Professor Alex Bentley
University of Tennessee
Director, DySoC
via Google Scholar
at University of Tennessee
Professor Alex Bentley
As professor in Anthropology at University of Tennessee, Bentley teaches classes in archaeology, computational social science, and public health. Bentley is the director of the undergraduate degree in Computational Social Science and director of the Center for the Dynamics of Social Complexity (DySoC).
Professor Bentley researches cultural evolution, innovation and social change from the ancient past to the present. He applies computational methods to topics ranging from prehistoric disease to contemporary geopolitics, health, sustainability, and technological innovation. His new book is Collaborators through Time (Bloomsbury, 2026).
Research and teaching
Book author, frequent contributor to The Conversation and Director of a research center and undergraduate degree at UTK.
UTK degree program applying computational methods to technological and social change.
About me
Professor Alex Bentley combines anthropology with computational models to understand cultural evolution. His PhD is from University of Wisconsin (Anthropology), with Masters in geochemistry from Cornell University and Bachelors in physics from Bowdoin College. He leads the Center for the Dynamics of Social Complexity (DySoC), focusing on cultural evolution, computational social science, and the social complexity of science. Before moving to Tennessee, Bentley spent fourteen years the United Kingdom, from postdoctoral researcher at University College London to Associate Professor at Durham University and Professor at University of Bristol.