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Melissa Remis
Professor of Anthropology
Melissa Jane Remis received her PhD from Yale University in 1994, and joined the Purdue University faculty in 1996.
Personal Website
Office Phone: (765) 496-1514
Email: remism@purdue.edu
Specialization: Africa; Central African Republic; Biological Anthropology: Primate Ecology and Behavior; Human Ecology; Animal Behavior and Ecology; Conservation Biology; Sustainable Development; Developing Nations; Ecology; Wildlife; Nutrition; Human Evolution; Gender.
Courses:
Taught (Last two years)
Anthropology 203 Biological Basis of Human Social Behavior
Anthropology 204 Introduction to Human Evolution Anthropology 335 Primate Behavior
Anthropology 535 Foundations of Biological Anthropology
Anthropology 536 Primate Ecology
Dr. Remis’ field-based research in the Central African Republic focuses on the behavioral ecology of western gorillas, which were poorly known before she initiated her field research in the late 1980s. In addition to this ongoing work, she is currently engaged in a collaborative field program with ecologists and cultural anthropologists on human impacts on mammals and conservation in the Central African Republic. She also maintains an experimentally based research program on the evolution of feeding strategies among the African apes which employs research on captive apes in zoological facilities. She has authored or coauthored over 14 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals such as the American Journal of Primatology, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, International Journal of Primatology, and Primates. She has presented papers at national and international conferences and has been invited to participate at special conferences on gorilla ecology, and primate locomotion, including recently being the only woman among only 12 senior international scholars of African apes invited to Japan in honor of retiring prominent Japanese primatologist, Dr. Toshida Nishida. Each of these presentations resulted in additional publications in peer-reviewed books. She has served as a reviewer for granting agencies including NSF and academic journals in physical anthropology, primatology, ecology and conservation. She was named to the editorial board at International Journal of Primatology in 2003. At Purdue she has taught courses on Primate Ecology, Conservation and Behavior, Human Evolution, Biological Anthropology at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. She has trained US and African graduate students in African field research and undergraduates from several institutions in zoo based research. Remis Research Group Please follow this link for more information about Dr. Remis, her graduate students and the current research that they are conducting.
Positions at Purdue University
2001-present Associate Professor of Anthropology
1996-2001 Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Service to the Profession
Editorial Board, International Journal of Primatology, 2003 – present
Reviewer, National Geographic Society Grants for Research, 1999 - present
Reviewer, Physical Anthropology and Ecology Programs, NSF, 1997 – present
Honors and Awards
Fulbright Fellowship Finalist, Central African Republic, 2002
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