About
My work charts how scientists and public audiences have used animal exemplars to naturalize particular behaviors in humans, from aggression to sex. This has lead to several strands continuing interest. One explores the dynamics of “colloquial science” intended for expert and lay readers alike. Another untangles the intertwined histories of animal behavior and human nature. A third attends to the gendered dynamics of scientific explorations of what it means to be human. My current research charts the post-WWII efflorescence of long-term field studies of animal behavior, the consolidation of behavioral ecology as a discipline, and the networks of collaboration that sustain field research in far flung locales and over decades.
Awards
- Fellow, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, 2023-24 Suzanne J. Levinson Award, History of Science Society, 2020
- Fellow, Garden and Landscape Studies, Dumbarton Oaks, 2020
- Graduate Mentoring Award, Graduate School and the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning, Princeton University, 2019
- Visiting Scholar, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, 2015
Relevant Publications
- Milam, E. (2019). Creatures of Cain: The Hunt for Human Nature in Cold War America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
- Milam, E. (2010). Looking for a Few Good Males: Female Choice in Evolutionary Biology. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Milam, E. & Nye, R., eds. (2015) Scientific Masculinities. Osiris 30. DOI: 10.1086/682953