Events
Find out about upcoming events at the Centre for Culture and Evolution and watch our seminar recordings.
Upcoming events
Centre for Culture and Evolution 2024 Seminar Series
Join us for our upcoming seminar series at the Centre for Culture and Evolution, hosted at Brunel University London and online in November and December 2024. This series features five respected speakers discussing diverse topics such as social networks, sustainability, human cognition, and the relationship between health and belief systems. Find out more below and book your place!
Seminar 1
Dr Daniel Redhead
Social networks, cooperation and social status in rural Colombia
Dr Redhead is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Groningen and the recipient of the EHBEA 2024 New Investigator Award. Dr Redhead’s research spans multiple disciplines, including human behavioural ecology, social network analysis, and cultural evolution, with a particular focus on social hierarchy and inequality.
Date: 6 November 2024
Time: 12.45 - 2.15pm
Location: ESGW 111/Online
Seminar 2
Professor Monique Borgerhoff Mulder
Cooperation, conservation and carbon credits in Zanzibar: Applying cultural evolution to sustainability
Professor Borgerhoff Mulder is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at UC Davis and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol, and also affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig. Professor Borgerhoff Mulder’s work has been defining in human behavioural ecology, anthropology and cultural evolution over the last 40 years. Her current focus is on interdisciplinary projects that link cultural evolution to social networks and conservation, with an emphasis on the importance of community-based approaches to sustainable development.
Date: 13 November 2024
Time: 12.45 - 2.15pm
Location: ESGW 001/Online
Seminar 3
Dr Rafael Morais Chiaravalloti
Sustainability, Citizen science and Uncertainty: the use of technology to support fishery communities in the Pantanal wetland, Brazil
Join us for the third CCE seminar by Dr. Rafael Morais Chiaravalloti, Lecturer at University College London. Dr Chiaravalloti’s research focuses on the sustainability of socio-ecological systems, particularly in the Pantanal wetland. He explores innovative ways to apply citizen science and technology to help local fishing communities adapt to the region’s unpredictable flooding patterns. His work emphasises cooperative systems over strict regulatory approaches, and highlights the vital role of reciprocity and knowledge exchange in maintaining sustainable practices and working with communities to further scientific understanding.
Date: 27 November 2024
Time: 12.45 - 2.15pm
Location: ESGW 111/Online
Seminar 4
Professor Gary Brase
How to incite a scientific revolution: A practical framework of converging evidence for behavioural sciences integration
The fourth speaker in the CCE seminar series is Professor Gary Brase, a Professor of Psychological Sciences at Kansas State University. Professor Brase's research lies at the intersection of evolutionary, cognitive, and social psychology, with a primary focus on understanding human rationality. His work seeks to explore how evolutionary pressures have shaped our cognitive processes, particularly in relation to decision-making and reasoning.
Date: 4 December 2024
Time: 2.30 - 4pm
Location: Online
Seminar 5
Dr Daniel Major-Smith
Religion and Mental Health: A Causal Christmas Carol
Dr Daniel Major-Smith is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol's Medical School, specialising in the intersection of health, religious beliefs and causality. His work initially stemmed from evolutionary anthropology, focusing on cooperation in hunter-gatherer societies. Over time, he transitioned into epidemiology, where he has worked on mental health, life course epidemiology and the effects of selection bias in data using the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Recently, his research has focused on understanding the relationship between religious and spiritual beliefs and health outcomes.
Date: 18 December 2024
Time: 12.45 - 2.15pm
Location: HNZW/Online
IARR 2025 Mini-Conference
We are pleased to present a themed mini-conference of the International Association for Relationship Research (IARR) on the topic of “Gender, Sexuality, and Relationships” (Thursday, 31 July-Sunday, 3 August 2025) at Brunel University London. This mini-conference will be the first major event by IARR that focuses squarely upon the ways in which gender and sexuality are reflected in relationship processes.
Watch our past research lectures and seminars
Community-engaged research in evolutionary human science: Trying to do the right things right - CCE Seminar
Defining Community Engagement - CCE Seminar