Centre for Research in Evolutionary and Environmental Anthropology (CREEA)
The Centre for Research in Evolutionary and Environmental Anthropology (CREEA) was founded in 2002, in recognition of the strengths in evolutionary and environmental anthropology at Roehampton. In the last Research Assessment Exercise, we were ranked fourth highest of the anthropology departments in the UK, and the highest of those anthropology departments working on evolutionary anthropology. In total, 80% of our research was judged to be world leading or internationally excellent, the highest score of any anthropology department in the UK.
We are building on this success by expanding our active research programmes and postgraduate training. The latter is achieved through PhD students and also at Masters level through our MRes Primate Biology, Behaviour and Conservation. We also train our social anthropology research students in ethnographic research methods and other qualitative aspects of anthropology. We are currently seeking interested applicants for the Roehampton Vice-Chancellor's Research Studentships, particularly in certain fields. Please also see our CREEA studentship flyer.
For further information on research in CREEA please see the home pages of individual members of the centre.
Research
We have both biological anthropologists and social anthropologists in the Centre, and increasingly we are engaged in interdisciplinary research. Research carried out by biological anthropology staff and students encompasses a range of fields in primatology, including socioecology, life history strategies, communication, welfare, social networks, reproductive endocrinology, comparative morphology and crop-raiding behaviour. In addition, they investigate key aspects of human evolution, including comparative morphology, evolution of the craniofacial skeleton, functional morphology, modelling, palaeopathology of prehistoric and historic human populations, neurological evolution and the evolution of language and speech.
Current fieldwork sites for our biological research include Gashaka Gumti National Park in Nigeria, Cayo Santiago in Puerto Rico, the Middle Atlas Mountains in Morocco, work with the Hadza hunter-gatherers in Tanzania.
Our social anthropologists are interested in life and death in comparative perspectives, indigenous peoples' responses to natural catastrophes, anthropology and archaeology, notions of personhood, human-animal relationships, HIV and bioethics in Muslim cultures, sex and gender anthropological perspectives on psychological practices. Regionally, they specialize in Latin America, East Africa, the U.S.A., Europe and the UK.
Our research features regularly in the popular and scientific media. Recent coverage includes:
Collaborations
Strong external links and Honorary Research Fellows of the Centre increase our network of contacts and expertise in the field of evolutionary anthropology. Collaborative research is ongoing with a number of external institutions including the German Primate Centre in Göttingen, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig, the Field Museum Chicago, the Natural History Museum London, Kyoto University Primate Research Institute, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universität Greifswald Germany, the Caribbean Primate Research Center, St. Andrews University, Lincoln University, Sussex University, Institute of Zoology, University College London, Cambridge University, Bath University, Oxford University and Oxford Brookes University, the Powell-Cotton Museum (Kent), University of Nottingham, University of New England.
Equipment
The Department is well equipped for work in evolutionary anthropology with fieldwork equipment including state-of-the-art GPS and GIS hardware and software, Psion Observers, and sound recording equipment. Our laboratory facilities include HPLC, ELISA and a radioactive lab, which are used for endocrinological analyses. For the analysis of hard tissues, we have morphometric tools, SEM and imaging facilities, portable x-ray equipment, pQCT table-top CT scanner, a dedicated 3D virtual reconstruction workstation, a mirror site for the Open Research Scan Archive (ORSA) and a fossil hominin cast collection. We also have a high-grade microscopy laboratory for ecological work.