Intern

Hattie graduated summa cum laude from Truman State University in December 2024 with B.A.s in Sociology/Anthropology and Spanish. She earned honors in Sociology/Anthropology and a minor in Philosophy and Religion. Hattie is particularly interested in how the environment affects organizational aspects of culture and the intersection of anthropology and primatology.

While her undergraduate work emphasized various aspects of human culture, Hattie was intrigued by the evolution of human culture from early hominids. Her undergraduate thesis examined the effects of elevation on animal domestication, and her findings contributed to a larger study linking levels of average annual rainfall to early sites of domestication. To explore the evolution of behavior in more detail, Hattie interned at several sanctuaries for chimpanzees where she analyzed social interactions, relationships between group members, and resource use in captive settings. Hattie’s time at these sanctuaries solidified her love of animals, both wild and captive, and her commitment to their protection and advocacy. From these experiences and her undergraduate work, she believes that cross-cultural research using human and primate societies will benefit the fields of biological anthropology, cultural anthropology, and primatology.

Understanding how humans and non-humans rely on natural resources is key to effective humanitarian aid programs, something that Hattie has taken an interest in and would love to contribute to in the coming years. While at HRAF Hattie seeks to expand her experience in cross-cultural studies and cross-species studies, which can develop further in a graduate program for biological anthropology.