Ivy L. Pike Ph.D.

My research blends the impacts of inequality on health with the acknowledgement that human biology is shaped by our evolutionary heritage.   I am interested in blending evolution and embodiment - what evolutionary mechanisms allow us to track our social and physical environments to improve fitness, balanced by a need to understand the broader health costs of tracking marginalized environments.  To achieve this goal I have focused primarily on women's reproductive and psychosocial health.  Finally, I remain committed to developing theoretically and practically relevant research that matches the circumstances of East African pastoralists' lives.  To that end, I am conducting collaborative research on the impact of AK-47 raids on nutrition, health, and poverty among three pastoralist groups in northern Kenya.  This project takes a regional perspective to understand the direct and indirect consequences of violence on health and emotional well-being.
Degrees

Degree(s)

1996 -  Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY

Research Interests

• health consequences of endemic warfare;  women's psychosocial health, social inequalities and health; evolutionary and public health perspectives on fetal developmental plasticity
• Geographic Areas of Interest
• East Africa
• Sub-Saharan Africa