Rate My Professor Manuel Will

Dr. Manuel Will is a Research Associate at the Palaeo-Research Institute in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Prehistoric Archaeology and Paleoanthropology from the University of Tübingen, a Master of Philosophy in Human Evolutionary Studies from the University of Cambridge, and a doctorate in Prehistoric Archaeology from the University of Tübingen, where he also completed his Habilitation in Prehistoric Archaeology and Paleoanthropology in 2023. His research focuses on Palaeolithic archaeology, including analyses of lithic assemblages, behavioral adaptations, cultural evolution, and palaeoanthropology, with particular emphasis on the Middle Stone Age in southern Africa and coastal adaptations by early modern humans.

Dr. Will serves as Akademischer Rat a. Z. at the University of Tübingen and has held previous positions including Junior Research Fellow at Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge. He has led or co-led multiple research projects funded by the DFG and other organizations, examining topics such as landscape use, niche construction, and technological change in the Middle Stone Age. He is Associate Editor of the Journal of Archaeological Sciences: Reports and has co-edited special issues and volumes on Middle Stone Age technologies and coastal adaptations. His peer-reviewed publications include articles in Nature Communications, Journal of Human Evolution, and PLoS ONE, addressing body size evolution in Homo, lithic technology, and regional patterns of cultural change. Dr. Will maintains active collaborations on projects in South Africa and Germany.