Directory of Graduate Students

Andrew Atkinson

PhD student in the Philosophy of Science at the University of Bristol

My project is essentially a critique of Dawkins' viral argument on the nature of religions, the intelligibiility of the meme concept, and considered against the backdrop of D.S.Wilson's treatment of religions as binding agents which enables group selection. I believe I can unify these approaches...

Email:noumenalworld@googlemail.com

Adam Blake

Ph.D. Student, Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables FL 33124-0751

I am interested in the evolutionary psychology of morality, and the possible adaptive value of religiosity. I'm also interested in understanding psychopathology from an evolutionarily informed framework and am currently exploring the potential causal influence of religiosity on self-control.

Email:a.blake1@umiami.edu

Dan Finkel

PhD Candidate Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269-2176

I am interested in the evolution and neural bases of social cognitionand music, particularly how they relate to cooperation, morality, and religion.

Email:daniel.finkel@uconn.edu

Erica Harris

Graduate student – Ph.D. Student in Behavioral Neuroscience, Boston University School of Medicine and Boston VA Healthcare System, Boston, MA 02130

My interest in the evolution of religion stems from the perspective of investigating the proximate mechanisms of the brain and the role of frontal dopamine in religious experience. This will be the focus of my dissertation.

Website:www.bumc.bu.edu/len

Andrew Mahoney

PhD candidate, Department of Religious Studies, Victoria University, PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand.

I am interested in the acquisition and expression of theological knowledge by practitioners of doctrinal religious traditions. My PhD research focuses on evaluating the extent to which various evolutionary theories of religion can explain this aspect of human behaviour; such as: cultural selection theories, counter intuitive explanations of religion, the modes theory, and adaptationist signalling theories. I hope my research will open the door for ERS scholars to investigate and understand theological practices.

Email:andrew.mahoney@vuw.ac.nz

Jani Närhi

Ph.D. candidate, Department of Comparative Religion, University of Helsinki, Finland, 00014 Helsingin yliopisto, Finland

I am interested in the paradise beliefs as a psychological phenomenon characteristic of human species. The aim of my Ph.D. thesis is to explain the origin and persistence of paradise representations from the evolutionary and cognitive perspective.

Email:jani.narhi@helsinki.fi

Benjamin Grant Purzycki

PhD student in the Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, 354 Mansfield Road, Storrs, Connecticut 06269-2176

For the past few years, I have been researching the cognitive science of humor, agency-detection, and religious beliefs. Presently, most of my attention is devoted to understanding the evolution of the cognitive mechanisms designed to compute perceived novelties with reference to extant knowledge as well as other miscellaneous projects.

Email:benjamin.purzycki@uconn.edu

Montserrat Soler

Ph.D. Candidate Department of Anthropology, 131 George Street, Rutgers University New Brunswick, NJ 08901

I am interested in understanding the evolutionary origins and possible adaptive value of religious beliefs and ritual behavior. My dissertation research focuses on the relationship between religious commitment signals and cooperation in the context of Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion.

Email:carmin@eden.rutgers.edu

Ingrid Storm

Graduate Student, School of Social Sciences, The University of Manchester, P.O. Box 88, Manchester M60 1QD, UK

I am interested in evolutionary theory as a framework for understanding religious diversity, particularly the differences between liberal and conservative forms of religion and the relation between religious and ethnic and national identities.

Email:Ingrid.Storm@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk