James Holland Jones

James Holland Jones is a professor of Environmental Behavioral Sciences in the Division of Social Sciences, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. Originally trained as an anthropologist, he has additional training and expertise in demography, statistics, and epidemiology. Jones works on a variety of projects relating to human adaptability and decision-making, including the analysis of livelihood-related responses to climate change, the role of dynamic exchange networks in managing livelihood risks among subsistence populations, the reconstruction of prehistoric demographic patterns and how these inform debates about climate-mediated collapse, the coupled dynamics of behavior-change and disease transmission, and the impact of structural racism on epidemic outcomes. A major element of his current research involves synthesizing evolutionary, ecological, and climate-science notions of adaptation. He teaches classes such as “Global Change and Emerging Infectious Disease,” “Biological and Social Networks,” “Demography and Life History Theory,” and “Adaptation.” This past winter, he co-taught an interdisciplinary course, along with former CASBS director Margaret Levi and Paula Moya (class of 2016-17 fellow), called “Imagining Adaptive Futures,” which examined how speculative fiction can help us work toward sustainable, equitable, and just futures, even in the face of potentially existential environmental threats. Along with his wife, Libra Hilde (class of 2017-18 fellow), he is a resident fellow at Castaño House. Jones also has a broad interest in the intersection of evolutionary and economic theory, which served as the foundation for his CASBS fellowship in 2015-16. He is currently faculty fellow, and for more information about his work, please find his website at: https://heeh.stanford.edu/