Ming Fei Li
Instructor
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Ming Fei Li is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology with a collaborative specialization in Environmental Studies at the University of Toronto. She is a biological anthropologist studying behaviour in humans and nonhuman animals, with a focus on sleep and activity patterns. Ming Fei's interests lie at the intersection of human-environment interactions and human-wildlife coexistence. The question guiding her dissertation research is: How have humans adapted our sleep-wake patterns to respond to and mitigate risks? Ming Fei currently works with rural agropastoral communities residing in the high-altitude, cross-border region along the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. At this site, socioeconomic instability, increasingly extreme weather events, and widespread fear of nighttime stock theft are all sources of risk that are expected to affect activity patterns and sleep. Additionally, the widespread use of guard dogs to protect households and kraals against external risks presents an opportunity to test hypotheses concerning human-dog coexistence and co-evolution. Ming Fei obtained her BA & Sc from McGill University in 2017, with double majors in Anthropology and Organismal Biology. She completed her MSc at the University of Toronto in 2020 under the supervision of Dr. Julie Teichroeb. Her master's project looked at social foraging strategies in wild vervet monkeys in Uganda. Research activities aside, Ming Fei enjoys hiking, playing volleyball, and hanging out with her cat, Pierogi.