Sven Kasser
svenkasser.bsky.social
Sven Kasser
@svenkasser.bsky.social
Genes & culture & coevolution, oh my
EvoAnth MSc @ Oxford
Bio PhD @ St Andrews (w/ Kevin Lala) | Oxford | Stanford
Opinions are my mom’s due to vertical cultural transmission - he/him.
I wrote a thing! Credit where credit is due - the impetus for this paper came from many conversations I had as a baby first year grad student at CES 2022 (@culturalevolsoc.bsky.social). I hope it might serve as a useful way of thinking about the many modes of interaction in dual inheritance theory.
I'm pleased to share this new article by @svenkasser.bsky.social, Laura Fortunato @anthrolog.bsky.social, Marc Feldman and myself.

The article extends gene-culture coevolution to recognize evolutionary effects of culture arising through drift and migration.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
August 14, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Reposted by Sven Kasser
Happy to share a PhD opportunity in my new lab at the University of Zurich! Application deadline: June 30. Do not hesitate to contact me for any questions!
May 20, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Happy to announce that my temporary thesis-writing mania has sprung the long awaited sequel to my conference presentation "Of Rice and Men":
May 15, 2025 at 11:40 AM
I’ve always thought EvoBio has this strange, bordering on unhealthy obsession with / cult of personality around Charles Darwin.

Anyway, on an unrelated note, I tufted his tree of life drawing today because I didn’t know what else to make
January 2, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Reposted by Sven Kasser
Here's my favorite from this semester - a meme about why we grow old and die.
December 13, 2024 at 4:21 PM
A lovely preprint, that really resonates with some of my own thoughts on how we use/have adapted the “coevolution” concept in the gene-culture interaction literature
NEW in preprint form: Don't ask "when is it coevolution?" — ask "how?"

In which I pick apart the way I've understood the very definition of my field of study, and try to come up with something better.
Don’t ask “when is it coevolution?” — ask “how?”
This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 2 of this Preprint.
buff.ly
December 9, 2024 at 10:16 PM
Reposted by Sven Kasser
NEW in preprint form: Don't ask "when is it coevolution?" — ask "how?"

In which I pick apart the way I've understood the very definition of my field of study, and try to come up with something better.
Don’t ask “when is it coevolution?” — ask “how?”
This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 2 of this Preprint.
buff.ly
December 9, 2024 at 9:35 PM
Reposted by Sven Kasser
🚨 PhD project: 4-year PhD project on human reproduction, mating strategies and gender roles. Funding is via BBSRC EastBio (i.e. funding not attached to specific project). Please get in touch with me (UK/international).

Deadline for nominated applicant: 17 Jan 2025

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
EASTBIO: Bateman’s principles and human reproductive strategies: a biosocial approach at University of St Andrews on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - EASTBIO: Bateman’s principles and human reproductive strategies: a biosocial approach at University of St Andrews, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
December 6, 2024 at 3:21 PM
I should maybe (re-)introduce myself: Hi! My name is Sven, a PhD student at St Andrews w/ Kevin Lala, exploring empirically how being a cultural species shapes the genetic (and cultural!) evolution of human populations - by profoundly affecting not only selection, but migration, demography, etc.
December 2, 2024 at 3:26 PM
One of my principal joys and frustrations as a disciplinary tweener is that I will spend one day regaling my office mates with unsolicited fun facts about the anthropology of cheese making, only to spend 10 hours the next day spiralling as I try and fail to merge two vcf files.
April 10, 2024 at 3:32 PM