Dr. Susan Lappan, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Appalachian State University
Monday, Nov. 5, 2018
12 p.m.
Anne Belk Hall, Room 342
This event is free of charge and open to the campus and community.
An international team of researchers including Appalachian State University Biological Anthropologist Susan Lappan has been conducting behavioral research on a population of siamangs (Symphalangus syndactylus) since 2000 in an area in southern Sumatra that includes habitat damaged by anthropogenic fires in 1997. In 2017, Dr. Lappan was granted release time supported by the Claassen Research Enhancement Award to support an analysis of the relationships among group composition, food availability, fire recovery and ranging behavior in siamangs using data collected from 2000-15. In this presentation, Lappan will briefly present the results of her research, as well as offering insights into her research process and the ways in which the Claassen Award facilitated the process of data analysis and preparation of the research for publication.
Lappan is a biological anthropologist and behavioral ecologist interested in the relationships among habitat characteristics, social organization and male and female reproductive strategies. Her research primarily uses behavioral and ecological data from wild populations of nonhuman primates. Taxonomically, most of her research has been on the behavioral ecology of gibbons (family Hylobatidae), the small apes of Asia.
The Claassen Research Enhancement Award, funded by a gift from Professor Cheryl Claassen, is intended to fund release from teaching obligations to tenured or tenure-track Anthropology Department faculty for the purpose of pursuing research-related activities they would not otherwise have time to pursue.
This Anthropology Brown Bag event is sponsored by the Department of Anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences at Appalachian.
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About the Department of Anthropology
The Department of Anthropology offers a comparative and holistic approach to the study of the human experience. The anthropological perspective provides a broad understanding of the origins as well as the meaning of physical and cultural diversity in the world — past, present and future. Learn more at https://anthro.appstate.edu.
Dr. Susan Lappan. Photo by Marie Freeman
Dr. Susan Lappan. Photo by Marie Freeman