Claudia Valeggia, PhD

I am originally from Argentina, from where I received my degree in biology. I got my PhD from the University of California, Davis in 1996. I then went on to do a postdoc on women's reproductive biology at Harvard University and in 2005 I joined the Department of Anthropology at Penn. In 2014, I was appointed as a Professor of Anthropology at Yale University.

My work is primarily concerned with the interactions between human reproductive biology and the social and cultural context in which it develops. Some of the topics I have explored are the determinants of the return to postpartum fecundity, the variation in reproductive hormonal levels within and between women in relation to environmental variables, growth and development patterns in infants and children, and metabolic health in populations experiencing drastic lifestyle changes. My research interests include human reproductive ecology, reproductive endocrinology, maternal and child health, and the health of indigenous populations in Latin America.