International Journal of Primatology - Meet the Editors of the International Journal of Primatology

Editor-in-Chief

Prof Joanna M. Setchell

Durham University, UK

Preferred name: Jo
Pronouns: she/her
joanna.setchell "at" durham.ac.uk

Jo (she/her) obtained her PhD in Zoology from the University of Cambridge, UK and is a Professor of Anthropology at Durham University, UK where she teaches biological and evolutionary anthropology. Her current research integrates biological and social anthropology to understand the sustainability of human–wildlife interactions, and thus promote coexistence. She has also conducted extensive research in primate evolutionary ecology. This work is highly collaborative and international, employing a range of methods to address questions relating to reproductive strategies, life history, sexual selection, and signalling in primates. While her primary focus has been on mandrills in Gabon, Jo has also conducted fieldwork in Cameroon, Republic of Congo, and Sabah, Malaysia, and has travelled extensively to view primates.

Jo is is committed to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion. She is a past Vice-President of the International Primatological Society and a past President of the Primate Society of Great Britain. She is a member of the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group Section for Human-Primate Interactions. Her book, Studying Primates: How to Design, Conduct and Report Primatological Research is based on her experience as a researcher, teacher, author and editor, and has been described as ‘indispensable for those teaching and engaging in primatological research’.

Associate Editors

Carolyn Jost Robinson

Chengeta Wildlife, USA

Carolyn Jost Robinson received her PhD at Purdue University. She is a broadly trained anthropologist whose work emphasizes ethnoprimatology, multi-species ethnography and primate conservation in coupled human-natural systems. She has worked most recently on red colobus species, having co-founded Partners for Red Colobus, a program which supports the implementation of education, outreach, and other priority activities of the Red Colobus Action Plan. Her applied work in western and central Africa is driven by a commitment to futures that include both humans and wildlife through socially responsible, locally inclusive conservation practice. Dr. Jost Robinson has worked both in the university and applied sectors. She currently serves as a Director of The Forest Collective (this opens in a new tab).

Songtao Guo

Northwest University, China

 

Songtao Guo is the professor at Northwest University in China, and focuses on animal nutritional ecology and conservation biology. He first reported the genetic kinship and mating system of wild Golden-snub-nosed monkeys, combining data from long-term behavioral observations with genetic analyses, providing new insights into the social system of primate multi-level societies. He uses multiple methods in behavior, thermo measuring, gut microbiology, and nutritional analysis to reveal the evolutionary adaptations of the digestive system of primates inhabiting high-latitude forests.

Júlio César Bicca-Marques

Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Júlio César Bicca-Marques is Professor at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. He also worked at the Universidade Federal do Acre in Rio Branco, AC, Brazil, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Urbana, IL, USA. He is biologist (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), primatologist (Universidade de Brasília, Brazil), MSc in Ecology (Universidade de Brasília, Brazil) and PhD in Anthropology (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA). He is interested in the ecology, behavior and conservation of nonhuman primates in fragmented landscapes, including their adaptations and challenges to live in small habitat patches, their interactions with parasites, and the effects of outbreaks of infectious diseases on population persistence. He is also interested in primate cognitive ecology and social foraging. More recently, he has begun to integrate knowledge of nonhuman primate health and behavioral ecology, human health, farm animals health, and plant and environmental health to explore the evolutionary bases of self-medication and a new method of drug discovery for veterinary and human use. His studies have covered all major platyrrhine radiations in Brazil, with a primary focus on howler monkeys (Alouatta) and a secondary focus on tamarins (Saguinus and Leontocebus) and marmosets (Callithrix). 

Onja H. Razafindratsima

University of California Berkeley, USA

Dr. Onja Razafindratsima is an ecologist currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California Berkeley. She completed her Ph.D. at Rice University in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and her undergraduate and Master studies in Animal Biology, Ecology and Conservation at the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar. Before joining UC Berkeley, she held several academic positions, including as a Hrdy Fellow in Conservation at Harvard University and as an Assistant Professor at South Dakota State University. Her research interests span a wide range of topics in primate ecology and conservation, focusing on lemurs in Madagascar's tropical forests.

Addisu Mekonnen

Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

Dr. Addisu Mekonnen is a wildlife ecologist and conservation biologist with a broad range of interests including ecology, behaviour, conservation biology, population genetics, and forest management. His research focuses on understanding the responses of wild primates to a variety of anthropogenic and natural factors and their consequences, and the causes and consequences of diversity in ecology, behaviour, genetics, evolutionary biology, and key life-history traits. His research integrates fieldwork, laboratory work, and geospatial analyses to design conservation and management strategies. He has been conducting research in southern Ethiopia since 2007/2008 and is a director of the Bale Monkey and Bamboo Research Project. He also conducts research on other wildlife in Ethiopia and East Africa.

Dr. Mekonnen received his MSc and BSc degree in Biology from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. He earned his Ph.D. in Biology from University of Oslo, Norway, followed by a three-year postdoc at the same university. He also served as lecturer in the Department of Zoological Sciences at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Dr. Mekonnen is currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Calgary, Canada. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Wildlife and Ecotourism Management at Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.

Book Review Editor:

Sharon Kessler

University of Stirling, UK

Sharon.Kessler "at" stir.ac.uk
 

Sharon Kessler ​​obtained her PhD in anthropology from Arizona State University in 2014, then completed three postdoctoral fellowships in related fields: computer simulation modelling (McGill University, Canada), virology (Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Germany) and primate communication (Durham University, England). In 2019 she joined the University of Stirling's Psychology Department as a lecturer. Her research focuses on the evolution of sociality, communication, and behavioural defenses against disease in primates. She has worked with lemurs, galagos, capuchins, mandrills, and chimpanzees.