Kathrine Starkweather

Kathrine Starkweather is a human behavioral ecologist and biological anthropologist in the Department of Anthropology. Her research uses evolutionary and ecological theories to study how social and behavioral responses to changing environments impacts human health and nutritional outcomes. Specifically, she examines how the relationships between environmental changes, like seasonality and climate change, and women’s work and childcare strategies influence maternal and child health and nutritional outcomes. Dr. Starkweather primarily conducts fieldwork with Shodagor fisher-trader communities in rural Bangladesh, where she directs the Shodagor Longitudinal Health and Demography Project. The project uses mixed-methods and between- and within-individuals study designs to identify potential environmental and behavioral mechanisms driving health and nutritional outcomes with the goal of informing public and global health practice and policy.