Evolution Institute

Evolution Institute has organized conferences and workshops with groups such as University of Miami, University of Oslo, UnitedWay Suncoast,[10] and Mondragon Corporation.

The workshop with UnitedWay Suncoast involved national leaders on child development, early childhood care, and education policy, as well as researchers who advise the White House. Educators were presented with key findings from current research around language and learning, stages of development, and state policies conducive to early learning. Speakers included David F. Bjorklund, Michelle Shimberg, Steve Barnett, Representative Laura Hall, Dave Dickinson, and Roberta Golinkoff.

The Evolution Institute has held several workshops to understand Norway’s continuously high quality of life from an evolutionary perspective, including one in 2015 organized in Oslo with Norwegian think tank Agenda. The EI President at the time, David Sloan Wilson, was offered the Arne Naess Chair in Global Justice and the Environment at the University of Oslo and helped organize an advanced PhD course, ‘The Cultural Welfare of Nations.’ There have been ongoing collaborations with Norwegian scholars such as Nina Witoszek and Dag Hessen.

In 2019 Evolution Institute jointly organized a summit with Mondragon Corporation at their headquarters in Spain. As a result, LKS, the management consultancy division of Mondragon, conducted an in-depth assessment of East Pasco, Florida’s potential to develop cooperative enterprises in which economic sectors and activities were identified based on growth potential and contribution to equitable economic systems. A follow-up online workshop was held in 2020.

Over the years EI has produced an array of publications with themes including evolutionary principles, childhood development, the Nordic model, cooperation, and community building ^[1][2][3].[11][12][13] Sustainable Modernity:The Nordic Model and Beyond (2018) was edited by EI board member Nina Witoszek and features contributions from co-founders Jerry Lieberman and David Sloan Wilson.[14]

EI currently hosts the Seshat: Global History Databank, an international research project that brings together a comprehensive body of knowledge about human history to “rigorously test different hypotheses about the rise and fall of large-scale societies across the globe and human history.”[15] Themes have included the evolution of social complexity in early civilizations, the role of ritual and religion in social cohesion, and economic and demographic trends for political upheaval.

In addition to the public charter school East Tampa Academy, in 2020 an early learning center was opened in Tommytown, Florida as part of EI’s East Pasco Initiative. This was in partnership with community-based organizations Farmworkers Self-Help and Resurrection House Mission,[16] with a focus on making the proven benefits of early learning accessible to immigrant families.

According to EI website their core list of projects and areas of focus include:[17]

• East Tampa Academy
• East Pasco Initiative
• Norway Quality of Life
• Seshat Historical Databank