Associate Professor Debra Judge is a biological anthropologist and evolutionary ecologist in the School of Human Sciences.   She received her BS (Behavioral and Ecological Biology) and MS (Animal Ecology) from the University of California, Davis.  She completed her PhD  -- an evolutionary analysis of testamentary property distributions -- in 1996 (Univ Calif Davis).   After a post-doc investigating evolutionary demography (NIH funding), Debra moved to UWA to take up a T&R position in Anatomy & Human Biology.

Debra's abiding interest in family-living species led her to undertake field studies of monogamous birds and primates,  archival studies in testamentary practices, and  to the comparative study of life history and longevity. Her primary research  currently is a longitudinal study of child growth in several ecologically varying communities in rural Timor-Leste.  She focuses on understanding the role of family ecology in the growth and development of children.  With a holistic understanding of the local conditions associated with better child growth, interventions can be tailored to the conditions of local communities, and facilitate improved child growth in the rural areas of Timor-Leste where most families depend on subsistence agriculture. This research has been funded by ARC Discovery grants and by UNICEF. Under her guidance, honours and PhD students have undertaken in-depth field projects in Timor-Leste resulting in numerous publications in research journals of high repute. Debra is passionate about developing the experiences, skills, insights, and critical thinking of young researchers in a way that prepares them for a wide array of careers in public service, international development and aid, as well as in academia. This passion resulted in her appointment as the Department's  Graduate Research Coordinator from 2016 to 2023.

Debra coordinates two  undergraduate units in Biological Anthropology and teaches into units on human biology, women's health,  gender studies, and the intersection of demography and disease.  She has also taught graduate units in Human Ecology. 

Debra is a consulting editor to the two main journals in her discipline,  Human Nature and  Evolution and Human Behavior, the Chair of the international group Women in Evolution and Behavior, and the President of the UWA Academic Staff Association. She is also an elected member of the Academic Board and of the Board of the Graduate Research School.

Teach biological anthropology at all levels; also teach into Gender Studies

Graduate Research Coordinator for School of Human Sciences

President, UWA Academic Staff Association

Elected member, Academic Board

Elected representative, Academic Consultative Committee

Research supervisor

Research on family ecology and child growth in East Timor
Intergenerational relationships
Primate social behaviour
Evolution of longevity as a life history trait

UNICEF

Australian Research Council
Univ. Western Australia
National Institutes of Health (USA)
Rockefeller Foundation
Sigma Xi Grants in Aid of Research

Assistant Professor, UWA 2010-2014
Teaching and Research Fellow, UWA 2002-2010
Professional Research Ecologist, Univ California Davis

Coordinator ANHB 3315: Human Evolutionary Ecology
Coordinator ANHB 2215: Biological Anthropology: Human Variation

Coordinator APHB5502 Human Ecology
ANHB 3321: lecturer (demograph)
Primates & Human Evolution (in ANHB1101)
Human Behaviour (ANHB1102)
3310/3320: Applications
Population Growth, Evol of Menopause (ANHB 2216)

GEND2903 Sex,Gender and STEM

functional French
basic Spanish
functional Tetun