Job Talk By Delaney Glass

About and Beyond The Body: Biocultural Embodiment in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

Embodiment refers to the notion that the social environment can result in downstream biological or health outcomes. The specific ways psychosocial stressors in early life—especially those derived from social inequality and marginalization—can influence adolescent pubertal maturation has been an enduring question for the past century from evolutionary and culturally-minded anthropologists alike. This presentation draws from mixedmethodological research in Argentina, Jordan, and North America. It investigates evolutionary, biocultural, and mechanistic pathways in which psychosocial stress may become embodied in puberty as well as physical and mental health for adolescents and emerging adults across global contexts. Delaney J. Glass is currently an ABD/Ph.D. candidate in Biological Anthropology at The University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. She holds a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology (Maternal and Child Health) and Master of Biological Anthropology. She uses thoughtful, transparent, and communityattentive scientific practices to investigate how social inequalities and early life adversities—namely those derived from armed conflict, forced migration/displacement, and socioeconomic marginalization—impact human puberty, physical growth, and broad ranging mental and physical health outcomes. Her work has been published in Evolutionary Human Sciences, Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, and The American Journal of Biological Anthropology.