Olof Leimar: teaching

At the present time, I teach in the human ethology course at my department. Perhaps the main emphasis of my lectures for this course is on the recent, exciting developments in the study of human cooperation. These include the experimental investigations of altruistic punishment and strong reciprocity performed by Ernst Fehr and coworkers and the cross-cultural study by Joe Henrich and coworkers on behavior in the Ultimatum Game, sponsored by the Santa Fe Institute. I also bring up the ideas of Dan Fessler about the role of human emotions for the evolution of human cooperation.

I also teach in the C-level ethology course, where I lecture on cooperation. I give an overview of our current understanding of the relative importance of theories about kin selection, reciprocity, pseudoreciprocity, by-product mutualism and handicap signaling for the occurrence of cooperation in social animals.

In addition to ethology, I teach a statistics course and a course in experimental design for biology PhD students at Stockholm University. The idea is to alternate between these courses, so that each course comes every second year. However, demand from the students may cause the courses to appear more often.

Recent honors projects (examensarbeten)

Karolina Johansson: Mutualistic interactions between ants and lycaenid larvae: the importance of ant nutritional status

Sara Meijer: Relative food choice in fallow deer, Dama dama; generality and possible mechanisms.

Carina Sjölin: Flight behaviour and mobility in the heath fritillary (Melitaea athalia) and the Glanville fritillary (Melitaea cinxia).

Marianne Aronsson: The effect of within-group interactions and short range exploration on food-choice in fallow deer.

Alexandra Balogh: Coevolution versus advergence in Müllerian mimicry.