Dr Rebecca Sear |
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Page contents > Contact info | Research | Publications | PhD supervision | Conferences | Other activities |
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Contact info |
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Senior Lecturer in Population Studies
Department of Social Policy,
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Research |
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| I'm an evolutionary ecologist particularly interested in evolutionary demography - interpreting patterns of demographic behaviour using evolutionary theory (in particular, life history theory). | |
| Regional focus: Most of my work uses a longitudinal dataset from an agricultural community in the Gambia, collected by the MRC. I've also collected data from another agricultural community in Malawi. |
Publications |
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Fox, M., Sear, R., Beise, J., Voland, E., Ragsdale, G. & Knapp, L.A. (2010) Grandma plays favourites: X-chromosome relatedness and sex-specific childhood mortality. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B, Biological Sciences 277(1681): 567-573 |
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Gurven, M., Borgerhoff Mulder, M., Bowles, S., Hooper, P.L., Kaplan, K., Quinlan, R., Sear, R., Schniter, E., von Rueden, C. Bell, A.& Hertz, T. (2010) Domestication alone does not lead to inequality: intergenerational wealth transmission among horticulturalists. Current Anthropology 51(1): 49-64 |
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Borgerhoff Mulder, M., Bowles, S., Hertz, T., Bell, A., Beise, J., Clark, G., Fazzio, I., Gurven, M., Hill, K., Hooper, P.L., Irons, W., Kaplan, H., Leonetti, D., Low, B., Marlowe, F., Naidu, S., Nolin, D., Piraino, P., Quinlan, R., Sear, R., Shenk, M., Alden Smith, E. & Wiessner, P. (2009) Intergenerational wealth transmission and the dynamics of inequality in small-scale societies. Science 326(5953): 682-688 |
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Sear, R. & Marlowe, F.W. (2009) How universal are human mate choices? Size doesn't matter when Hadza foragers are choosing a mate. Biology Letters 5: 606-609 |
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Sear, R., & Mace, R. (2009) Family matters: kin, demography and child health in a rural Gambian community. In Substitute Parents: Alloparenting in Human Societies. Edited by Gillian R. Bentley and Ruth Mace. Berghahn Books. pp 50-76 |
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Sear, R. (2008) Kin and child survival in rural Malawi: are matrilineal kin always beneficial in a matrilineal society? Human Nature 19(3): 277-293 |
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Sear, R. & Mace, R. (2008) Who keeps children alive? A review of the effects of kin on child survival. Evolution & Human Behavior 29(1): 1-18 |
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Mathews, P. & Sear, R. (2008) Life after death: an investigation into how mortality perceptions influence fertility preferences using evidence from an internet-based experiment. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 6(3): 155-172 |
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Sear, R., Lawson, D.W. & Dickins, T.E. (2007) Synthesis in the human evolutionary behavioural sciences. Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 5(1): 3-28 |
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Shanley, D.P, Sear, R., Mace, R. & Kirkwood, T.B.L. (2007) Testing evolutionary theories of menopause. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B, Biological Sciences 274(1628): 2943-2949 |
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Dickins, T.E., Sear, R. & Wells, A.J. (2007) Mind the gap(s)...in theory, method and data: Re-examining Kanazawa (2006) British Journal of Health Psychology 12: 167-178 |
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Sear, R. (2007) The impact of reproduction on Gambian women: does controlling for phenotypic quality reveal costs of reproduction? American Journal of Physical Anthropology 132(4): 632-641 |
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Sear, R. (2006) Size-dependent reproductive success in Gambian men: does height or weight matter more? Social Biology 53(3-4): 172-188 |
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Sear, R. (2006) Height and reproductive success: how a Gambian population compares to the West. Human Nature 17(4): 405-418 |
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Mace, R., Allal, N., Sear, R. and Prentice, A.M. (2006) The uptake of modern contraception in a Gambian community: the diffusion of an innovation over 25 years. In: Social Information Transmission and Human Biology. Edited by J.C.K. Wells, S.S. Strickland and K. Laland. CRC Press, Florida. pp 191-205. |
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Mace, R. and Sear, R. (2005) Are humans cooperative breeders? In: Grandmotherhood: the Evolutionary Significance of the Second Half of Female Life. Edited by E. Voland, A. Chasiotis & W. Schiefenhoevel. Rutgers University Press, Piscataway. pp 143-159 |
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Sear, R., Allal, N. & Mace, R. (2004) Height, marriage and reproductive success in Gambian women. Research in Economic Anthropology 23: 203-224. |
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Allal, N., Sear, R., Prentice, A.M. and Mace, R. (2004) An evolutionary model of stature, age at first birth and reproductive success in Gambian women. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B, Biological Sciences 271(1538): 465-470 |
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Sear, R., Mace, R. & McGregor, I.A. (2003) A life-history analysis of fertility rates in rural Gambia: evidence for trade-offs or phenotypic correlations? In: The Biodemography of Human Reproduction and Fertility. Edited by J. Rodgers & H-P. Kohler. Kluwer Press, Boston. pp 135-160. |
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Sear, R., Mace, R. & McGregor, I.A. (2003) The effects of kin on female fertility in rural Gambia. Evolution & Human Behavior 24: 25-42. |
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Holden, C.J., Sear, R. & Mace, R. (2003) Matriliny as daughter-biased investment. Evolution & Human Behavior 24: 99-112 |
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Sear, R., Steele, F., McGregor, I.A. and Mace, R. (2002) The effects of kin on child mortality in rural Gambia. Demography 39: 43-63. |
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Sear, R., Mace, R., Shanley, D & McGregor, I.A. (2001) The fitness of twin mothers: evidence from rural Gambia. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 14: 433-443. |
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Sear, R., Mace, R. & McGregor, I.A. (2000) Maternal grandmothers improve the nutritional status and survival of children in rural Gambia. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 267: 1641-1647. |
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Mace, R. & Sear, R. (1997) Birth interval and the sex of children in a traditional African population: an evolutionary analysis. Journal of Biosocial Science 29: 499-507. |
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Mace, R. & Sear, R. (1997) Reproductive decisions by pastoralists in the face of demographic risk. Nomadic Peoples (NS) 1: 151-163 |
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Mace, R. & Sear, R. (1996) Maternal mortality in a Kenyan pastoralist population. International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics 54: 137-141. |
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Manuscripts (in preparation or under review) |
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Sear, R. A review of evolutionary theories of fertility |
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Sear, R. Size, body condition and adult mortality in rural Gambia: a life history perspective. |
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Gibson, M.A. & Sear, R. Does wealth increase sibling competition for education? Evidence from two African populations on the cusp of the fertility transition |
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Sear, R. Height and reproductive success: is bigger always better? For Homo Novus: A Human Without Illusions edited by Ulrich Frey, Charlotte Stoermer & Kai Willfuehr |
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Sear, R. Parenting and families. For Evolutionary Psychology: A Critical Reader edited by Viren Swami. Wiley-Blackwell |
Book reviews |
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We are family. Review of Mothers and Others by Sarah Hrdy for Journal of Evolutionary Psychology |
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Review of Biology at Work: Rethinking Sexual Inequality by Kingsley R Browne for Sexualities, Evolution and Gender 2005 7(2): 189-193 |
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PhD supervision |
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I welcome enquiries from students interested in evolutionary
ecology/evolutionary demography.
Potential funding opportunities: the Population Cluster within the Social Policy Department has been awarded ESRC recognition for the MSc Social Research Methods (Population), and ESRC quota studentships are awarded to the Cluster each year. Evolutionary demography falls within the remit of these studentships. Full information on how to apply for these studentships is posted each year on the PhD study in Population Studies webpage, but please email me with informal enquiries. ** 3 studentships are available to start in October 2010 - see the webpages above for more information ** |
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| Current PhD students | |
| Paul Mathews | |
| Dewi Ismajani Puradiredja | |
| Emily Freeman | |
| Eleanor Hukin | |
| Past PhD students | |
| Neil Cummins Assistant Professor, Queens College, City University of New York | |
Conference organisationCo-organiser of 'Fertility declines in the past, present and future: what we don't know and what we need to know' held at the University of Cambridge, 15-17 July 2009, supported by the British Society for Population Studies, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Galton Institute and the Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure. Click here for a report of the meeting. Co-organiser of the 2nd IUSSP Evolutionary Perspectives on Demography Seminar on 'Trade-offs in Female Life Histories: Raising New Questions in an Integrative Framework', with Mhairi Gibson at the University of Bristol July 22-25 2008. More information is available on the IUSSP website here. This meeting resulted in a special issue of American Journal of Human Biology Co-organiser of the 2nd European Human Behaviour and Evolution (EHBE) conference at LSE 28-30 March 2007. |
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Other activities |
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For more information on population studies at LSE, visit the Population at LSE website Co-founder and Vice President of the European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association. I'm a council member The Galton Institute I'm also a member of the Human Behaviour and Evolution Society, the British Society for Population Studies and the International Union of the Scientific Study of Population |
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