Who We Are
Chair; Evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Connecticut and Complexity Science Hub Vienna
For more information about Peter's work, please visit peterturchin.com.
Anthropologist at the University of Oxford
Harvey Whitehouse is an anthropologist whose research focuses on the evolution of social complexity. One of the founders of the cognitive science of religion, Harvey is well known for his theory of “modes of religiosity,” which explains how the frequency and emotional intensity of collective rituals influence the scale and structure of religious organisations. He is Chair of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellow of Magdalen College.
For more information about Harvey’s work, please visit harveywhitehouse.com.
Historian and evolutionary anthropologist at the University of Oxford
Pieter François is an Associate Professor in Cultural Evolution, and Fellow in Anthropology and Tutor for Graduates at St. Benet’s Hall, University of Oxford. His work focuses on travel and migration in the nineteenth century and on the evolution of social complexity, ritual and warfare. Together with Professor Peter Turchin (UConn) and Professor Harvey Whitehouse (Oxford) he founded the Seshat: Global History Databank in 2011. In 2013 he won the British Library Labs competition with his Sample Generator for Digitized Texts.
For more information about Pieter's work, please visit PieterFrancois.
Classicist at Kent State University
For more information about Jennifer's work, please visit kent.edu/mcls/profile/jennifer-larson.
Archaeologist and anthropologist, University of Texas at Austin
For more information about Alan's work, please visit https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/anthropology/faculty/rc39628.
Professor Emerita of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Boston University
Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr Bard, with Rodolfo Fattovich (University of Naples “L’Orientale”), co-directed excavations at Bieta Giyorgis, Aksum, Ethiopia (1993-2002).
Bard and Fattovich later excavated the Middle Kingdom pharaonic harbor at Mersa/Wadi
Gawasis, Egypt, where they found evidence of seafaring expeditions to the land of Punt,
probably located on the African side of the southern Red Sea. Her areas of research involve the
origins of complex societies and early states in northeast Africa, and the Red Sea trading network in the Bronze and Iron Ages.
For more information about Kathryn's work, please visit https://www.bu.edu/archaeology/profile/bard/.
