Blog
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 blog posts
Oct 2, 2020
Written by Haleh Yazdi, Anthropogeny Specialization Track Graduate Student (UC San Diego Department of Psychology).
The Anthropogeny Specialization track has played a pivotal role in my academic and personal journey. It has greatly enhanced my experience as a graduate student by helping me develop a broader perspective toward my research and giving me a supportive, intellectual community to belong to. Through CARTA, I have had the rare opportunity to approach my PhD research from a multidisciplinary standpoint, which allowed me to draw connections between theories, literature and methods...
Oct 1, 2020
Written by Tim Sainburg, Anthropogeny Specialization Track Graduate Student (UC San Diego Department of Psychology, Gentner Lab). Read more at TimSainburg.com.
As you progress further into your education, topics narrow. In primary school, you take math and science, which in high school turns into Calculus and Biology, and in college turns into Ordinary Differential Equations and Neuroanatomy. When you begin your Ph.D., you’re told that your thesis is an embarkation into a very thorough investigation of a narrow topic. You’re supposed to become one of the world’s experts on something...
Sep 30, 2020
Written by Nina Semushina, Anthropogeny Specialization Track Graduate Student (UC San Diego Dept. of Linguistics).
I first learned about CARTA when I just joined the graduate program in Linguistics at UC San Diego. That was the first day at the department, and CARTA graduate, Hope Morgan (now Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at the University of Leiden), presented the program to the first-year students. I joined the program three years later after I passed my qualifying exams and took an exciting course on language evolution taught by CARTA member, Professor Robert Kluender.
Since then,...
Sep 29, 2020
Written by Vanessa Bateman, Anthropogeny Specialization Track Graduate Student (UC San Diego Dept. of Visual Arts; Art History, Theory and Criticism).
Joining the Graduate Specialization in Anthropogeny track was the best decision I made while completing a PhD in Art History, Theory, and Criticism at UC San Diego and has shaped the trajectory of my research after graduation. Out of a curiosity to gain insight about my research on the visual representation of hunting from a different perspective, I enrolled in the Introduction to Anthropogeny course taught by Prof. Pascal Gagneux in the...
Sep 28, 2020
Written by Caterina "Catie" Profaci, Anthropogeny Specialization Track Graduate Student (UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences, NeuroGrad). Notably, Catie is also the 2020 recipient of the prestigious Thal Award from UC San Diego Neurosciences, which recognizes outstanding graduate student research in the department.
I knew of the CARTA Graduate Specialization in Anthropogeny through a friend before even beginning graduate school at UC San Diego. Originally, I did not plan on joining. Of course, I had only heard positive things about the training program, but I thought the time...
Mar 9, 2020
Written by K. Lindsay Hunter, CARTA Community Engagement and Advancement Director (@Paleo_Bonegirl, @CARTAUCSD)
Today’s researchers studying the origins of our species have been inundated with new data revealed through advances in technology, refined genomic and dating methods, as well as new discoveries. However, this largess provides a challenge in integration and description that ultimately begs for reflection. CARTA Member Iain Davidson’s (PhD, U of New England, emeritus) profiled chapter (see “CARTA-inspired Publications”) reminds us that in our quest to identify “ourselves” in the...
Mar 9, 2020
Intrepid Anthropogeny Explorers!
During Summer 2019, a small group embarked on a journey to better understand human origins. Visiting important locations throughout the East African Rift, including parts of Ethiopia and Tanzania, our explorers studied fossils, lived with hunter-gatherers, and encountered numerous non-human primates. The following pictures give a glimpse into this journey.
THIS PICTURE COLLAGE: To represent the human characters of the field course, this collage takes the shape of a recently discovered Middle Stone Age obsidian point found at the Fincha Habera rock shelter in...
