Anne Pisor
Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Demography
Preferred Pronouns: she/her
323B Carpenter Building
Education
Ph.D. in Anthropology, 2016, University of California Santa Barbara
M.A. in Anthropology, 2013, University of California Santa Barbara
M.A. in Applied Statistics, 2012, University of California Santa Barbara
B.A. in Anthropology and Psychology, 2009, UCLA.
Websites
Professional Bio
Professional Bio
Anne Pisor (“pie-zur”) is an integrative scientific anthropologist who studies how people manage risk. She's known for her work on the evolution of cooperation in humans, especially social relationships that span communities and group boundaries (“long-distance relationships”) – often key to risk management. This work inspired her federally funded projects on climate change adaptation (Wellcome Foundation) and natural resource management (NSF), interdisciplinary efforts that involve collaborations in anthropology, public health, epidemiology, development, climate science, public policy, and more.
Anne was recently named a Rising Star by the Human Behavior and Evolution Society as an early-career researcher “whose innovative work has already advanced the field.” You can watch a talk of hers for a taste of her approach.
Anne also mentors entrepreneurs at Penn State, especially undergraduate and graduate students, helping them translate their skills to do social good.
Notable Publications
Smith, K.S., Pisor, A.C., Aron, B., Bernard, K., Fimbo, P., Machano, H., Kimesera, R., Rubens, J., Slade, L., Sobo, J., Thani, A., & Borgerhoff Mulder, M. (2025) Long-distance friends and collective action in fisheries management. Conservation Letters 18(1), e13073. doi: 10.1111/conl.13073
Pisor, A.C., & Ross, C.T. (2024) Parochial altruism: What it is and how it varies. Evolution & Human Behavior, 45(1), 2-12. doi: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2023.06.005
Pisor, A.C., Borgerhoff Mulder, M., & Smith, K.M. (2024) Long-distance social relationships can both undercut and promote local natural resource management. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, 379(1893), 20220269. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0269
Pisor, A.C., Touma, D., Singh, D., & Jones, J.H. (2023) To understand climate change adaptation we must characterize climate variability: Here’s how. One Earth, 6(12), 1665-1676. doi: 10.1016/j.oneear.2023.11.005
Pisor, A.C., Lansing, J.S., & Magargal, K. (2023) Climate change adaptation needs a science of culture. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, 378(1889), 20220390. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0390