Abigail Desmond

Lecturer
profile picture of Dr. Abby Desmond wearing a silver velvet jacket standing in front of a bookshelf

I am a Palaeolithic Archaeologist (DPhil Oxford), and my research focuses on the coevolution of technology, biology, and cognition. Specifically, I study how technology has shaped humans’ bodies and minds over evolutionary timescales – how the things we make, make us. I have two books under contract with Harvard University Press; one on the evolution of human technology, and a co-authored book demystifying the concept of intelligence.

Applied research specialisms include bone and organic technologies, use-wear analysis, proteomics, ethnographic archaeology, experimental archaeology, data reproducibility, and developing open-source digital imaging techniques. 

I teach HEB 193: Key Junctures in African Human Evolution; HEB 145: Thinking Through Human Cognition; HEB 45: Technology, Behaviour, and Human Evolution; ANTH S-1300: Human Evolution, HEB 2490: Issues in Human Evolution; and HEB 99, Senior Honors Thesis tutorial.