New!: The Evolution, Mind, and Behavior Program (EMB)

Site under construction

UCSB's interdisciplinary Evolutionary Behavioral and Social Science Program (EBSS) is reorganizing and returning as the Evolution, Mind, and Behavior Program.  The goal of this program is to foster interdisciplinary interaction at UCSB and between UCSB and UCLA for researchers and students interested in exploring the relationship between evolution, brain, and behavior.  

Traditionally, UCSB's evolutionary community has included faculty from the social sciences, the natural sciences, and the humanities, and UCSB has played a leadership role in exploring the implications that the evolutionary sciences hold for neighboring disciplines (and vice versa).  With parallel growth in this area at UCLA, the two universities have developed what might be the largest collection of scholars interested in evolution and behavior in the world.  

Recently, an informal working group met to plan a new, joint initiative in this area between the two campuses.  The first component of this initiative is to hold a series of one day conferences, one per quarter, alternating between UCSB and UCLA.  The goal of this first stage is to get to know each other's work.

Conferences during 2002-2003:

Fall quarter 2002: Saturday, Nov. 2 at UCSB. Click here for abstracts and details.

Spring quarter 2003: Sunday May 4 at UCSB. Click here for abstracts and details

Conferences during 2001-2002:

The first conference was held on Saturday, Nov. 3 at UCLA.  Click here for abstracts and details.

The second conference was held Saturday, Feb. 2, 2002, at UCSB  Click here for abstracts and details.   

The third conference will be held on Saturday, May 4, 2002, at UCLA Click here for abstracts and details

The sister program at UCLA is called The Human Nature and Society Program.  

Disciplines involved so far include evolutionary biology (including behavioral ecology and evolutionary ecology), neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, economics, game theory, sociology, political science, philosophy, linguistics, and literature.

At present, the coordinators for the EMB Program and the intercampus UCSB-UCLA EMB/HNAS initiative are John Tooby and Leda Cosmides.  For information, or to put yourself on an email notification list, email them or call them at 805-893-8720.