As a part of their Fall 2018 Colloquium Series, UNM’s Department of Anthropology will host a lecture on the value of species and the evolution of conservation ethics on Dec. 6 from 3:30–4:30 p.m. in the Hibben Center room 105 on UNM’s main campus.

In the lecture, Darragh Hare will be discussing the theory of evolution by natural selection explaining why people care about other species. 

Darragh Hare, Ph.D.
Darragh Hare, Ph.D.

He argues that through conservation ethics — moral beliefs, attitudes, intuitions and norms — evolve to promote adaptive conservation behaviors taking on different contours in different places. 

Hare will also explain why integrating ecology and evolution into the understanding of conservation ethics can help explain why people value other species, why they value some species more strongly than others and ultimately help conserve the diversity of life of which we are part. 

Hare is a postdoctoral fellow in the Human Family and Evolutionary Demography (HFED) Lab at UNM. He studies the evolution of cooperation and conflict and is specifically interested in the evolution of morality and conservation-related behaviors. 

In HFED, Hare works on empirical analyses and evolutionary models to help understand the dynamics of inequality in societies undergoing economic transition.

Hare has an MA in philosophy from the University of Glasgow and a Ph.D. in natural resources from Cornell University. 

For more information visit the UNM Anthropology Department website.