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Updated 02/02/2025
Luke Glowacki
232 Bay State Road, Suite 101,
Boston, MA 02215 USA
laglow@bu.edu
hsb-lab.org
bu.edu/anthrop/profle/luke-glowacki/
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
2021- Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology Boston University
2019- Co-Director of the Omo Valley Research Project
2018-2020 Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Penn State University
2016-2018 Research Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse
2015-2016 Mind, Brain, and Behavior Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University
EDUCATION
2015 Ph.D. in Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
OTHER AFFILIATIONS
2016-2024 Associate, Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
2013 Visiting Student, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology
2009-2011 Affiliated Researcher, Institute for Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa University
HONORS AND AWARDS
2023 Margo Wilson Award for Best Paper in Evolution in Human Behavior
2019 New Investigator Award, European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association
2017 Multidisciplinary Prize (with Alice Baniel), IAST, €40,000
2014 Lagerzpetz Award for Exceptional Presentation, International Society for
Research on Aggression
2013 Best Student Investigator Award, Evolutionary Anthropology Section, American
Anthropological Association
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
2023- NSF Human Networks and Data Science Program, Award# 2214088. Network
formation and function within and between groups. Role: PI, Amount funded:
$447,116
2020 Population Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, $1150
2019 Center for Global Studies, Pennsylvania State University, $2000
2017 Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Award, Harvard University, $40,000
2016 Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Award, Harvard University, $40,000
2015 Foundations of Human Behavior, Harvard University, $14,900
2013 Merit Fellowship, Harvard University
2011 Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, Wenner-Gren Foundation
2011 National Science Foundation REG Research Award (Grant #1132859, PI Karen
Kramer)
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2012 Sheldon Traveling Fellowship, Harvard University
2010 Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Award, Harvard University, $5,000
2007 Tanner Fellowship, University of Utah
OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2022 Consultant, Stanford University School of Medicine
2014 Consultant, GIZ IS (German Agency for International Cooperation
2012 Consultant IGAD-CEWARN, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
PUBLICATIONS
* Corresponding author
+ Equal contribution
&Student / Trainee publication
PAPERS IN REVIEW OR PREPRINT PUBLISHED
Glowacki L., Morath F. & Rusch H. High minority power facilitates democratization across
ethnic fault lines. https://hdl.handle.net/10419/286389
+
Bohm R., +
Glowacki L., +
Teilmann, I. & +
Rusch, H. Untangling altruism and parochialism in
human intergroup confict. https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-000F-BEFE-E
JOURNAL ARTICLES
Glowacki L. 2025. Robust evidence foragers sometimes participate in war. In press for Evolution
and Human Behavior.
Glowacki L. 2024. Te controversial origins of war and peace: apes, forager, and human
evolution. Evolution and Human Behavior 45:106616.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2024.106618
Venkataraman V., Joffman J., ....Glowacki L., Haneul Jl, ....& Stibbard-Hawkes. 2024. Female
foragers sometimes hunt, yet gendered divisions of labor are real. Evolution and Human Behavior
45:106586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2024.04.014
*Glowacki L. 2024. Te Evolution of Peace. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 47:1-71.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X22002862
*Garfeld Z. & *Glowacki L. 2023. Interpersonal conficts and third-party mediation in a
pastoralist society. Evolution and Human Behavior 44:613-623.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2023.10.003
Yurdum L., Singh M., Glowacki L., Vardy T., Atkinson Q., Hilton C., Sauter D., Krasnow M., &
Mehr, S. 2023. Universal interpretations of vocal music. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences 120: e2218593120 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2218593120
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Garfeld Z., &Buckner W., &Medupe D., Wrangham R. & *Glowacki L. 2023. Norm violations
and punishments across human societies. Evolutionary Human Sciences 5:e11
https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2023.7
&Medupe D., Shenk M., Roberts S. & *Glowacki L. 2023. Why did foraging, horticulture, and
pastoralism persist after the Neolithic transition? Te oasis theory of agricultural intensifcation.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society—Biological Sciences 378:20220300.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0300
Singh M. & Glowacki L. 2022. Human Social Organization during the Late Pleistocene:
Beyond the nomadic-egalitarian model. Evolution and Human Behavior 43(5):418-431.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2022.07.003
Hilton C., Moser C., Bertolo M., Lee-Rubin H., Amir D., Bainbridge C., Simson J., Knox D.,
Glowacki L., Alemu, E., Galbarczyk, A., Jasienska, G., Ross C., Neff M. B., Martin A., Cirelli, L.
K., Trehub, S. E., Song, J., Kim, M., Schachner A., Vardy T., Atkinson Q., Salenius A., Andelin J.,
Antfolk J., Madhivanan P., Siddaiah A., Placek C., Salali G., Keestra S., Singh M., Collins S.,
Patton J., Scaff C., Stieglitz J., Ccari Cutipa, S. Moya C., Sagar R., Anyawire M., Mabulla A.,
Wood B., Krasnow M., & Mehr S. 2022. Acoustic regularities in infant-directed speech and song
across cultures. Nature Human Behaviour 6:1545-1556. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-
01410-x
Dogan G., Glowacki L., & Rusch H. 2022. Are strangers just enemies you have not yet met?
Group identities, not intergroup relations, shape ingroup bias in three natural groups.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences 377:20210419.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0419
*Glowacki L. & McDermott R. 2022. Key individuals catalyze collective violence. Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences 377:20210141.
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0141
*Glowacki L. & Lew-Levy S. 2021. How small-scale societies achieve large-scale cooperation.
Current Opinion in Psychology 44:44-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.08.026
Savage P., Loui P., Tarr B., Schachner A., Glowacki L., Mithen S., Fitch T. 2021. Music as a
coevolved system for social bonding. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 44:e59.
doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X20000333
Glowacki L. 2020. Te emergence of locally adaptive institutions: insights from the traditional
social structures of East African Pastoralists. Biosystems 198: 104257.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystems.2020.104257
*Glowacki L., Wilson M. & Wrangham R. 2020. Te evolutionary anthropology of war. Journal
of Economic Behavior and Organization 178: 963-982. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2017.09.014
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*Mehr, S., *Singh, M., Knox, D., Ketter, D. M., Pickens-Jones, D., Atwood, S., Lucas, C.,
Egner, A. A., Jacoby, N., Hopkins, E. J., Howard, R. M., Hartshorne, J. K., Jennings, M. V.,
Simson, J., Bainbridge, C. M., Pinker, S., O’Donnell, T. J., Krasnow, M. M., & *Glowacki, L.
2019. Universality and diversity in human song. Science 366, eaax0868:1–17.
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aax0868
*Wild H, *Glowacki L, Maples S, Mejía-Guevara I, Krystosik A, Bonds M, Hiruy A, LaBeaud
D & Barry M. 2019. Making pastoralists count: geospatial methods in the surveillance of a
nomadic population. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene101:661-669.
https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.18-1009
+
Dogan G., +
*Glowacki L., & +
*Rusch H. 2018. Spoils division rules shape aggression between
natural groups. Nature Human Behaviour 2: 322-326. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-
0338-z +
Equal contribution; order listed alphabetically.
Mehr S., Singh M., &York H., Glowacki L., & Krasnow M. 2018. Form and function in human
song. Current Biology 28: 356-368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.12.042
Singh M., Wrangham R. & Glowacki L. 2017. Self-interest and the design of rules. Human
Nature 28: 457-480. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-017-9298-7
*Glowacki L. & Molleman L. 2017. Subsistence styles shape human social learning strategies.
Nature Human Behaviour 1: 0098. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0098
Glowacki L., Isakov A., McDermott R., Wrangham R., Fowler J. & Christakis N. 2016.
Formation of raiding parties for inter-group violence is mediated by social network structure.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 43: 12114-12119.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.161096111
Isakov A., Holcomb A., Glowacki L. & Christakis N. 2016. Modeling the role of network and
individual differences in inter-group violence. PloS ONE 11: e018314
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0148314
*von Rueden C., Gavrilets S. & *Glowacki L. 2015. Solving the puzzle of collective action
through inter-individual differences. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological
Sciences 370: 20150002.
*Glowacki L. & von Rueden C. 2015. Leadership solves collective action problems in small-scale
societies. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 370: 20150010.
McAuliffe K., Wrangham R., Glowacki L. & Russell A. 2015. When cooperation begets
cooperation: the role of key individuals in galvanizing support. Philosophical Transactions of the
Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 370: 20150012.
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*Glowacki L. & Wrangham R. 2015. Warfare and reproductive success in a tribal population.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 112: 348-353.
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1412287112
*Glowacki L. & Wrangham R. 2013. The role of rewards in motivating participation in simple
warfare. Human Nature 24: 444-460.
Glowacki L. & Gönc K. 2013. Customary institutions in pastoralist societies: a neglected
potential for conflict resolution. Conflict Trends 1: 26-32.
Wrangham R. & Glowacki L. 2012. Intergroup aggression in chimpanzees and war in nomadic
hunter-gatherers: evaluating the chimpanzee model. Human Nature 23: 5-29.
BOOK CHAPTERS AND EDITED VOLUMES
Glowacki L., Gavrilets S. & von Rueden C (eds). 2015. Solving the puzzle of collective action
through inter-individual differences: evidence from primates and humans. Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society 370.
Wilson M. & Glowacki L. 2017. Violent cousins: chimpanzees, humans, and the roots of war.
Muller M., Wrangham R. & Pilbeam D. (eds). Chimpanzees and Human Evolution. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press.
COMMENTARIES AND REVIEWS
&Elster E. & Glowacki L. 2025. “We are one people”: Group myths also draw cues from self- concept formation. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 47:e177. doi:10.1017/S0140525X24000803
Glowacki L. 2024. Multiple origins for the evolution of collective rituals. Religion, Brain, and
Behavior 14:415-416. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2023.2197978
Glowacki L. 2024. Author’s response: Te challenge of peace. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
47:e32. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X23002790
Glowacki L. 2021. Te radical origins of anthropology. Anthropology Book Forum 7(1).
&Buckner W. & Glowacki L. 2019. Reasons to strike frst. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 42: e119
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X19000840
Glowacki L. 2019. War is easy but peace is hard. 2019. Comment on collective action for war and
peace: A case study among the Enga of Papua New Guinea. Current Anthropology 60: 238-239.
Glowacki L. 2018. Te cultural evolution of war rituals. Behavioral Sciences and Brain Sciences. 41:
e74. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X17002059