Lyla Rothschild

Lyla discovered Becker as an undergrad, after coming across a quote that piqued her interest while doing some required reading for class. Intrigued, she immediately went to the index and saw that the quote came from The Denial of Death. Thus began a fascination with Becker’s work—a natural fit for someone with a longtime interest in psychology and existentialism.

As early as she can remember, Lyla had a particular interest in understanding the motivations behind prejudice and tribalism, which she first observed on the playground at school and then in the world at large. Becker’s synthesis and its derived field of empirical research provided a nuanced understanding that resonated with her experiences immediately.

Lyla received a B.A. in psychology with a minor in French from Kalamazoo College. She worked as a research assistant in cognitive and social psychology labs, completing her senior thesis in Terror Management Theory (TMT). After college, she lived in France for two years, which had a formative impact and furthered her understanding of culture and culture-based conflict, while also allowing her to have a third-person perspective of America’s cultural worldview. Upon returning, she spent a year studying and researching TMT at the University of Arizona before joining the team here at the EBF, where she is helping them spread Becker’s ideas to broader audiences.