Barbara A. Piperata is associate professor of anthropology at The Ohio State University. Her research applies life history theory and takes a bio-cultural approach in understanding human ecology, reproduction and nutrition. Her research to date has been conducted in Latin America, with a particular focus on rural Amazonian populations. Recent research has focused on human reproductive energetics among rural Amazonian women and sought to understand how women in this environment accommodated the additional energy demands of lactation. Taking a bio-cultural perspective, she explores the interplay between cultural beliefs and practices, human reproductive strategies and health outcomes. She is currently beginning a new research project among Quilombo populations in southern Brazil and rural Amazonian populations focused on the nutrition transition and the relationship between changes in economic strategies, work loads, dietary changes and overall nutritional status, including the concurrence of overweight/obesity and underweight in the same household. She plans to extend her research on the nutrition transition to studies of migrant and refugee populations in the United States in the future.
Kendra McSweeney is associate professor of geography at The Ohio State University. Her primary research interest is in human-environment interactions, with focus on issues in cultural and political ecology, conservation and development, resilience, demography, and land use/cover change. Current projects include a long-term study of indigenous livelihoods in eastern Honduras, an NSF-funded project on human-forest dynamics in SE Ohio, and a research program that tracks the nature and implications of demographic change among Latin America's indigenous populations.
Sponsored by:
- Continuity and Change in the Andes and Amazonia
- Humanities Institute Working Group
- The CEnter for Latin American Studies Andean Studies Working Group
