Culture (https://clic.ss.ucla.edu/), the Mind, Medicine and Culture group (http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/mmac/index.html), and connections to many other departments and units across campus.

Our project is explicitly interdisciplinary and experimental, and as such candidates from diverse fields are eligible, including Anthropology, Psychology, Philosophy, Linguistics, and Cognitive Science. Candidates with strengths in statistical analysis, design and interpretation of cross-cultural studies, and familiarity with literatures in cross-cultural cognitive science are particularly encouraged.

Informal inquiries from potential applicants are welcome at hclarkbarrett@gmail.com. Feel free to get in touch if you’re curious about the position and have questions about your fit for the position, responsibilities, etc. Formal application materials should include a CV, cover letter with statement of research interests and experience, contact information for three references, and up to three publications. Applications will be considered on a rotating basis until the position is filled. Full advert here.

All qualified applicants will receive full consideration without regard to race, color, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other basis protected by law. Women and underrepresented minority applicants are strongly encouraged to apply.

Please circulate this announcement widely. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Variant Bio is seeking full-time researcher/scientist

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Variant Bio is seeking a researcher/scientist to fill a full time position on our global partnerships team.

Company Description

Variant Bio is a Seattle-based startup that is developing therapies to improve global health by studying the genes of people who are outliers for medically relevant traits. Variant Bio was started because we believe that human genetics has the power to transform drug development. To facilitate this, we have built proprietary genomics and phenotyping platforms that allow us to dramatically reduce the cost of genomic studies and identify genetically-validated targets for therapeutic development.

All of our studies are co-designed with local partners: community groups, academics, and hospitals around the world. We built Variant Bio from the ground up with ethics at its foundation. We recognize the contribution of our partners through an industry leading benefit-sharing program that dedicates 4% of our revenue and equity value to support local healthcare, sustainable development, education, research, and capacity-building initiatives.

Variant Bio is an equal opportunity employer that guarantees a work environment that respects and values diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Job Description

We are looking for a scientist with international field experience who will support expanding the scope and scale of our research collaborations around the world. We are looking for creative thinkers who can contribute to an early startup in project identification, design, execution, and data interpretation. The ideal candidate is a scientist (we will consider applicants spanning a broad range of backgrounds, e.g. anthropologist, biologist, human geographer) who is willing to learn how to manage a research project partnership from the ground up, and can step into the role of managing projects themselves. This position will report to the Head of Partnership Development.

Alignment with our ethical principles and effective communication in different cultural settings is a must. The candidate is passionate about human adaptation and variation, health, and genetics and is not intimidated by constant research and learning. The candidate will advise on, design, and support projects covering South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. Our current projects cover areas of positive adaptation to various environmental conditions and their health implications, as well as disease-focused research on kidney disease, autoimmune disorders, and neurodegenerative disorders.

Responsibilities

Identify populations with unique genetic architectures or phenotypes in areas of unmet medical need.
Create scientific hypotheses and design population or cohort-based genomics studies.
Identify and set up collaborations around the world for human subjects studies, partnering with academic researchers, hospitals, biobanks, and local communities.
Work closely with ethicists and cultural anthropologists to co-design the studies together with partner communities.
Establish and cultivate relationships with partners and partner communities.
Design and negotiate contracts with partners and service providers, apply for human subjects ethical approval, and coordinate international logistics for project execution.
Develop and supervise local genotyping and phenotyping campaigns, often “in the field.”
Effectively communicate scientific results to local researchers, community members, and at scientific conferences.
Contribute to scientific publications.

Qualifications

Ability to leave your ego at the door and wear multiple hats in a fast-paced, start-up environment.
Post-secondary degree in biological anthropology, genetics, evolutionary biology, public health, epidemiology, or equivalent. Ph.D. a plus, but not a requirement.
Conceptual understanding of the principles of adaptation by natural selection.
Experience creating and executing field-based human subjects research projects, preferably outside of North America and Europe.
Well-connected and active in the public health or evolutionary/genetic anthropology field.
Strong people skills and ability to manage multiple, international partner relationships.
Understanding and appreciation for differences in global business norms and practices.
Independent, creative, detail-orientated, and a critical thinker.
Strong writing skills are a must.
Disease area, public health, genetics or human adaptation expertise is an advantage.
Compelled by the company’s mission of great science, a strong ethical stance, and benefit sharing.

Perks

Opportunity to be part of an early-stage startup entering a rapid growth phase.
Competitive, industry leading salary, and comprehensive benefits including medical, dental, vision, short and long term disability and life insurance.
401(k) plan that includes an automatic 3% employer contribution.
Centrally located Eastlake, Seattle location in a new Alexandria building with modern facilities, including a gym.

Please email your resume and a cover letter highlighting your background and relevant skills to hiring@variantbio.com with the subject line “RE: Scientist – Genetic Research Partnerships.”

Assistant Professor of Leadership Studies Opening at University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies

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The University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies (JSLS) invites applications for a full-time tenure-track social scientist position at the rank of Assistant Professor for the 2022-23 academic year. Although ABDs will be considered, the successful candidate must have completed a Ph.D. in social psychology (or other related subfield of psychology), anthropology, sociology, or a related field, by August 16, 2022.

JSLS is a collaborative, inclusive community of scholars in anthropology, economics, history, literature, philosophy, politics, social psychology and religion. We seek applicants who study, or have the potential and desire to study, leadership by drawing on their disciplinary expertise to inform their work. We are particularly interested in candidates whose demonstrated teaching and/or scholarly interests focus on the theoretical and empirical analysis of group and intergroup processes.

Applicants should have the potential and desire to teach in an interdisciplinary undergraduate liberal arts environment. The successful candidate will be expected to teach elective courses related to their disciplinary training and to contribute to the curriculum by teaching such required courses as Leadership and the Social Sciences, Quantitative Social Science, and Theories and Models of Leadership. In their cover letter, candidates should demonstrate how their scholarly and teaching interests connect, or have the potential to connect, to leadership, broadly construed. (See http://jepson.richmond.edu/ for more information.)

The University of Richmond is a private university located just a short drive from downtown Richmond, Virginia. Through its five schools and wide array of campus programming, the University combines the best qualities of a small liberal arts college and a large university. With nearly 4,000 students, an 8:1 student-faculty ratio, and 90% of undergraduate students living on campus, the University is student-centered, focused on preparing students “to live lives of purpose, thoughtful inquiry, and responsible leadership in a global and pluralistic society.”

The University of Richmond is committed to developing a diverse workforce and student body, and to modeling an inclusive campus community which values the expression of difference in ways that promote excellence in teaching, learning, personal development, and institutional success. Our academic community strongly encourages applications that are in keeping with this commitment.

Applicants should apply online at http://jobs.richmond.edu and submit a curriculum vitae, cover letter, and three statements with regard to (1) potential for contributions to inclusivity, equity, and diversity at the University and in the field; (2) teaching and mentoring; and (3) research and scholarship. See the following descriptions:

Statement #1: Describe potential contributions to the goals of promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of Richmond (see Making Excellence Inclusive at UR) and in the field, including relevant knowledge and understanding, track record, and future plans. Statement may address contributions via research, teaching and mentoring, and/or service.

Through their teaching, mentoring, research, and/or service activities, excellent applicants will demonstrate personal and professional awareness of, experience with, and support for actions and initiatives that promote the success and well-being of students from marginalized and/or underrepresented social, ethnic, and identity groups.

Statement #2: Describe teaching and mentoring philosophy, practices, experience, and future plans.

Excellent applicants will demonstrate potential to effectively teach elective courses related to their disciplinary training and to contribute to the Jepson curriculum (e.g., Leadership and the Social Sciences, Quantitative Social Science, and Theories and Models of Leadership), using demonstrably effective and inclusive teaching practices. Excellent applicants will demonstrate potential for mentoring undergraduates in their research program and for advising and mentoring students.

Statement #3: Describe research program, outcomes, feasibility of research involving undergraduates at UR, and future plans.

Excellent applicants will demonstrate potential for sustaining a high-quality program of research in their research field and contributing to the study of leadership.

Candidates for this position may be asked, at a later date, to provide the names and contact information for three references who will be asked to submit letters of recommendation. Review of applications will commence August 16, 2021. Phone or Zoom interviews will be conducted in September. Campus visits are anticipated for finalists in October-November.

Prof Bridget Waller Seeking 3-yr Funded PhD Student on Facial Expressivity Project

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We are seeking applications for a 3-year full-time PhD student to work on human facial expressivity and social relationships.

The PhD will be supervised by Professor Bridget Waller as part of ERC Consolidator Project FACEDIFF ‘Individual differences in facial expressivity: Social function, facial anatomy and evolutionary origins’. FACEDIFF is a five-year project examining individual differences in facial expressivity and how this is related to social network size and success at social interaction in humans and macaques.
Communicating with others via the face is crucial for navigating our social world. Deficits in facial expression production can have debilitating effects on social interaction. Despite this, we know surprisingly little about individual differences in facial expressivity in the typical population, what causes these differences and whether such differences impact on individual lives. In part, this could be due to an historical focus on the universal nature of facial expression, assigning individual difference to random ‘noise’, rather than an evolutionarily relevant characteristic. The FACEDIFF project will diverge from this classic approach and test the novel hypothesis that individual differences in facial expressivity equip individuals’ differentially to engage with their social environment:expressivity has a benefit (social engagement) but also a cost (over-exposure and thus risk of being cheated by others) and is related to the size and quality of an individual’s social network. FACEDIFF will combine psychological, anatomical and cross-species methods to provide the first thorough interdisciplinary investigation of individual differences.

The advertised position will be situated within the FACEDIFF project with the strand of research focussed on human facial expression, social interaction and social networks. The PhD student will work within a larger interdisciplinary team with an overarching plan to investigate the relationship between variation in facial muscles and the quality of social bonds with others. The successful PhD candidate will conduct laboratory based behavioural experiments at Nottingham Trent University in which pairs of participants (friends or strangers) take part in dyadic and individual tasks (e.g. cold pressor test: emerge their hands in water of varying temperatures to induce mild pain and stress). Behavioural and physiological measures will be recorded. The goal is to monitor how variation in facial muscle-use affects facial communication and emotional recognition during these tasks, and how this affects social dynamics during social interaction.

Candidates with prior experience conducting experimental research in humans, and those with a strong interest in social, behavioural or comparative/evolutionary psychology are preferred. Training and support in some specific research skills such as social network analysis and FACS (Facial Action Coding System) will be provided, but the successful candidate will need to have a demonstrable interest in standard quantitative approaches to experimental data.

Enquiries
Please contact Professor Bridget Waller via email (bridget.waller@ntu.ac.uk) for informal discussions in advance of applying. Also, please see www.FACEDIFF.co.uk for more information about the overarching project. Any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch!

Qualifications
Entrants must have an excellent academic record, with an undergraduate degree in psychology, behavioural science or related field. A master’s degree in a relevant field (or equivalent research experience) would be preferred, and experience of experimental social research with humans is essential.

Funding
The PhD will be funded by European Research Council Consolidator Grant FACEDIFF ‘Individual differences in facial expressivity: Social function, facial anatomy and evolutionary origins’ awarded to Bridget Waller. Funding will be provided for tuition fees, stipend for three years andresearch/conference expenses. Ideal start date October 2021, but this is negotiable.

How to apply
Please apply via the following link* (application deadline – 09/07/2021, expiry time 11:59 pm):
*Please include a short proposal for the PhD outlining how you would tackle theresearch questions posed in the brief. Your proposal should focus on the goals and general methodology rather than precise details. The word limit stated in the application page is 1500 words which should include your reference list and timeline.

Interview details
Interviews will take place from w/c 19th July 2021

ECR Funded 2-yr Post-Doc at Peace Research Institute Oslo

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The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) invites applications for a two-year, full-time Postdoc position in human coalitional aggression within the project Adapted to War (AWAR), funded by the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant).

The position provides an opportunity to work in a leading international research institute, located in Norway’s capital city, as part of an interdisciplinary project on human aggression.

Summary of AWAR

Have humans evolved psychological adaptations to coalitional aggression or small-scale war? This question has generated major scientific debate involving anthropologists, archaeologists, economists, primatologists, psychologists, and political scientists. If humans are adapted to war, then human psychology must be equipped with specialized adaptations designed for the effective navigation of war: planning, executing, and defending against coalitional attacks. AWAR probes the existence of such adaptations. It focuses, specifically, on coalitional formidability assessment mechanisms, which likely helped ancestral humans to avoid costly fights. AWAR also explores contemporary implications of coalitional formidability assessment mechanisms: if they indeed exist, do they shape our attitudes and behavior today, particularly in the context of modern political violence (e.g., violent protests or civil conflicts)?

The Postdoc’s role in the team

The project’s core team will consist of Postdoc 1 (psychologist/cognitive scientist; expected expertise: evolutionary psychology and information-processing/computational models), Postdoc 2 (psychologist/cognitive scientist; expected expertise: cognitive experiments), and Principal Investigator (PI), Henrikas Bartusevičius (political scientist; expertise: the psychology of political violence).

This vacancy concerns Postdoc 1, whose responsibilities will be as follows:

  • Collaborating with PI in theorizing an information-processing/computational model of a psychological mechanisms regulating coalitional aggression (i.e., the coalitional formidability assessment mechanism);
  • Collaborating with Postdoc 2 and PI in designing experiments to probe the existence and design features of the theorized coalitional formidability assessment mechanism;
  • Contributing to conducting and analyzing cognitive lab experiments;
  • Writing journal articles in collaboration with Postdoc 2 and PI.

The application must be submitted in English via online application system no later than 1 June 2021. The application must include:

  1. An application letter (1–2 pages) addressing the required and desired qualifications as listed above. Please briefly describe your relevant experience and qualifications for each of the 9 qualifications listed above (if you do not have experience/qualifications pertaining to one or more of the qualifications listed above, just say so).
  2. A statement (1–2 pages) on how your qualifications will contribute to implementing WP1 (in particular) and WP2 of the project.
  3. One or two papers that you consider as your best work. This work, preferably but not mandatorily, should demonstrate the qualifications as listed above. Single- or first-authored work carries greater weight. You are welcome to submit unpublished manuscripts, as long as you consider them as demonstrating the highest quality of your research and the qualifications listed above.
  4. A CV in English, which must include a list of publications.
  5. Scanned copies of original transcripts/certificates from higher education, in one PDF file.

The project offers a degree of flexibility with respect to candidates’ research during the project. Therefore, the applicants are welcome, but are not required, to suggest (in Attachment 2) research ideas that could be integrated into WP1 and WP2 of AWAR.

Read the full advert here.

Early Career Writing Group for Evolutionary Scientists — Sign up!

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Early Career Writing Group!

A virtual writing group is being organized by Stacey Makhanova for early career evolutionary psychologists and evolutionary scientists more broadly who want some external motivation to get writing done and an opportunity to network (and commiserate) with people in similar career stages. For this group, “early career” means assistant professors, post-docs, and graduate students at the dissertation stage.

If you are interested, see the Google Doc for details and to add your contact info to the email list

Culture Conference 2021: Registration and Abstract Submissions Open

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The organizers of the Culture Conference 2021 invite you to join them for a two-day conference hosted by the University of Stirling, UK, from June 7-8, 2021. The conference will be held virtually this year! 

 

Abstract Submissions are being accepted for Short Talks, Lightning Talks, and Poster Presentations! Please see the website for full details: www.culture-conference.com

 

Abstracts should be 300 words or less and should relate to the theme of ‘Evolutionary Perspectives on Culture‘ which we are interpreting very broadly. We welcome applications from any discipline that is interested in the study of culture. You have until May 3 to Submit an Abstract, and up until the conference date to register as an attendee.

 

This year, their are small grants available to presenters who mark that they are interested in aid in the registration form (below). The aim of the small grant is to support presenters in the endeavor of preparing their presentations and offer them some compensation for their time and effort.

 

To submit an abstract:

Call for Data: Meta-Analysis on Personality, Intelligence, Physical Size, and Social Status

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Michael Grosz, Robbie van Aert, and Mitja Back are currently conducting a meta-analysis on correlations of personality traits, cognitive abilities, physical size with social status in face-to-face groups (including social influence, attention, admiring respect, popularity, and leadership emergence).

Inclusion criteria:
•We include only studies with groups that had face-to-face contact.
•We include studies that measured the following social status variables: social influence, attention, admiring respect, leadership emergence, likeability (popularity) or the like.
We do not include studies that measured socioeconomic status (income, education, wealth) , formal status positions in organizations (CEO, manager, formal leadership position), or occupational prestige.
•We do not include studies that measured only self-reported social status variables.
•Studies should have additionally measured personality (e.g., Big Five, Dark Triad, personal values, altruism), cognitive abilities (objectively assessed), or physical size (e.g., height, muscularity).
•Participants’ average age should be 16 years or older.

They would be very grateful if you could e-mail unpublished or recently published studies and data to meta@uni-muenster.de. You can find further information and the inclusion criteria at https://osf.io/3r9h4/.