CHES Graduate Affiliate
- Kristine Maassen
- Advisor: Dr. Lee Cronk
- Focus Area: Modern Humans
- Email: kristine.maassen@rutgers.edu
- ACADEMIC BIOGRAPHY:
I earned my B.S. in Child Psychology from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 2015. I then worked in the mental health field until I joined the Master’s program in Anthropology at Rutgers University in the Fall of 2022.
- CURRENT PROJECTS:
My master’s thesis is still under construction, however I would like to consider mutual-aid vs. government-sponsored aid in response to different types of societal disasters (i.e., racial injustice, restricted reproductive rights, and the COVID-19 pandemic). At this time my research will be conducted within the United States. I am interested in how our prosocial evolutionary history may support mutual aid as a more effective disaster response. I would also like to consider what types of conditions encourage a community response and how we could use this information to predict and prepare the best course of action for disaster relief.
- RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Human behavioral ecology, mutual aid, cooperation, generosity
I am interested in the evolutionary basis of human cooperation and generosity, particularly in the form of mutual aid as a community response to crisis/disaster.
