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| I teach, write and do research at the University of Washington, in Seattle, where I have been in the psychology department since 1973. My work and interests are diverse: I was one of the early contributors to the growth of sociobiology, and I continue to conduct occasional field studies of animal behavior, especially the evolution and ecology of social systems among free-living animals, notably mountain-dwelling species such as marmots and pikas. At the same time, much of my attention has recently been directed to understanding the underlying evolutionary factors influencing human behavior, a discipline sometimes called "evolutionary psychology." And finally, since the early 1980s I have been active in researching, promoting, and practicing the field of Peace Studies. |
I feel that these issues - animal behavior, evolutionary psychology and Peace Studies - are fundamentally linked, especially since they all involve questions of how biology affects behavior, including male-female differences, reproductive strategies, and the troubling problem of violence in living things generally. I also have a long-standing interest in philosophical matters, notably Buddhism and existentialism, and their connection to each other and to the question of "life's meaning." My most recent book - coauthored with my daughter, Nell, a student at Swarthmore College - is Madame Bovary's Ovaries: a Darwinian look at literature, published by Delacorte. It is a good-natured, accessible, but nonetheless serious effort to promote the field of "Darwinian literary criticism," which seeks to apply evolutionary science to literature, specifically by showing how our new understanding of human nature can result in a more satisfying understanding of the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. |