Cultural Evolution Society

Financial Award: Awardees are provided $2000 after demonstrating the impact of their new course.

Recognition: Awardees and honorable mentions provide a significant addition to any academic CV.

Networking & Mentorship: Selected applicants will have the chance to connect directly with senior academics who created the original course materials.

This award offers applicants (1/4):

Ready-to-Use Materials: All applicants gain access to vetted, well-researched course materials they can adopt and modify immediately.

ACE Teaching Innovation Awards empower scholars to incorporate high-quality cultural evolution course materials into their teaching. This is a great opportunity for those from majority-world countries and ECR academics, but everyone can apply!

culturalevolutionsociety.org/grants-and-a...

I just had a lovely morning teaching memo with Lio Wong at #COSMOS2025 in Tokyo! Charley and Wataru have put together an absolutely *fantastic* summer school. Fascinating talks, delightful people… and excellent location. I feel so lucky to be here. If you ever get a chance to attend COSMOS, take it!

Miyagawa Shuntei's 1898 painting, "Playing Go (Japanese Chess)"

How to quantify the impact of AI on long-run cultural evolution? Published today, I give it a go!

400+ years of strategic dynamics in the game of Go (Baduk/Weiqi), from feudalism to AlphaGo!

Presentation submissions are open until November 16, with four submission formats: standard talks (15-20 minutes), lightning talks (5 minutes), poster presentations, and thematic sessions.

Find out more on the new conference website: airess.fgses-um6p.ma/ces2026

The count down starts for #CESRabat! Follow @ces2026.bsky.social and join us May 11-13 next year for an exciting meeting in Rabat, Morocco.

Massive thanks to the #CESRabat organising committee:
Sarah Alami (co-chair)
Mathieu Charbonneau (co-chair)
Zachary Garfield
Edmond Seabright

We are delighted to announce that the CES2026 conference website is now live! We invite you to submit your presentation proposals using the link on the webpage, deadline November 16th:
airess.fgses-um6p.ma/ces2026

One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants - Nature In a case of obligate cross-species cloning, female ants of Messor ibericus need to clone males of Messor structor to obtain sperm for producing the worker caste, resulting in males from the same moth...

This paper is wild. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

"Clonal males may thus be regarded as organelles at the superorganism level". Whatever mitochondrial challenges you may face, at least none of your organelles is an ENTIRE INSECT.

CE Paper Alert 🚨

Calling all CE folks interested in artificial life, get in your abstracts for the upcoming ALIFE -25!

A cool workshop on cultural evolution in ALife, happening right after the #COSMOSSummerSchool in Tokyo! Stretch your stay in Japan to attend ALIFE in Kyoto too!!

I'm pleased to share this new article by @svenkasser.bsky.social, Laura Fortunato @anthrolog.bsky.social, Marc Feldman and myself.

The article extends gene-culture coevolution to recognize evolutionary effects of culture arising through drift and migration.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

A sincere thank you to all the candidates who stood for election and to the CES membership for their active participation in the voting process. We were fortunate to have many excellent candidates, making this election a strong reflection of our membership’s commitment and talent.

We are pleased to announce our newly elected committee members of the Cultural Evolution Society:

Minhua Yan @minhuayan.bsky.social
Helena Miton @helenamiton.bsky.social
Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social &
Mason Youngblood @masonyoungblood.bsky.social

Welcome and congratulations!!

These job ads have now been posted! 🎉

Social/Personality: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05020

Biological Basis of Behavior: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05054

Please spread the word!

Call for papers for Evolang 2026 is now out! evolang2026.org. @cogscisociety.bsky.social @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social

How it Works:

In Stage 1, applicants apply with a course offering they can teach. Shortlisted applicants deliver their proposed courses.

In Stage 2, applicants provide evidence of course impact, such as enrolment lists, and feedback. Awards are chosen based on course impact and CE focus.

The Key Details ->

What: Ten (10) awards of $2,000 each to support the integration of cultural evolution content into your existing or new courses.

When: Applications open on August 7th!

We're thrilled to announce upcoming ACE Teaching Innovation Awards, made possible by Eric & Peggy Peterson.

This aims to empower teachers through access to course materials in the CES Teaching Library. Selected applicants will also be able to consult with winners of the ACE Course Design Awards.

The voting window for the CES officer elections has been extended until Friday 23:59 BST. CES members, don't forget to vote and have your say in the running of your society! Check your inbox for the voting link, or if you didn't receive one, contact the society (details below).

I'm happy to share our latest manuscript "Impediments to countering racist pseudoscience", coauthored with @gillianrbrown1.bsky.social @kztwyman.bsky.social & Marcus Feldman.

If you are an active member of @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social, please go vote for our new Executive Ordinary Members. You will have received an email with voting instructions. Voting closes Tuesday!

If you did not receive the ballot in your inbox (or spam folder) and believe your dues are up to date, then please verify with Tim Waring (Membership Officer) or Nicole Wen (Elections Officer).

culturalevolutionsociety.org/about-us/peo...

Due to a lack of nominees, the election for Secretary is postponed and we will recruit an extra Ordinary Member this year. This means we have four positions (4 X Executive Ordinary Member positions) to be filled. Please don't forget to participate in our society by voting!

Executive Committee voting now open! - Cultural Evolution Society

The CES officer elections have now launched! Active members of the society should have received an email from Election Runner with the title "Cultural Evolution Society Elections 2025", so pls check your inbox. Voting closes on 29th July at 23:59 BST.
culturalevolutionsociety.org/news-and-eve...

Nice new paper in PNAS providing further evidence that random/long ties help social contagions — even many that would be labeled "complex contagions"
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @davidlazer.bsky.social