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Kirsty Graham

Kirsty Graham

Assistant Professor
Research
Animal Behavior

Dr. Graham studies how animals move their bodies to communicate, with a particular interest in primate gestures and language evolution.

See Contact Details

Educational Background

  • Ph.D., University of St. Andrews

Areas of Research

Dr. Graham takes a comparative research approach to the evolution of gesture and language, studying how animals use their bodies to communicate. They have worked extensively with nonhuman primates, including bonobos, chimpanzees, and Sulawesi crested macaques, to uncover the meanings of these species' signals. Dr. Graham has also developed online experimental paradigms that assess how humans understand nonhuman communication. They are currently interested in how animals use body posture in communication and are also excited to expand their research program to study more distantly related species.

Selected Publications

  • Graham KE & Hobaiter C (2023) Towards a great ape dictionary: Inexperienced humans understand common nonhuman ape gestures. PLOS Biology, 21(1), e3001939.
  • Graham KE, Badihi G, Safryghin A, Grund C & Hobaiter C (2022) A socio-ecological perspective on the gestural communication of great ape species, individuals, and social units. Ethology, Ecology, and Evolution, 34(3), 235-259.
  • Graham KE, Buryn-Weitzel J, Lahiff NJ, Wilke CP & Slocombe KE (2021) Detecting joint attention events in mother-infant dyads: sharing looks cannot be reliably identified by naïve third-party observers. PLoS ONE, 16(7), e0255241.
  • Graham KE, Furuichi T & Byrne RW (2020) Context, not sequence order, affects the meaning of bonobo (Pan paniscus) gestures. Gesture, 19(2/3), 336-365.
  • Graham KE, Wilke CP, Lahiff NJ & Slocombe KE (2019) Scratching Beneath the Surface: Intentionality in Great Ape Signal production. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 375.
  • Graham KE, Hobaiter C, Ounsley J, Furuichi T & Byrne RW (2018) Bonobo and chimpanzee gestures overlap extensively in meaning. PLoS biology, 16(2), e2004825.
  • Graham KE, Furuichi T & Byrne RW (2017) The gestural repertoire of the wild bonobo (Pan paniscus): a mutually understood communication system. Animal Cognition, 20(2), 171-177.

Contact Details

Kirsty Graham

Psychology
68th Street North 607
(212) 396-6665
kirsty.graham@hunter.cuny.edu

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