Britt Florkiewicz, Ph.D. Email & Phone Number

I am a comparative & evolutionary psychologist currently conducting research on the properties of animal facial signaling and its implications for the evolution of sociality, gestural communication, and human language. I work with various captive populations of non-human primates (platyrrhines, cercopithecoids, gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees) and non-primate mammals (cats and dogs). To study the physical form of facial signals, I make use of Facial Action Coding Systems (or FACS). The FACS are systematic and standardized methods for coding facial muscle movement produced during bouts of communication. I am currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Lyon College. I am also the Principal Investigator & Founder of the Animal Behavior & Cognition Lab at Lyon College. I earned my B.A. in Anthropology from the University of North Carolina Wilmington in 2014, my M.A. in Anthropology from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2016, and my Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California Los Angeles in 2022. For my M.A., I conducted research on the relationship between pair bond strength and facial signaling within multiple species of gibbons (Hylobates spp., Hoolock spp., and Nomascus spp.). For my Ph.D., I examined how facial signaling compares to other modes of communication (such as manual gesturing) in a captive group of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).