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What Has Evolution Done for Us? Taryn Bell, Gail Hitchens, Callum Scott and Penny Spikins
Event details
Why do we feel emotions like compassion or sympathy and why do we feel such joy in social connection? Find out how archaeological evidence helps us to reconstruct how our ‘better natures’ developed in the distant past.
Through a series of talks and discussion, University of York archaeologists will explore topics including compassion, healthcare, inclusivity, attachment and dance.
This event is hosted live on Zoom Webinar and you’ll receive a link to join a couple of days before it takes place. During the event, you can ask questions via a Q&A function but audience cameras and microphones will remain muted throughout.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
Book sales
You can buy copies of many of our speakers’ books from Fox Lane Books, a local independent bookseller and Festival partner. In some cases, author signed bookplates are available too.
About the speaker
Taryn Bell is a PhD researcher at the University of York. Her doctoral research, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), focuses on how archaeologists can better understand emotional attachments to objects.
Gail Hitchens is a postdoctoral researcher in the Archaeology Department at the University of York. Her research focuses on different aspects of social lives in the palaeolithic, particularly childhood and care for the vulnerable, and she particularly specialises on Neanderthals.
Callum Scott is a PhD candidate at the University of York (funded by NERC), researching the evolution of human cognitive diversity, ranging from personality differences to psychological conditions such as Autism
Dr Penny Spikins is a Senior Lecturer in the Archaeology of Human Origins at the University of York. Her research interests include the evolution of human social emotions (such as empathy, sympathy and gratitude) and the relationships between such emotions and material things. She has published several books on this topic including How Compassion Made Us Human.
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