Cambridge Journal of Human Behaviour

Incoming Managing Editors (2022)

Social Anthropology

Convenor, Neurodivergent Socialities, UG Research Group

A1, SAN1, SAN2, SAN3, SAN5, SAN6, SOC1, SOC5, POL2, POL4

Interests: Medical anthropology, kinship, love, care, the body, globalisation, education, neurodivergence, South Asia, and Latin America

A comment on Social Anthropology and the Journal’s mission:

“Social anthropology is an exciting avenue for an undergraduate journal because its disciplinary grounding in the intimate and the specific makes it particularly easy for undergraduates with limited formal training to make original and interesting contributions. Whilst sustaining a focus on in-depth engagement with a specific group of persons and an implicitly or explicity comparative perspective, we hope that contributors will find this section a particularly fertile route for blurring disciplinary lines and synthesising different methodologies in electrifying ways. A vital element of social anthropology’s connection to the theme of ‘human behaviour’ is a fundamental orientation towards viewing human behaviour as inherently social. From a discussion of anime subreddits, medical procedures, Cambridge college-based rituals, TikTok trends, cross-cultural comparison of breastfeeding trends to literally anything else that can be well-substantiated and interestingly framed, we would like to encourage contributors to be as creative as possible in interpreting this. Given the scope of undergraduate research, we encourage—but not limit—contributors to consider focusing on literature and/or communities that they are already somewhat familiar with and bring in their own positionalities as young, uniquely situated, and/or digitally native persons.

Biological Anthropology

Editor, Archaeological Review from Cambridge;
President, University of Cambridge Archaeological Field Club

A1, A2, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B11, B13, B14, B15, B17, B18, PBS1

Interests: Morality, prosociality, gene-culture coevolution, primatology, cultural evolution, palaeoanthropology, palaeo-sexology, & non-human cultures

A comment on Biological Anthropology and the Journal’s mission:

“The core tenet of biological anthropology is that human culture cannot be understood without understanding human biology and human biology cannot be understood without understanding human culture. By definition, biological anthropology is anthropocentric, but it takes seriously the fact that humans are animals and studies them as such. Although recognizing our inescapable animal nature, it applauds human uniqueness while constantly challenging the inherited wisdom of the modern Western academic tradition of the ways in which we are exceptional. Biological anthropology is not so much an academic discipline rather than an amalgamation of many. Fields such as paleoanthropology, evolutionary anthropology, human evolutionary ecology, human behavioral ecology, primatology, genetics, evolutionary biology, paleolithic archaeology, evolutionary psychology, and cultural anthropology often either fall under biological anthropology or their concepts and evidence are heavily drawn on by it. Biological anthropology acts as a bridge between the natural sciences and humanities recognizing no clear boundary between the two, just as it works to illuminate the blurred boundary between biology and culture.“

Psychological and Behavioural Sciences

Co-President of CUBISS

PBS1, PBS2, PBS3, PBS4, PBS6, PBS7, PBS8, Mathematical Biology, Sociology, History of Science, Criminology

Interests: Criminological psychology, developmental psychology, and behavioural insights

A comment on Psychological and Behavioural Sciences and the Journal’s mission:

“The Psychological and Behavioural Sciences section of the Journal offers a gorgeously rich and uniquely human-based approach. Here, human behaviour is understood as the culmination of a multiplicity of interacting individual differences which shape an individual’s mentality, cognition, and behaviour. One could focus on a specific individual difference such as ‘attachment’ and explore how myriads of behaviour are differentially affected by individual variation in such a quality. Alternatively, but not mutually exclusively, one could focus on a phenomenon such as ‘pro-sociality’ and explore the contributing individual differences that comprise one’s capability in that phenomenon. Indeed, human behaviour may be understood through the consideration of psychological lenses and perspectives; the developmental, psycho-analytical, historical, intersectional, genetic, cross-cultural, social, and criminological perspectives can be utilised to explore a variety of topics within the Psychological and Behavioural Sciences. Use of such perspectives may be most convincing when accompanied by necessary critiques of methodological and structural challenges. We strongly encourage authors to engage with these topics, which can be highly sensitive, with respect and care. Further, we encourage authors to engage with the psychological perspective through an interdisciplinary lens, perhaps exploring links or comparing and contrasting approaches in the Psychological, Anthropological and Natural Scientific perspectives.“

Natural Sciences

NERC-Endorsed Research Student: “Global warming: Ecological impacts on biotic interactions”

Part I: Evolution and Behaviour, Biology of Cells, Chemistry, Mathematical Biology, Evolution and Animal Diversity, Cell and Developmental Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Part II: Major in Genetics with Minor in Biological Anthropology.

Interests: Genetic and epigenetic dynamics of behaviour, comparative animal behaviour and evolution, coevolution, inheritance, and genes versus environment.

A comment on Natural Sciences and the Journal’s mission:

“The concept of behaviour encompasses a range of phenomena, some more quantitative and quantifiable than others. While this may originally appear to be to our disadvantage, it provides us with an incredible opportunity to explore the interdisciplinary space of human studies. An approach to human behaviour through the biological sciences aims to resolve it through a range of scales associated with different scientific fields. Within genetics, we may explore how molecular scale DNA events influence behaviour, and study the basis for its heritability. Such concepts will serve as a basis to understand human evolution and long term trends in behaviour, acting as a powerful foundation for anthropological study. Biological sciences may further allow us to explore the neural and hormonal basis of behaviour from a physiological point of view, complementing the psychological field. In essence, biology investigates how organisms may interact with each other and their environment, such that it may also be significant to understand human behaviour within the animal kingdom through a comparative biology approach, or further through mathematical models of decision making and behaviour optimality in biotic interactions. These concepts warrant enough credit on their own, but also serve as a foundation upon which other sections of this journal can be understood.“

FOUNDER & INCOMING
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF (2022)

Interests:
Interdisciplinary research in human behaviour; evolutionary perspectives on cooperation & cognition; anthropology of religion & ritual; ontology, epistemology, & metaphysics; developmental psychology & psychopathology; and ontogenetic & phylogenetic approaches to human behaviour.

Edoardo Chidichimo

SAN1, SAN2, SAN3, SAN4f, SAN5, SAN6, SOC1, POL1, POL2, PBS3, PBS9, PBS10, B1, B2, B3, B15, HPS5, Music Tripos Part I.

A comment on the Cambridge Journal of Human Behaviour:

Why?—perhaps the most potent question that humans can ask about any phenomenon, including the self. From a child’s “why can’t I fly?” and “why is that person homeless?”, to an adolescent’s “why do I feel like this?” and “why are people selfish?”, to a philosophy professor’s “why and how am I conscious?” and “why does free will seem commonsensical and intuitive but perhaps scientifically dubious?”. These types of questions are necessarily pervasive. Critically, they are instrumental in imagining and orienting the self in their world(s).

Indeed, this also aligns with the journal’s central tenet: why do humans behave in the way they do? That we can reach an all-encompassing and comprehensive answer to this inquiry is surely impossible; answering one question leads to other questions, their cascading corollaries, and further frustrations. This permanent tension has nonetheless satisfied much of our desire to understand how humans behave: in a collective “society” or “culture”; across the individual’s life course and the evolution of the species; through the modus operandi of the “mind”; and through molecular, genetic, and physiological interactions and expressions. This seems to offer multiple, and certainly commensurable, answers to our question: why?

My aim is to provide an accessible platform for undergraduate students to publish their work and to enjoy a variety of contributions from different but complementary disciplines. Where possible, students are encouraged to contribute cross- or inter-disciplinary manuscripts to position readers in a terrain where disciplinary niches interact, confront, and negotiate with one another. Thus, by encouraging the “interdisciplinarity” of various fields, the distinctions between disciplines should be treated as heuristic frames, rather than empirical barriers to knowledge dissemination.

It is only with humility and our unique human capacity to stimulate and engage in cooperative communication, collective intentionality, social coordination, and knowledge transmission that we may centralise our efforts in understanding human behaviour.

(ec750@cam.ac.uk)

Incoming Associate Editors (2022)

Social Anthropology
(HSPS Tripos)

SAN2, SAN3, SAN5, SAN8;
[Theology:] A1a, A2, A5, A6, B4, B7, C5

Interests: Science studies, anthropology of Christianity, pedagogy & ethics, neurodivergence, psychoanalysis, & postmodernism

Junior Editor, Cambridge Journal of Political Affairs
SAN1, SAN2, SAN4f, SOC3, SOC5, SOC10, SOC15

Interests: Non-biogenetic kinship, gender issues, LGBTQIA+ issues, heritage studies, and human-animal relations

SAN2, SAN3, SAN5, SAN6, SAN8
[Theology:] A1d, A3, A5, A8, A9, B11, B13

Interests: Anthropology of climate, land and property, science studies, time and futurity, and ethics

SAN1, SAN2, SAN3, SAN6, SAN8, SOC1, SOC2, SOC3, SOC7, SOC Diss. (Gentrification & Co-option of Fashion)

Interests: Political anthropology, queer theory, social theory, globalisation, decolonial & postcolonial anthropology, material culture, and science studies

Biological Anthropology
(Archaeology Tripos)

A1, A4, SAN1, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B11, B13, B14, B15, B17, B18

Interests: Evolution of human behaviour, behavioural plasticity, culture, and evolutionary & biocultural perspectives on health & disease

Founding Member & Vice-President of CUBAS;
Editor, Archaeological Review from Cambridge
A1, A2, A4, A22, B1, B2, B3, B5

Interests: Paleoanthropology, symbolic behaviour, statistical and ecological modelling, Palaeolithic archaeology, cultural evolution, and cooperative behaviour

A1, A2, A22, AS9, B1, B2, B3, B5, B13, B14, B15, B17, B18, SAN1

Interests: Evolution of hominin culture, primate tool use, cultural transmission, and behavioural ecology.

A1, A2, A4, A23, B1, B2, B4, B5

Interests: Hunter-gatherer lifeways, nutritional anthropology, primate behaviour, environmental anthropology, evolutionary medicine, longevity, and social inequality.

Psychological & Behavioural Sciences (PBS)

PBS1, PBS2, PBS3, PBS4, PBS5, PBS6, PBS7, PBS8, A1, SAN1, HPS2, CRIM1

Interests: Social & developmental psychology, philosophy of science, morality, relationships, parenting, positive psychology, and health psychology

PBS1, PBS2, PBS3, PBS4, NS1 (Evolution & Behaviour), NS4 (Neurobiology), CRIM1, PHIL2 (Ethics & Political Philosophy)

Interests: Developmental psychopathology, neuropsychology, evolutionary psychology, morality, and attachment

PBS1, PBS2, PBS3, PBS4, PBS5, PBS6, PBS9, CRIM1, A1, B1, B2, B15, B17

Interests: Developmental psychopathology, mental health, cognitive psychology, and behavioural ecology

PBS1, PBS2, PBS3, PBS4, PBS5, PBS6, PBS7, PBS8, SAN1, SOC1, NS3 (Neurobiology), CRIM1

Interests: Developmental psychopathology, mental health, social psychology, morality, and criminal psychology

Natural Sciences Tripos (NST)

Part I: Evolution and Behaviour, Physiology of Organisms; Cell and Developmental Biology, Evolution and Animal Diversity, Biology of Disease;
Part II: Genetics

Interests: Ancient DNA, molecular biology of the nucleus, human population evolution, disease genomics, and general pathology

Social Secretary, Christ’s College Darwin Society

Part I: Evolution and Behaviour, Chemistry, Biology of Cells, Mathematical Biology; Evolution and Animal Behaviour, Ecology Evolution and Conservation, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Part II: Zoology

Interests: Conservation, human population genetics and evolution, behavioural ecology, and animal evolution

Part I: Evolution and Behaviour, Physiology of Organisms, Biology of Cells, Mathematical Biology, Ecology Evolution and Conservation, Evolution and Animal Behaviour, and Plant and Microbial Science
Part II: Zoology

Interests: Behavioural ecology, human & animal behavioural evolution, modelling human populations & disease dynamics, and interactions of genes with the environment

NERC Research Intern for Department of Plant Sciences; Conservation Intern for Preventing Extinctions European Program, BirdLife International

Part I: Evolution and Behaviour, Physiology of Organisms, Biology of Cells, Mathematical Biology, Ecology and Conservation, Cell and Developmental Biology, and History and Philosophy of Science
Part II: Conservation Science, Evolution and Behaviour, Bioinformatics, Cell Signalling, and Cancer
Part III: Data Acquisition and Handling, Modelling and Analysis of Networks, Modelling in Biology.

Interests: Ecological restoration, conservation policy, developmental and behavioural biology, sensory ecology and behaviour, and genetics and behaviour.