Darcia Narvaez, PhD

Darcia Narvaez is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame. Her prior careers include professional musician, classroom music teacher, business owner, seminarian and middle school Spanish teacher. Dr. Narvaez’s current research, The Evolved Nest, explores how early life experience influences societal culture, wellbeing and sociomoral character in children and adults. She integrates neurobiological, clinical, developmental and education sciences in her theories and research about human nature and human development.

She publishes extensively on moral development, parenting and education. Recently she has been studying the Evolved Nest and how it influences wellbeing, sociality and morality. She hosts interdisciplinary conferences at the University of Notre Dame regarding early experience and human development. Her talks are available at the Evolved Nest’s YouTube channel.

In 2016, she organized a conference on Sustainable Wisdom: Integrating Indigenous KnowHow for Global Flourishing, see the conference YouTube playlist here. You can also buy the book, a collection of essays, here.
She is the author or editor of numerous books and articles. She is an advisory board member of Attachment Parenting International and the Association for Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health.
Her recent book, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture and Wisdom (2014), won the 2015 William James Book Award from the American Psychological Association and the 2017 Expanded Reason Award. She is former executive editor of the Journal of Moral Education.
Darcia serves on the board of directors for Kindred World, is a contributing editor for Kindred Media, and founder of the nonprofit initiative, The Evolved Nest.