We are very happy to welcome Dean Falk back to the KLI. Dean is the Hale G. Smith Professor of Anthropology and a Distinguished Research Professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee, where she teaches and does research. She is trained as a physical anthropologist, and is interested in the evolution of the brain and the emergence of human cognitive abilities that led to language, music, analytical thinking, and warfare. She has directed collaborative research on the brains (or traces of them imprinted in fossilized skulls) of nonhuman primates, prehistoric human relatives, and recent humans including Homo floresiensis (aka “Hobbit”) and Albert Einstein.

In addition to numerous scientific and popular articles, Dean has written books including Braindance: Revised and Expanded Edition (2004), Finding Our Tongues: Mothers, Infants, and the Origins of Language (2009), The Fossil Chronicles: How Two Controversial Discoveries Changed Our View of Human Evolution (2011), and Geeks, Genes, and the Evolution of Asperger Syndrome (2018), which is coauthored with her “Aspie” granddaughter, Eve Penelope Schofield.

Dean is currently writing a book titled The Botanic Age (University of Toronto Press, forthcoming).

She is a Visiting Fellow at the KLI from 8 May to 21 June 2025. 

During her fellowship, Dean will be presenting a colloquium.

Here’s wishing Dean a wonderful time at the KLI. 

For more information please visit her website: www.deanfalk.com