I am an evolutionary anthropologist
and a data scientist. Not always in that order.


Currently, I am a PhD Candidate at Emory University where I develop quantitative methods to understand cross-cultural variation in human behavior and development. I am broadly-trained in the social and behavioral sciences with graduate-level coursework in Bayesian Statistics, Machine Learning, and Game Theory.

Before coming to Emory I studied Anthropology and Psychology at WSU Vancouver and worked as a Research Assistant for the Human Relations Area Files at Yale University.

AFFILIATIONS

RESEARCH

Recent Highlights

Meta-analysis of foraging returns

Pretelli, Ringen, & Lew-Levy (in prep)

IN BRIEF: Characterizing the development of children's foraging skill in 28 societies.

MY ROLE: I developed a computational workflow in R to extract & clean data from studies. Stan model deals with missing data, measurement error, and other messiness.

Novel causal inference methods

Ringen, Martin, & Jaeggi (under revision)

IN BRIEF: Resource-use intensification can explain the emergence of large, sedentary societies with high degrees of inequality and hierarchy

MY ROLE: As lead author, I introduce a phylogenetic method for causal inference that generalizes beyond two binary variables, lifting a major constraint on comparative research.

Cross-cultural study of subsistence learning

Lew-Levy et al. (2021)

IN BRIEF: Ontogeny, learning strategies, and sex-biased teaching in two foraging societies

MY ROLE: Bayesian multilevel model of learning that simultaneously models knowledge, transmission pathways, and perceived difficulty of tasks.

New article in Nature Sustainability

Ember et al. (2020)

IN BRIEF: Diversification provides resilience to societies facing environmental unpredictability and resource stress.

MY ROLE: I analyzed records from 91 societies around the world using a multi-response, multilevel model that accounts for non-independence of observations.

TEACHING

Past Courses and Workshops

DATA SCIENCE

Introduction to R for Data Analysis

Workshop Instructor - 2020-21

Beginner-level introduction to R, delivered to more than 40 PhD students in the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Research Scholars Fellowship



Data Visualization in R

Workshop Instructor - 2020-21

Beginner-to-Intermediate workshop on data visualization in R, delivered to more than 20 PhD students in the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Research Scholars Fellowship.

ANTHROPOLOGY

The Early Life Origins of Health & Well-Being

Instructor - Fall 2020

A course about evolution, human development, and the politics of science taught to ~30 undergraduates at Emory University. 50:50 co-taught with Luisa M. Rivera.



Concepts and Methods in Biological Anthropology

Lab Instructor - Fall 2018, 2019

A lab that introduces key concepts in human evolution and biological anthropology, delivered to more than 80 undergraduates at Emory University. I developed an R package "ANTHtools" to organize materials and activities for the labs.