Research

My research bridges biological and sociocultural anthropology to explore how wild primates and humans shape one another through lived experience, mutual adaptation, and shared environments—offering insights that support more ethical, community-informed approaches to conservation. 

 In collaboration with Indonesian field assistants and researchers, I apply quantitative, field-based primate research techniques that combine long-term behavioral observation and hormone analysis to explore orangutan behavior and ecological adaptation in situ. 

Drawing from sociocultural anthropology, I use interviews, field notes, and participant observation to understand local knowledge systems and human–orangutan relationships. These methods allow me to study conservation as a lived, culturally embedded practice. 

By integrating these approaches, I aim to inform conservation strategies that are not only biologically sound but also ethically grounded and community-informed. My research contributes to broader efforts to foster coexistence in shared landscapes. 

Informed by ethnoprimatology and human–animal studies, my work treats nonhuman primates as agentive beings. I explore how orangutans and humans co-create social and spatial worlds through mutual adaptation, habituation, and interaction.