Ruizhe Liu, graduate student in Evolutionary Anthropology, has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant to support her dissertation project: "Does reliance on kin erode with market integration? A social network perspective?"

The project will use theory from human behavioral ecology and cultural evolution to test the hypothesis that market integration causes a decline in kin density in social networks. Ruizhe will head to China in the next year to conduct the research over 12 months among the matrilineal Mosuo.