#  Abigail Desmond 

Lecturer 

 

 

 



   ![profile picture of Dr. Abby Desmond wearing a silver velvet jacket standing in front of a bookshelf](/sites/g/files/omnuum1771/files/styles/hwp_4_5__320x400/public/2025-07/Abby_Desmond_Photo_Update.JPG?itok=GnDZ-e-k) 

 



 





 

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.



 

 

 





 

 

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