Julia Cissewski
On Sunday, January 5, 2025, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology suffered a great loss when our dear colleague Dr. Julia Cissewski passed away unexpectedly. We all feel the impact of her loss and are in deep mourning.
Julia had been with our Institute from the very beginning. In 1998, she began working in the former Department of Linguistics as the Department Administrator and Personal Assistant to Prof. Bernard Comrie, a role she filled not only with great professional expertise, but also with kindness and incredible care for the people around her. After Prof. Comrie's retirement in 2015, Julia moved on to the same position in the then newly founded Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture under the directorship of Richard McElreath.
Her constant drive and enthusiasm to make the world a better place for everyone in it (humans as well as other species) extended far beyond her work here. In 2007, Julia founded the non-profit organization "Orang-Utans in Not e.V." (orangutans in peril), which she passionately chaired for 17 years until her untimely death. In this capacity, Julia's achievements were publicly recognized through several awards and prizes, the most prestigious of which, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, was awarded to her in 2022.
As a friend and colleague, Dr. Julia Cissewski leaves a tangible void in our midst. It is hard to imagine this Institute without her.
We offer our deepest sympathies to all those affected by this tragedy.
We'll miss you, Julia!
Your MPI-EVA Community
About
Julia Cissewski gained a Diploma degree in Romance and English studies and Economics for higher education and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Leipzig. Since 1998 she has been working as assistant to the director and department administrator at MPI-EVA. Her main responsibilities include budgetary and personnel matters. Her own research is in the areas of animal cognition and language evolution.
Curriculum vitae
University education
1991 - 1994 | University of Leipzig Romance and English studies, Economics, Russian Certificate "Akademisch geprüfter Fachübersetzer für Wirtschaftsrussisch" |
1995 - 1996 | Universidad de Salamanca, Spain Linguistics, Economics, Medicine |
1996 - 1998 | University of Leipzig Certificate "Akademisch geprüfter Fachübersetzer für medizinisches Englisch" Diploma in Romance and English studies and Economics for higher education |
2011 - 2022 | University of Leipzig / Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology |
Positions held
| 1998 - 2015 | Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig Department of Linguistics Department administrator and assistant to Prof. Bernard Comrie (director) |
| 2015 - 2025 | Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture Department administrator and assistant to Prof. Richard McElreath (director) |
Teaching
| 1999 - 2003 | University of Leipzig |
| 2002 | University of Leipzig |
| 2001 - 2004 | University of Leipzig Course of lectures "Introduction to linguistics" |
Research Interest
Animal cognition and social behaviour, language evolution
Fieldwork
| Juli-August 2004 | Tanjung Puting National Park (Kalimantan Tengah Province, Indonesia) |
| Juli-August 2005 | Tanjung Puting National Park (Kalimantan Tengah Province, Indonesia) |
| Juli-August 2006 | Tanjung Puting National Park (Kalimantan Tengah Province, Indonesia) |
Professional memberships and related activities
Gesellschaft für Primatologie
International Society for Gesture Studies
Primate Society of Great Britain
Orang-Utans in Not e.V. (president)
Wild Chimpanzee Foundation – Germany e.V.
Universitätsgesellschaft Freunde und Förderer der Universität Leipzig e.V.
Leipzig Alumni
Awards
| 2022 | Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany) |
Publications and presentations
Cissewski, Julia and Lydia Luncz (2021): Symbolic Signal Use in Wild Chimpanzee Gestural Communication?: A Theoretical Framework. Front. Psychol. 12:718414. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.718414
Cissewski, Julia, Lydia Luncz and Christophe Boesch: Ground-nest building in wild chimpanzees in Taї National Park: non-social behavior and group-specific gesture. Poster presented at the Winter Meeting of the Primate Society of Great Britain (PSGB), London, November 28 - 29, 2017.
Cissewski, Julia (2017): 3 1/2 Fragen an ... Die Zeit, CHANCEN Brief, 7 September 2017. PDF
Cissewski, Julia (2017): Die Orang-Utans retten – und uns selbst. fairquer. Sächsische entwicklungspolitische Zeitschrift (39), 29 - 30.
Cissewski, Julia and Christophe Boesch (2016): Communication without language: How great apes may cover crucial advantages of language without creating a system of symbolic communication. Gesture 15(2), 224-249, DOI: 10.1075/gest.15.2.04cis
Cissewski, Julia and Christophe Boesch: Population-specific semantic shifts: A case of social learning in wild chimpanzee populations? Poster presented at the Winter Meeting of the Association for the Study of Animal Behavior (ASAB), London, December 3 - 4, 2015.
Cissewski, Julia and Christophe Boesch: The role of 'natural meaning' in great ape communication. Poster presented at the Spring Meetingof the Primate Society of Great Britain (PSGB), Roehampton, London, April 9 - 10, 2015.
Cissewski, Julia and Christophe Boesch: How great apes can do without language. Poster presented at the Fourteenth Conference of the Gesellschaft für Primatologie (GfP), Leipzig, February 11 - 13, 2015.
Herrmann, Esther, Brian Hare, Julia Cissewski and Michael Tomasello (2011): A comparison of temperament in nonhuman apes and human infants. Developmental Science 14(6), 1393–1405, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2011.01082.x
Herrmann, Esther, Brian Hare, Julia Cissewski and Michael Tomasello: The origin of human temperament: Differences in the response to novelty among great apes and human children. Poster presented at the SRCD Biennial Meeting, Denver, CO, April 2-4, 2009.
Cissewski, Julia and Biruté M. Galdikas: Gestural communication in wild orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) of Tanjung Puting National Park, Indonesia – an ongoing study. Poster presented at the Fifth International Conference on the Evolution of Language, Leipzig, March 31 - April 3, 2004.
Cissewski, Julia: What's the point? Pointing from a comparative perspective. Talk presented at the Anlang meeting, Leipzig, January 28, 2003.