Assistant Professor

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Zachary Garfield is an Assistant Professor at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University.

He is an interdisciplinary behavioral scientist and evolutionary anthropologist whose research bridges anthropology, psychology, and organizational studies. He co-directs the Omo Valley Research Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to scientific research, education, and community development in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley. The project supports rural communities through initiatives in social, biological, and health sciences.

He earned a B.A. in Anthropology and Psychology from the University of Nebraska– Lincoln and a Ph.D. in Evolutionary Anthropology from Washington State University. He was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, an interdisciplinary institute affiliated with the Toulouse School of Economics. His research investigates the interplay between individual strategies and collective dynamics, particularly during periods of cultural and ecological change. He focuses on leadership, social learning, conflict resolution, cooperation, and economic behavior, examining how these processes are shaped by networks, political structures, and cultural norms. His work integrates adaptationist, behavioral-ecological, and cultural-evolutionary approaches.

Since 2015, Zachary has conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in southwest Ethiopia with forest-dwelling forager-horticulturalists and savannah pastoralists. Through the Omo Valley Research Project, he is building a comprehensive cross-cultural and longitudinal dataset on pastoralist and agro-pastoralist groups to facilitate interdisciplinary research on human behavior and social organization.

He is committed to advancing robust, evidence-based theories of human behavior, sociality, and cultural evolution while working in partnership with marginalized communities and supporting the next generation of Ethiopian scholars.