Contact: Prof. Katja Liebal Free University Berlin Excellence Cluster Languages of Emotion Education and Psychology / Evolutionary Psychology Habelschwerdter Allee 45 14195 Berlin Germany +49 30 838 57846 katja.liebal@fu-berlin.de Languages of Emotion webpage   Honorary Lecturer University of Portsmouth Department of Psychology King Henry Building King Henry 1st Street Portsmouth PO1 2DY University of Portsmouth webpage   www.primate-gesture-center.eu Subprojects P1, P2, P5b, P5c, P6b

Katja Liebal:

Research interests in multimodal communication, expression of emotion and socio-cognitive skills of nonhuman primates and humans. Diploma in Biology (University of Leipzig), 2005 Dissertation at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, 2005 – 2008 senior lecturer in the Psychology department, University of Portsmouth, UK. 2008 – 2009 Postdoc position at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig. Since 2009 juniorprofessorship for Evolutionary Psychology, Free University of Berlin.Teaching duties include Biological Psychology, Qualitative Research Skills and seminars on cognition and communication of primates. Since 2006 member of the project “Towards a grammar of gesture: evolution, brain, and linguistic structures”, head of Primatology. Since 2008 research position at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology with focus on social emotions and helping behaviour in great apes.

Research:

1. Comparison of gestural communication in nonhuman and human primates.
– Linear and simultaneous structures in gestures of great apes (with Sebastian Tempelmann).
– Ontogeny of gestural communication in great apes (with Christel Schneider) and human infants.

2. Evolutionary roots of human social interaction (ROSI).
Cross-species and cross-cultural project investigating social skills of great apes including humans.
In collaboration with Daniel Haun, and Juliane Kaminski, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.

3. Comparing emotion expression across species – development of a GibbonFACS.
In collaboration with Bridget Waller, University of Portsmouth, UK, and Anne Burrows, Duquesne University, US.

4. Empathy in great apes.
In collaboration with Amrisha Vaish, Michael Tomasello.

5. Processing of Emotion and Language – Development and interaction across lifespan.
In collaboration with Isabell Wartenburger, Universität Potsdam.

Previous projects:

1. Gestural communication in social groups of baboons, gibbons and great apes in different zoos and research institutions (Zoo Krefeld, Zoo Leipzig, Germany; Howletts Wild Animal Park, UK, Zoo Zuerich, Switzerland, Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center (Field Station), Atlanta, US).
In collaboration with Michael Tomasello and Josep Call, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and Simone Pika, Psychological Sciences, The University of Manchester.

2. Investigations of the communicative behaviour of great apes depending on the attentional state of a human (Wolfgang Köhler Primate Research Center, Zoo Leipzig).

3. Compliance in human infants of different cultures.
In collaboration with Vasu Reddy, University of Portsmouth.

Qualifications:

2007 – 2008 The Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PGCLTHE), University of Portsmouth

2001 – 2005 PhD dissertation (Biology) at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology: Gestural communication in great apes

October 1995 – June 2001 MA Biology (Diploma), University of Leipzig
Majors: Zoology, Behavioural Physiology, Ecology, and Geology
Diploma thesis: ‘Social communication in siamangs (Hylobates syndactylus) in zoological gardens’

Posts:

2009 – present Professor (Junior) for Evolutionary Psychology, Free University Berlin, Cluster Languages of Emotion, Department of Education and Psychology

Since August 2008 Postdoctoral position at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig

2008 – present Honorary lecturer at the University of Portsmouth, department of Psychology

2005 – 2008 Senior lecturer (associate professor) at the University of Portsmouth

2001 – 2004 PhD Student at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

1999 – 2000 Student assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

1998 – 1999 Student assistant at the University Leipzig

Teaching:

What makes us human?, Animal cognition, Molecular Evolution and Animal Systematic, Biological Psychology, Primate Communication, Observational Research, Applying Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology, About Psychology, Qualitative Research Skills, Communication and Cognition in Human and Nonhuman primates