People – Christopher Kuzawa, Northwestern University

In addition to the group members listed below, we actively collaborate with colleagues worldwide, including our fellow biological anthropologists within Northwestern’s (E2HD) Evolutionary and Ecological Approaches to Health and Development (E2HD) group.

If you are a prospective Ph.D. student or a Northwestern undergraduate interested in the Anthropology major, you can find information about our degree programs here.

Current group members

	Chris Kuzawa, PI kuzawa@northwestern.edu view CV
	Sophia Carrera, postdoc (Ph.D., Univ. of Michigan) Research: long term biological and health impacts of early adversity in non-human primates and humans.
	Emily Baron, Ph.D. student Research: Neurodevelopment; brain evolution; brain energetics and metabolism; life history theory; developmental plasticity; cognitive development; DOHaD; the embodiment of stress; nutrition; intergenerational transmission of health, disease, & stress.
	Bobbie Benavidez, Ph.D. student Research: Indigenous knowledge, health disparities, health transition among the Maya.
	Ca’la Connors, Ph.D. student Research: Intergenerational stress transmission; Black women; African diaspora; Stress biology; Health disparities; Biocultural embodiment; Developmental plasticity; Racialization; Inequality; Intrauterine environments; Developmental Origins of Health and Disease
	Alicia Fahrner, Ph.D. student I am interested in examining the health consequences of social inequalities. More specifically, how biosocial pathways such as race-based traumatic stress impact Black health and contribute to racialized health disparities. Developmental Origins of Health and Disease; Intergenerational transmission of stress and trauma; epigenetic inheritances; developmental plasticity; anti-Black racism; micro-aggressions.
	Haley Ragsdale, Ph.D. student Haley’s research centers on the evolution of human pregnancy and the placenta. She is primarily interested in how mother, placenta, and offspring negotiate energetic investment, resource exchange, and immune tolerance in different environmental contexts. She applies a parent-offspring conflict framework to maternal-fetal communication and the regulation of metabolism in both mother and offspring across the life course(s). In addition, Haley uses an evolutionary, comparative lens to interrogate why humans suffer from pregnancy complications more than any other mammal.