Dr Thomas Currie

About me:

I am an interdisciplinary researcher with a background that spans the social and natural sciences. The focus of my current research involves understanding human-environment interactions and processes of change in social-ecological systems (SES), the role of institutions in enabling cooperation & the sustainable management and governance of natural resources, and the general processes that have shaped human behavioural and cultural diversity across time and space. My applied research projects address issues of sustainable community-based natural resource management and conservation. I am currently working actively with partners and local pastoralist communities in Kenya to conduct research that can inform decision-making and help communities adapt to a changing environment and be more resilient to the challenges they face. This applied work builds on strong foundations of other theoretical and fundamental research I have conducted that examines human behavioural and cultural diversity in order to understand how and why human social systems evolve.

• Sustainability & Social-Ecological Systems
• Community-based Conservation
• Social & Cultural Evolution
• Human Evolutionary Ecology

PhD Anthropology (UCL),
MSc Evolutionary Psychology (University of Liverpool),
BSc Biology (University of Bristol)

2023-present Professor, Centre for Ecology & Conservation Biosciences, University of Exeter, UK
2018-2023 Associate Professor, Centre for Ecology & Conservation Biosciences, University of Exeter, UK
2015- 2018 Senior Lecturer, Centre for Ecology & Conservation Biosciences, University of Exeter, UK
2013-2015 Lecturer, Centre for Ecology & Conservation Biosciences, University of Exeter, UK
2010-2013 Post-Doctoral Research Fellow Human Evolutionary Ecology Group, Department of Anthropology, University College London, UK
2009-2010 Post-Doctoral Research Fellow Hasegawa Laboratory, Evolutionary Cognitive Science Research Center, Department of Life Sciences, University of Tokyo, Japan
2007 Visiting Fellow Department of Psychology, University of Auckland, New Zealand