Presentations, Conferences, and Workshops
To view a selection of video content, please visit our YouTube profile.
February 17, 2022: Pieter François. “Querying Space and the Writing of Global History: How Does the Seshat Global History Databank Incorporate Space in Its Data Architecture and Its Analyses?” (online). Ashoka University, Sonepat, India.
October 21, 2021: Pieter François. “Harnessing Big Historical Data: The Seshat Global History Databank”. Digitalizing Humanities, Humanizing Digitalization, Online Congress.
September 22, 2021: Peter Turchin & Daniel Hoyer. “The History of the Near Future: What history tells us about our Age of Discord”, keynote lecture at Disrupting Politics seminar (online event; see talk here).
September 9, 2021: Jenny Reddish & Daniel Hoyer. “Beyond the Axial Age: Unpacking the Drivers of Modernity and Complexity across Eurasia with Seshat Global History Databank.” 27th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (online event).
June 11, 2021: Daniel Hoyer. Conference Presentation. "Uncovering the Impact of External and Internal Competition on Long-Run Social Dynamics." Cultural Evolution Society Annual Conference. Sapporo, Japan.
April 30, 2021: Daniel Hoyer. Invited Speaker. “Exploring the Role of Technology and Conflict on Global Social Dynamics with Seshat: Global History Databank,” Complexity Science Hub Vienna Seminar Series
April 22, 2021: Peter Turchin. Invited Speaker. "Cultural macroevolution: Understanding the rise of large-scale complex societies in human history," Hong Kong University's Asia Global Institute Quantitative History Webinar Series
March 23, 2021: Daniel Hoyer. Invited speaker. “The Science of History: The Seshat Approach to Historical Data Analysis,” webinar sponsored by the Ball State University Department of History
January 21-22, 2020: Turchin, Peter. Participant. “The Interplay of Large-Scale Impersonal Trends, Big Ideas, and Great Leaders in History." Workshop. Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
December 7-11, 2020: Turchin, Peter. Lecture. Conference on Complex Systems 2020.
November 10, 2020: Turchin, Peter. Lecture. "Cultural macroevolution: Understanding the rise of large-scale complex societies in human history." Webinar. Center for the Dynamics of Social Complexity (Dysoc) and the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS).
October 23, 2020: François, Pieter. Invited Speaker. Peace Building Process through Historical Approach. International Nanjing Peace Forum. Nanjing, China.
September 21-23, 2020: Whitehouse, Harvey. "From conflict to Covid: how shared experiences shape our world
and how they could improve it." CRIC 2020 Annual Conference (Online). The Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict.
August 21, 2020: Hoyer, Daniel. Participant. "The Great Unraveling? Confronting Accelerating Environmental and Social Stresses." Post Carbon Institute.
-Watch a view of the workshop here
-Watch a related interview with Dan here
July 21, 2020: Turchin, Peter. Lecture (Virtual). "A History of Possible Futures: What history tells us about our Age of Discord." X, the moonshot factory.
May 21, 2020. Whitehouse, Harvey. "Cross-Cultural Morals." Moral Molecules Online Workshop.
January 16, 2020: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Practical Applications of Social Cohesion in Southeast Asia." British High Commission Kuala Lumpur’s International Young Leadership Programme Workshop, Magdalen College, Oxford.
December 13, 2019: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Managing Identity Fusion for a Safer Society." From Ingroup Bias to Collective Action, Center for Advanced Studies, LMU, Munich, Germany.
November 8, 2019: Reddish, Jenny. Lecture. “Introduction to Seshat Global History Databank.” Complexity Science Hub Vienna.
November 1, 2019: Turchin, Peter. Lecture. "A History of the Near Future: What history tells us about our Age of Discord." Lunch Meeting #27: Transitions in adaptive complex systems. Utrecht University, Utrecht.
- Watch a video of the talk: here
- View Peter's slides: here
October 21-22, 2019: "Social Norms and Cooperation." Complexity Science Hub Vienna.
October 17-18, 2019: "Modeling Neolithic Crises." Complexity Science Hub Vienna.
October 7, 2020: Whitehouse, Harvey. Khazanah Megatrends Forum 2019. Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
September 19-20, 2019: Turchin Peter. Participant. "Modelling Human-Environment Interaction." Workshop. University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
August 8, 2019: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Religion, ritual, social complexity and extremism." Division for Applied Social Psychology Research (DASPR), Jakarta, Indonesia.
July 3, 2019: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Social Cohesion and Leadership." Oxford Global Summit for Young Leaders, Athens, Greece.
May 16-19, 2019: "Navigating the Great Unravelling." Blue Mountain Centre, New York.
March 7, 2019: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Ritual and Social Glue." Herd Mentality, Conference Room, Humanities Research Institute, University of Sheffield.
January 11-13, 2019: Workshop: "Building Ontologies and Understanding Knowledge Graphs." DataChemist. Dublin, Ireland.
October 16, 2018: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Religion, War, and Peace." Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Hofburg, Heldenplatz, Vienna.
September 26, 2018: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Why Die for a Group?" Annual Conference of the Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflicts on “Freedom and Fragmentation”, Warrington Room, Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford
September 23-28, 2018: Turchin, Peter. Keynote Speaker, Satellite on the Evolution of Cultural Complexity. Complex Systems Society 2018. Thessaloniki, Greece.
September 19, 2018: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Rituals and Groups." ASA18: Annual Conference of the Association of Social Anthropologists, Conference Panel on the Evolutionary Origins of Ritual, Room 10, Examination Schools, University of Oxford.
August 8, 2018: Whitehouse, Harvey. “The Role of Ritual in the Evolution of Social Complexity.” Public Lecture. Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
August 4, 2018: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Managing Identity Fusion for a Safer Society." The University of Queensland, Australia.
August 3, 2018: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Psychological and Anthropological Perspectives on Radicalisation and Extremism." Innes Room, Union Complex (Building 21), University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia.
July 29-August 3, 2018: Turchin, Peter. Panel Member. “The big data revolution in economic history.” World Economic History Congress. Boston, Massachusetts.
July 24-29, 2018: Turchin, Peter. Speaker. Association for Contextual Behavioral Science World Conference 16. Montreal, Canada.
July 22-27, 2018: Turchin, Peter. Speaker. The Ninth Annual Conference on Complex Systems. ICCS. Cambridge, MA.
March 1, 2018: Turchin, Peter. Lecture. “Evolutionary Pathways to Statehood: Old Theories and New Data.” Lecture. University of California, Riverside.
May 9-13, 2018: Whitehouse, Harvey. 2018. “The Role of Ritual in the Evolution of Social Complexity.” Workshop at The Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture. Erice, Italy.
April 10, 2018: Whitehouse, Harvey. 2018. "Ritual, Community, and Conflict." Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution, London.
February 27, 2018: Turchin, Peter. Lecture. “Evolutionary Pathways to Statehood: Old Theories and New Data.” Lecture. University of California, Los Angeles.
February 16, 2018: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Deconstructing Terror." Strategic Foresight Group & Centre of the Resolution of Intractable Conflicts Pune, India.
February 15, 2018: Turchin, Peter. 2018. Lecture. “Evolutionary Pathways to Statehood: Old Theories and New Data.” Lecture. Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona.
December 8-10, 2017: General Seshat Workshop. University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
November 21, 2017: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Ritual, Community, and Conflict." Faraday Institute for Science and Religion Research Seminar, St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge.
November 11, 2017: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Conflict and Community: Panel-Led Workshop 2." Harris Manchester College, Oxford.
November 8, 2017: Whitehouse, Harvey. "What Motivates Extremism?" Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Great Park, Berkshire.
November 2, 2017: Hoyer Daniel and Daniel Mullins. "Networks of Ideas and Parallel Developments during the Axial Age." Social Science History Association. Montreal, Canada.
October 19-21, 2017: Turchin Peter. "How many dimensions in social complexity? Quantitative historical analysis of global variation in human social organization." 10th Archaeological Conference of Central Germany. Halle, Germany.
October 12, 2017: Savage, Patrick. "The role of ritual and religion in the evolution of social complexity." Primate Conversations Seminar. Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford. Oxford, UK.
October 2-3, 2017: Turchin, Peter. Workshop Organizer. Evolution of Social Complexity. Complexity Science Hub Vienna, Austria.
September 26, 2017: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Ritual and Group Cohesion in Vanuatu." Seminar Presentation, University of the South Pacific, Emalus Campus, Port Vila, Vanuatu.
September 13-15, 2017: Turchin Peter. Big Data Meets Cultural Evolution. Cultural Evolution Society Inaugural Meeting.Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.
June 12-13, 2017: Turchin, Peter and Thomas Currie. Explaining Institutional Change in History. Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
June 9, 2017: Whitehouse, Harvey. "The Dark Side to Loving a Group." A Televised Public Lecture at the Engelsberg Ironworks, Sweden.
June 5, 2017: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Extremism: A Warning from History." Cumberland Lodge, 70th Anniversary Conference, Windsor Great Park, Berkshire.
May 23, 2017: Currie, Thomas. Invited talk. Workshop Series- Easter Term. Computational and Digital Archaeology Lab. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
May 22, 2017: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Using social glue to prevent terrorism." Innovation Hub, European Business Summit, Egmont Palace, Brussels.
May 11, 2017: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Ritual and Group Cohesion." Pearson Building (North East Entrance), G22 LT, University College London.
May 4, 2017: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Ritual, Community, and Conflict." School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews.
May 2, 2017: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Ritual, Community, and Conflict." Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge.
April 26, 2017: Turchin, Peter; Wilson, David Sloan, and Dan Hoyer. "A Conversation with Peter Turchin." This View of History Webinar. The Evolution Institute, Webinar.
April 20, 2017: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Using Psychology and World History to Test Anthropological Theories." Centre for Experimental Research in Social Sciences, Hokkaido University, Japan
April 18, 2017: Seshat Presentation on Ritual and Religion, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
March 29, 2017: Mullins, Dan. Invited talk. “Using datasets to explain the evolution of large-group cooperation and egalitarianism,” Religious Studies Department, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA.
February 10, 2017: Whitehouse, Harvey. “Ritual and Group Cohesion across Space and Time,” Departmental Seminar, School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
February 6, 2017: Turchin, Peter. Lecture. "The 2016 American Elections through the Lens of Cliodynamics." Institute for Economic Strategies, Moscow, Russia.
January 28-29, 2017: General Seshat Workshop. University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
January 26-27, 2017: Testing the Axial Age. University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
January 19, 2017: Whitehouse, Harvey. “Ask About: The Science of Identity.” World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2017, Davos, Switzerland.
January 17, 2017: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Why Facts Don't Unify Us." World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2017. Davos, Switzerland.
January 7, 2017: Turchin, Peter. "Varieties of Premodern States: A Quantitative Analysis Using the SESHAT Databank." Premodern States Reconsidered. American Historical Association 2017. Denver, Colorado, USA.
November 9, 2016: Whitehouse, Harvey and project team members, representatives from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Lord John Alderice, and external consultants. Workshop on the Ingroup Causes of Intergroup Conflict. Oxford, United Kingdom.
November 8, 2016: Whitehouse, Harvey. “Introducing the Ritual Modes Project” Ritual Modes Workshop, Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
October 19, 2016: Whitehouse, Harvey. “The Anthropology of Armed Groups” Analyzing and Understanding Non-State Armed Groups, United Nations System Staff College, Nairobi, Kenya (via remote video-linkup from Oxford)
October 2, 2016: Whitehouse, Harvey. “Ritual, Group Cohesion, and the Agricultural Transition”, The Long Revolution: Becoming Neolithic in southwest Asia, International Conference. Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
September 2, 2016: Collins, Christina. “Estimating agricultural productivity in past societies using the Seshat database” 8th World Archaeological Congress (WAC-8), Kyoto, Japan.
August 30, 2016: Currie, Thomas. “Testing alternative hypotheses about the human past: Choosing models, incorporating uncertainty, and examining assumptions.” 8th World Archaeological Congress (WAC-8), Kyoto, Japan
August 29, 2016: Currie, Thomas; and Arkadiusz Marciniak. "The dynamics of societal change over the longue durée: Perspectives from comparative approaches in archaeology and the 'Seshat: Global History Databank' project." 8th World Archaeological Congress (WAC-8), Kyoto, Japan.
August 17-18, 2016: Examining Social Complexity, Religion, and Prosociality in Southeast Asia and Beyond with the Seshat: Global History Databank. NTU Complexity Institute, Singapore.
August 12, 2016: Turchin, Peter. Lecture. "Ages of Discord: a structural-demographic analysis of political violence waves." NTU Complexity Institute, Singapore.
August 8, 2016: Turchin, Peter. Lecture. "Evolution of Ancient and Medieval Empires: the Centrality of Central Asia." National University of Singapore, Singapore.
August 5, 2016: Turchin, Peter. Public Lecture. "Explaining the Rise of Complex Societies in Human History: A Cultural Evolution Approach." Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
July 14-16, 2016: Turchin, Peter; Hoyer, Daniel; François, Pieter; and several Seshat collaborators. Workshop on Global Social Science Research. University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
June 30, 2016: Currie, Thomas. "Introducing 'Seshat', a Global History Databank for testing cultural evolutionary hypotheses." HBES 28th Annual Meeting. Human Behavior and Evolutionary Society. Vancouver, Canada.
May 26-27, 2016: General Seshat Workshop. Trinity College Dublin. Dublin, Ireland.
May 25, 2016: 2nd International Workshop on Computational History and Data-Driven Humanities. Trinity College Dublin. Dublin, Ireland.
May 19, 2016: Whitehouse, Harvey. “The Anthropology and Psychology of Ritual and Conflict.” Analyzing and Understanding Non-State Armed Groups, United Nations System Staff College, Ammam, Jordan (via remote video-linkup from Budapest).
May 14-15, 2016: Seshat Workshop on Crete. Knossos, Crete.
March 5, 2016: Turchin, Peter. Participant. Time Mapping Globalization Since the Bronze Age. University of California-Riverside. Riverside, California.
March 2-4 2016: Whitehouse, Harvey. Keynote Speaker."Quantifying Emotion, Ritual, and Social Complexity in World History." Moving Minds: Converting Cognition and Emotion in History. Macquarie University. Sydney, Australia.
March 2, 2016: Whitehouse, Harvey. Keynote lecture. “Histories of the Mind.” Moving Minds: Converting cognition and emotion in history. ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and Its Disorders, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
February 9, 2016: Whitehouse, Harvey. Invited Talk. “Success and Failure in State-Building by Armed Groups.” Foreign and Commonwealth Office. London, United Kingdom.
February 19, 2016: Whitehouse, Harvey. “Success and Failure in State-Building by Armed Groups.” The Foreign Office, Whitehall, London.
March 2016: Hoyer, Dan. “Measuring Ancient Economies Beyond GDP: some thoughts on Roman well-being.” Collaborative Program in Ancient History Seminar Series, University of Toronto. Toronto, Canada.
March 2, 2016: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Analyzing the Islamic State." Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict, Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford. Oxford, United Kingdom.
February 2016: Mullins, Daniel. “Data gathering and digital history: a hand’s on approach to web data extraction techniques.” Cumberland Lodge History Retreat, University of Hertfordshire, Windsor Great Park, United Kingdom.
January 30, 2016: François, Pieter. "Ritual and the evolution of social complexity." Ritual & Society Workshop, Tubingen University. Tubingen, Germany.
January 15-17, 2016: Seshat: North China Workshop. Tampa, Florida.
December 20-22, 2015: Turchin, Peter. Participant. Meeting of the Steering Committee, Society for the Study of Cultural Evolution. The Evolution Institute. College Park, Maryland.
December 10, 2015: Whitehouse, Harvey. "Anthropology of Armed Groups." United Nations System Staff College, UNESCO International Bureau of Education. Geneva, Switzerland.
November 2015: Hoyer, Dan. Participant and delivered lecture, “SESHAT, a multi-disciplinary research approach.” Big Questions, Big Data Workshop. International Institute for Social History. Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
October 9-10, 2015: Seshat: General Axial Age Workshop. School of Anthropology, University of Oxford. Oxford, United Kingdom.
October 8, 2015: Seshat: Workshop on archaeological proxies for project-related variables. School of Anthropology, University of Oxford. Oxford, United Kingdom.
October 1, 2015: Turchin, Peter. Lecture on "'Deep History' and Today's Governance Dilemmas." Arne Naess Symposium 2015: Cultural Evolution and the Welfare of Nations, University of Oslo. Oslo, Norway.
September 10-12, 2015: Turchin, Peter. Participant and delivered lecture, "The zigs and zags of inequality in human evolutionary history." The Haves and the Have-Nots: Exploring the Global History of Wealth and Inequality, The Europe Center of Stanford University and the University of Vienna. Vienna, Austria.
August 3, 2015: Currie, Thomas E. "The Cultural Evolution of Economic Growth: Testing competing hypotheses with a global, long-term historical database." 17th annual World Economic History Conference. Kyoto, Japan.
August 5, 2015: Hoyer, Daniel. "The Deep Roots of the Modern World: Investigating Economic Growth and Political Stability through the Seshat: Global History Databank." 17th annual World Economic History Conference. Kyoto, Japan.
June 30, 2015: Whitehouse, Harvey. “Sharing Self-Defining Memories as a Pathway to Fusion,” Workshop on Ritual, Memory, and Identity, School of Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford, USA.
June 4, 2015: Whitehouse, Harvey."What motivates extreme self-sacrifice." NIC/DCDC workshop on future trends. Blavatnik School of Governance, University of Oxford. Oxford, United Kingdom.
May 29, 2015: François, Pieter. Seminar on "Seshat: Global History Databank." University of Oslo. Oslo, Norway.
May 25-28, 2015: Seshat: Mini-workshop on Theoretical Predictions. University of Connecticut. Storrs, Connecticut.
May 7-9, 2015: General Seshat Workshop. Santa Fe Institute. Santa Fe, New Mexico.
May 4-6 2015: Working Group for Concordance in Macrohistorical Datasets. Santa Fe Institute. Santa Fe, New Mexico.
May 3-5, 2015: François, Pieter. "Seshat: Global History Databank." Workshop on the Evolution of Religion and Morality, University of British Columbia. Vancouver, Canada.
March 13, 2015: Whitehouse, Harvey. Public lecture on "Religion Past and Present." Integrative Science Symposium, International Convention of Psychological Science, Effectenbeurszaal. Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
March 12, 2015: François, Pieter. Seminar on "Seshat, a Global History Databank." University of Liverpool. Liverpool, United Kingdom.
March 9-10 2015: Turchin, Peter. Participant in Advancing the Study of Cultural Evolution: Academic Integration and Policy Application. The Evolution Institute and the University of Maryland. College Park, Maryland.
December 3, 2014: Whitehouse, Harvey. Public lecture presented to at the Australian Hearing Hub. “How do Rituals Motivate Prosociality?” Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
November 10, 2014: Currie, Thomas E; Turchin, Peter. Presentations at the International Workshop on Computational History. Dublin, Ireland.
October 2, 2014: Currie, Thomas E. Seminar on "Modelling the evolution of socio-political complexity." University of Bath. Bath, United Kingdom.
October 1, 2014: Turchin, Peter."Explaining the Evolution of Social Complexity: Cultural Selection of 'Ultrasocial Norms and Institutions.'" Seminar at the Institute for Advanced Study. Toulouse, France.
September 26, 2014: Whitehouse, Harvey. “Shared Dysphoria as a Pathway to Fusion.” School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Australia.
September 24, 2014: Whitehouse, Harvey. “Ritual, Fusion, and Relational Mobility.” Culture, Social Ecology, and Psychology Lab, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
September 6-7, 2014: Seshat Global Databank Workshop (Upper Egypt), School of Anthropology, University of Oxford.
September 4-5, 2014: Seshat Global Databank Workshop (Archaeology), School of Anthropology, University of Oxford
July 31, 2014: Whitehouse, Harvey."Evolution, Society, and Culture." 26th Human Behavior and Evolution Society Conference. Natal, Brazil.
June 26, 2014: Brennan, Rob; Feeney, Kevin. Event chairs. 1st International Workshop on Computational History, Trinity College Dublin. Dublin, Ireland.
June 26, 2014: Turchin, Peter. Public lecture on "The mathematics of impending social implosion: Why we should be worried about trends in inequality and polarization." 1st International Workshop on Computational History, Trinity College Dublin. Dublin, Ireland.
June 13, 2014: Whitehouse, Harvey. Public lecture on "Ritual, Community, and Conflict." The Engelsberg Seminar on Religion. Avesta Manor, Sweden.
February 11, 2014: Whitehouse, Harvey. Keynote Address on "Collaboratory on Emotion, Ritual, and Power in Europe (1200- the Present)." ARC Centre for Excellence for the History of Emotions (Europe 1100-1800), University of Adelaide. Adelaide, Australia.
February 8, 2013: François, Pieter. "Seshat: a historical database of sociocultural evolution." Research Seminar of the Institute of Cultural and Cognition, Queens University. Belfast, Northern Ireland.
March 1-3, 2012: François, Pieter. "Constructing a dynamic historical database on social complexity, ritual and warfare- a methodological paper." Past, Present and Future in the Cognitive Science of Religion. Brno, Czech Republic.
February 6-8, 2012: François, Pieter. "The 'Ritual, Community, and Conflict' project and the quest for uniform quality data." NIMBioS Investigative Workshop on Social Complexity. Knoxville, Tennessee.
