@rebeccasear
Director of the Centre for Culture and Evolution, Brunel University London @brunelcce.bsky.social. President of the European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association @ehbea.bsky.social https://www.rebeccasear.org/
"Sustained population studies of fertility over the last two centuries question the extent to which trends in low fertility may be understood as universal. Improved knowledge of variations within countries & between communities reveals heterogeneity in reproductive behaviours at sub-national levels"
This new issue of Proceedings of the British Academy looks great, and very timely:
Low Fertilities in the Past and Present - Studies in Compositional Demography
liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....
Definitely on my to-read list: “seeing the thoughtful process behind their opposing views brings home how difficult the discussions around these topics can be. If even two experts writing a book together don’t always see eye to eye, then the public discussion is even more of a minefield”
Love the app, even though it makes me regret my professional shift from zoology to anthropology!
“Trejo and Martschenko suggest a set of guidelines for polygenic embryo selection, starting with “a complete moratorium” in the short term and only allowing some traits to be selected after quality reproductive care is accessible to everyone, to avoid further systemic inequalities”
“Merlin, a bird-sound identifier that now has more than 10 million users worldwide…is a brilliant tool for learning birdsong, but it’s also revealing lots of unexpected information”
www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/...
TOMORROW LAST DAY!
Don’t forget to submit your applications for Student or Early Career Researcher EHBEA Grants!
More information below 👇
The "women are ruining civilisation" argument seems to have gone fully mainstream, judging by the casual and uncritical reference Amoj Rajan just made to the "feminisation of society" on the Today programme. The Overton Window hasn't just shifted, it's completely shattered
"Urbanization appears to introduce new incentives for men to support women’s empowerment, including social prestige, access to novel employment, and increased adaptability to urban life" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
"Analyzing video footage and location data from headcams and GPS devices, respectively, the authors found that social information, specifically where other participants were fishing, influenced foraging behaviors, especially for women" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
poster for a webinar on role and influence of grandmothers and other family actors on MNCH in non-western cultures
The Grandmother Project: Change through Culture is holding a webinar on Weds 11 March on "The role and influence of grandmothers and other family actors on maternal, newborn and child health in non-western cultures"
unc.zoom.us/webinar/regi...
Excited to see the Human Fertility Database here on Bluesky! 🎉
The #HFD provides high-quality and internationally comparable data on cohort and period #fertility 📊
Make sure to follow them 👇
Data note for Funen Cat Project: Integrated GPS and Prey-Return Dataset for Domestic Cats from Funen (Fyn), Denmark
"The dataset supports robust analyses of individual variation, habitat-associated patterns, and movement ecology"
Call for papers for special issue of Frontiers on feminist quantitative research methods, inviting papers that examine the connections between feminist research, quantitative methods, intersectionality, and epistemology frontierswsjournal.org/call-for-pap...
We're pleased to announce the call for the 2026 Richerson Award for Outstanding Doctoral Research, for a recent PhD dissertation that significantly contributes to the field of CE.
Recipients receive a $300 award, a 3-yr CES membership and CES conference registration.
forms.gle/p4MqcskCs2Yz...
Thank you, Anna!
My Beautiful Bullshitty Baby:
Episode 2 of our blog series on methods renovations. Diving into my Science and Critical Thinking module - layout, rationale, & the first few weeks.
willgervais.com/blog/2026/2/...
Read! Share! Tell us what you think!
#psychscisky 🧪 #philsci #methodology #teaching
Applications for the 2026 New Investigator Award are open!
This award recognises outstanding ECR scholars who have contributed to the field of cultural evolution. The recipient is given the opportunity to give a plenary at a CES conference.
Apply here until March 25: forms.gle/GycUhdFj7q6U...
If you know your British including British colonial history, you might be a bit appalled.
"Temporary shock or lasting scar?"
By 2024 nearly all high-income countries remained below their pre-pandemic life expectancy trends. We identify four distinct mortality shock patterns since 2020. Full analysis in our preprint: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...
I contributed to a @euronews.com article by @servetyanatma.bsky.social exploring the fertility decline Turkey has been experiencing and why the story behind it is more complex than it seems.
www.euronews.com/health/2026/...
Happening today! The link to attend has just been emailed out to all who had signed up - if you've not received it please check your spam/ junk filter
New estimates of education-specific fertility show significant variation across 36 Sub-Saharan countries, with divergent fertility trends. The new flexible model demonstrates differences between UN and Demographic and Health Surveys data. www.demographic-research.org/articles/vol...
Can we all just agree that if your evolutionary theory of humans posits we all evolved to have the social values of 1950s American it’s probably wrong? Thanks.
Paperback cover of Father Time: How Nurturing Is Natural for Men by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy
Now in #paperback, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy's Father Time is a sweeping account of male nurturing, explaining how and why men are biologically transformed when they care for babies.
Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...
#Evolution #Biology #Anthropology
"academic freedom is granted to those who do not need its protection. At the same time, academics who challenge, criticize and debate power differentials and inequality practices are increasingly being silenced, deprived of their livelihoods and intellectually erased from public discourse"
Calories don't count on Saints' Days 😉
Come work with us! And get in touch with any questions you might have about the position, our labs or living/working in Germany #PostdocWanted
"Remarkably, South-Eastern Asia shows stable timing patterns despite total fertility declining from well above replacement in 1950 to below replacement today" www.niussp.org/fertility-an...
"findings reveal a shift from coercive control to moralized persuasion, illustrating how the state continues to govern women’s bodies as instruments of national rejuvenation" doi.org/10.1093/sp/j...