Larissa Swedell

Larissa Swedell is a Professor and Department Chair at Queens College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system. She is also an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town. She holds a Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology from Columbia University (2000). Her research focuses on the social behavior and ecology of hamadryas baboons in Ethiopia’s Filoha region, leading the long-term Filoha Hamadryas Project since 1996. She collaborates on studies of chacma baboons in South Africa and teaches courses in biological anthropology, primate behavior, and human evolution at both Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

Swedell’s research explores multilevel primate societies, sexual selection, and the evolutionary links between primate social structures and human social evolution. Her work integrates field observations, molecular techniques, and computational models to analyze primate behavior, reproductive strategies, and ecological adaptations. She has published extensively on topics including primate parasitology, stress physiology, and the impacts of environmental seasonality on behavior.

Her teaching spans undergraduate and graduate levels, covering topics like human evolution, primate behavior, and the interface between human and nonhuman primates. She co-directs the Filoha Project with Shahrina Chowdhury and actively involves students in field research, though specific advisee names are not listed here. Collaborations include the University of Cape Town’s Baboon Research Unit and interdisciplinary projects on primate dental morphology and stress biomarkers.

Swedell’s contributions bridge anthropology, biology, and ecology, emphasizing the ecological and social drivers of primate behavior. Her work provides critical insights into how primate societies adapt to environmental challenges and inform our understanding of human social evolution.