Larissa Swedell

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Larissa Swedell

Professor & Department Chair

Ph.D, Columbia University 2000

Doctoral Faculty, City University of New York
Honorary Research Associate, University of Cape Town

Office: Powdermaker Hall 315E
Phone: (718) 997-2897
Fax: (718) 997-2885
Email: Lswedell@qc.cuny.edu

I am a biological anthropologist and field primatologist with a primary research focus on the social behavior and ecology of hamadryas baboons at the Filoha field site in Ethiopia’s Awash National Park.  For nearly three decades I have been leading the Filoha Hamadryas Project, which began with my PhD research in 1996-1998 and is currently co-directed by Shahrina Chowdhury (Brooklyn College-CUNY) and myself. With students and collaborators I’ve investigated numerous aspects of the ecology and behavior of this species.  The Filoha Hamadryas Project is the only currently operational long-term field project focusing on the behavioral biology of hamadryas baboons, which are unique among primates with regard to their male dominated multi-level society and their potential to elucidate human social evolution.

Since 2006 I have also helped to coordinate research on chacma baboons in the Cape Peninsula of South Africa.  As a founding member of the Baboon Research Unit at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2006, I’ve collaborated with researchers at UCT and others on studies of various aspects of chacma baboon behavior and ecology.

I am based at Queens College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system, and am a member of the Anthropology, Biology, and Psychology Doctoral Faculty at the CUNY Graduate Center.  I am also an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town.