I obtained my PhD in Philosophy and Cognitive Science from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, in 2015. After that, I carried out post-doctoral research on the evolution of language at the Australian National University and the University of Melbourne. Currently, I am a Lecturer in the School of Liberal Arts at the University of Wollongong, where I also serve as Head of Post-Graduate Studies.

I research a wide variety of topics relating to behavioral, social, and cognitive evolution, especially as regards humans, hominins, and other great apes. Though I am trained as a philosopher and cognitive scientist, I have developed broad competences across a range of fields and methodologies. These include evolutionary and developmental biology, archeology, anthropology, and linguistics.

I have published 30+ journal articles and an MIT Press book on the evolution of language (with Kim Sterelny). I was recently a Research Fellow at the Words, Bones, Genes, and Tools Center at the University of Tübingen. I maintain a rich global network of research connections with world-leading experts in human evolution, culture, and language.