Paula Sheppard

@durhampsych.bsky.social current has 5 (FIVE!!) PhD studentships being advertised!

3 to work with me on children as agents of cultural evolution

2 to work with @drboothroyd.bsky.social on examining school-based body image interventions.

Please share and apply!

www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...

Reposting this once more for last-minute responses; the survey will close shortly. Thanks to all those who have already contributed.

Don't panic, I say:

Thanks @annettef24.bsky.social for having me on the #51Percent

Less than Greggs? Public have no idea of value of top universities, study finds Belief that snack chain’s revenues exceed those of Oxford’s one of many misconceptions about UK’s HE sector

These surveys aren't meant as general knowledge quizzes, we don’t expect the public to have a detailed grasp of the university sector; they signal how we really feel about an issue, based on what we hear from the media, social media, politicians, friends, family www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Have you had a good (in)fertility experience at work? Or not? If you're UK-based, please take this survey so that we can better understand the current landscape. Please share.

A to-the-point blog by Stuart Basten on why pronatalist policies won't increase fertility rates.
blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandp...

How Did Humans Take Over the World? Podcast Episode · Dan Snow's History Hit · 12/06/2025 · 38m

In this episode Dan is joined by Chris Stringer from London's Natural History Museum to talk about how Homo sapiens managed to outlive other human cousins like Neanderthals and Denisovans
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/h...

Join us live for our next #EcoEvo author seminar to hear Katrina Phillips @katrinaphillips.bsky.social talk about her #ProcB paper, New insights on sea turtle behaviour during the ‘lost years’. Wed 4 June, 3:00 PM (GMT+1). Reserve your place: cassyni.com/events/U1GH1... #ecology

Why does evolution matter for psychiatry psychology and medicine? This one-day conference on Evolutionary Psychiatry brings together experts from diverse fields such as psychiatry, anthropology, evolutionary psychology, and philosophy of science to explore the appli...

June 9th. Join us for a conference that brings together leading psychiatry, anthropology, and evolutionary science experts. This thought-provoking event delves into the intricate connections between human evolution and mental health www.rsm.ac.uk/events/psych...

Author-Paid PublicationFees Corrupt Science and Should Be Abandoned Thomas J. H Morgan & Paul E. Smaldino

As grant money starts drying up, it's more important than ever not to waste it on paying publishers' open access "article processing fees" when we can host PDFs for free. Tom Morgan and I wrote a paper on this, forthcoming at Science and Public Policy. Accepted draft here: osf.io/preprints/os...

Reposting this to catch the members who've joined Bluesky in the last week - please vote!

Me too! I once read the entire back cover novel description switching back and forth in my mind between this is Dutch and no this is German...

Paul Turke's book on Evolutionary Pediatrics is just out. With a PhD, research on aging, and decades of treating kids in the clinic, only he could write this. Part autobiography, part biology, part clinical advice, lots of stories & engaging humor. Recommended. #evmed
www.amazon.com/Bringing-Up-...

Dear EHBEA members, please remember to cast your vote to decide our next Vice President - check your emails for the link, deadline 5pm GMT Jan 31st!

well deserved!!

An incredible opportunity for the right person:

The Santa Fe Institute is seeking applications for full-time resident faculty positions at all academic levels

For me, this has been the best possible job ever.

More info here: santafe.edu/about/jobs/r...

Expert comment: Why are people in the UK leaving it so late to have Fertility in the UK is low with only 1.6 children per woman in 2020 (The World Bank 2022). While this is partly driven by people choosing to have fewer children, there is a disparity between how many

The UK has a fertility gap of around 0.3 children meaning that for every three children wanted - only two are born.

@oxford-anthro.bsky.social's Dr @paulajasheppard.bsky.social discusses the reasons behind the UK's 'fertility gap' ⬇️
www.ox.ac.uk/news/2024-12...

It will come down to the wire 🤞

📣 Festive good news! #BSPS2025 call for sessions and strands now open. Join us in Swansea, 2-4 Sep 2025.

More details: www.lse.ac.uk/internationa...

Submit now: forms.office.com/e/L2TrkXpj1s

📣 Spread the word 📣.

Deadlines are tomorrow (10 Dec) for EHBEA's New Investigator and Service to the Community awards. Both are fantastic opportunities to celebrate early career researchers and the activities that don't typically get rewarded in academia (teaching, outreach, mentoring, service) respectively 🥳 😀

🚨 New paper out in Population and Development Review by Dr Mary Shenk and colleagues! “Intensive Kinship, Development, and Demography: Why Pakistan has the Highest Rates of Cousin Marriage in the World.” 🔗 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

EASTBIO: Bateman’s principles and human reproductive strategies: a biosocial approach at University of St Andrews on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - EASTBIO: Bateman’s principles and human reproductive strategies: a biosocial approach at University of St Andrews, listed on FindAPhD.com

🚨 PhD project: 4-year PhD project on human reproduction, mating strategies and gender roles. Funding is via BBSRC EastBio (i.e. funding not attached to specific project). Please get in touch with me (UK/international).

Deadline for nominated applicant: 17 Jan 2025

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

The truth about the fertility crisis

Adding to the noise on why birth rates are falling - a question that continues to stump the human evolutionary sciences unherd.com/2024/12/the-...

UZH: PhD position in evolutionary anthropology and medicine The Human Ecology Group of the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine (IEM) Institute of Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich, led by Prof. Adrian Jaeggi, is inviting applications from prospe...

🚨 JOB ALERT!! We're looking for a PhD student to join our group! Are you interested in evolutionary medicine / anthropology? Already have a master's? Apply with your own project ideas! See link: jobs.uzh.ch/job-vacancie... #EvMed @bioanth.org @ehbea.bsky.social Please RT!

Hi Will, please add me too! Thanks for assembling it :-)

Why are birth rates falling in the UK? - Oxford Sparks Evolutionarily speaking, it makes sense to have a lot of children. At the very least, we might expect a population to replace itself.

And if you'd like a few highlights in audio form, here's a nifty podcast made by Oxford Sparks #FertilityDecisionMaking
www.oxfordsparks.ox.ac.uk/podcasts/why...

So I applied this cool method to figure out what the barriers to reproduction are in the UK.
www.accscience.com/journal/IJPS...