Kiran Basava

Dr. Kiran Basava’s research uses phylogenetic methods and comparative databases to explore the evolution of social and cultural behavior in humans and other animals. For her PhD research, she constructed a historical database of human cultures and warfare practices. She is currently completing a project examining brain evolution in coleoid cephalopods (squid, octopuses and cuttlefish), where she helped build a cross-species database of ecological, physiological and behavioral traits and an updated phylogenetic tree of evolutionary relationships. For her postdoctoral work, she is building a database of behavioral traditions in wild animal populations, with the aim of better understanding how socially transmitted information on behaviors like foraging, migration and habitat use are interacting with anthropogenic disturbances.