User:Apegrrl

Michelle Y. Merrill, Ph.D.

Michelle Y. Merrill (Ph.D.) studies teaching, learning, cultural evolution and culture change. Since 2004, she has focused on sustainability: how we can connect with, learn from and teach one another to co-create a resilient, regenerative future. She is particularly interested in applying ecological and evolutionary concepts to human design problems. Before embarking on her current research project on sustainability and pedagogy at Nanyang Technological University, she worked at a community college in California, developing sustainability-themed courses, advising student clubs, and supporting college efforts to enhance institutional and community sustainability and social justice.

Dr. Merrill previously studied primate behavior, including tropical ecology, evolution, social networks, cooperation, learning and communication. She studied wild orangutans on Sumatra, and bonobos in Zaire. Her doctoral dissertation in Biological Anthropology and Anatomy from Duke University (2004) was on Orangutan Cultures: Tool Use, Social Transmission and Population Differences. Her experiences in tropical rainforest fieldwork inform her current approach to sustainability.

Ph.D. 2004 Biological Anthropology and Anatomy, Duke University, Durham, NC USA Dissertation Title: Orangutan Cultures: Tool Use, Social Transmission and Population Differences

B.A. 1994 Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA USA

blog at michelleyvonnemerrill.com

bookmarks on del.icio.us as "DrPongo" [1]