Dr Sheina Lew-Levy awarded prestigious ERC Grant for pioneering cultural research

The ERC Starting Grant is a significant milestone for early career researchers like Dr Lew-Levy, providing essential funding to advance pioneering ideas.

This prestigious grant, valued at €1.5 million, will support Dr Lew-Levy’s innovative research over the next five years, providing crucial funding to launch her independent project and form her research team.

Leading the way in cultural evolution research

The ERC, established by the European Union in 2007, is the foremost European funding organisation dedicated to supporting exceptional frontier research.

This year, 494 young scientists and scholars across Europe received ERC Starting Grants, totalling nearly €780 million in funding.

Dr Lew-Levy’s project, titled “Children as Agents of Cultural Evolution” (ChACE), stood out among the many proposals for its potential to shift the paradigm in the study of cultural evolution and social learning.

Her work draws from both anthropological and psychological theory to understand cultural diversity and the evolution of social learning in childhood, particularly among hunter-gatherer societies.

A new perspective on cultural creation

ChACE aims to challenge the prevailing view of children as passive recipients of cultural knowledge. Instead, Dr Lew-Levy’s research will explore how children and adolescents actively create cultures with their peers, shedding light on the role of peer cultures in maintaining and evolving societal norms.

The project will utilise a range of methodologies—including simulations, experiments, observations, surveys, and interviews—in diverse settings undergoing rapid cultural change.

By focusing on peer cultures, ChACE seeks to uncover new ways in which cultural practices are transmitted and adapted over time, especially in response to social and ecological challenges.

This groundbreaking research could redefine our understanding of how cultures evolve and the critical role children play in driving these changes.

Find out more

• Learn more about Dr Sheina Lew-Levy.
• Learn more about ERC Starting Grant and this year’s full results.
• Interested in studying at Durham? Explore our undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

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