Rachel Petersen, Anthropology

Name:

Rachel Petersen

Title:

Assistant Professor

Department:

Anthropology

Describe your research in about 200 words.

I combine long-term behavioral, demographic, and health data from humans and non-human primates with genomic analyses of tissue samples and targeted cell line experiments to investigate how social experiences across the life course become biologically embedded and shape reproductive function, evolutionary fitness, and health.

What’s the most interesting thing you have learned from a student?

That there is no such thing as a “one-fits-all” explanation. A concept that clicks instantly for one student might make no sense to another until you draw it, act it out, tell it as a story, or connect it to something they already know.