Hi, I’m Dr. Taylor van Doren (she/her)! I am a biocultural anthropological pandemic researcher with strong interests in social inequalities, demography, and population health as they pertain to pandemic events. My work is rooted in anthropological evolutionary theory, including the epidemiological transitions, biocultural anthropology, developmental origins of health and disease, and syndemics. I am eager to build bridges between evolutionary theory, public health, and medicine. I have written a lot about anthropology and pandemics, and my papers have appeared in Evolutionary Anthropology, American Journal of Biological Anthropology, American Journal of Public Health, Social Science & Medicine, International Journal of Circumpolar Health, and more.
I am currently an Assistant Professor of Medical Anthropology at High Point University. Formerly, I was an NSF OPP Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Alaska Anchorage in the Institute of Circumpolar Health Studies. During this fellowship, I am studied the demographic, epidemiological, and social consequences of the 1918 influenza pandemic in Alaska using historical vital records, death records, and archival data. I have also developed a program around the biodemography of early 20th century Alaska with new anthropometric data from vital records to learn more about the associations between body size and different risks of death from major causes of death (tuberculosis, influenza), and the health of children.
From 2022-23, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Sitka Sound Science Center in Sitka, Alaska, where I studied COVID-19 impacts and resilience in rural Southeast Alaska communities with the funding of an NSF RAPID grant. This research is currently expanding to include quantitative and qualitative analyses of delayed care and its determinants to better understand the indirect population health impacts of COVID-19.
My dissertation was funded by a NSF DDRIG through both the Biological & Cultural Anthropology programs and the Raymond White Dissertation Writing Fellowship at the University of Missouri. I explored the social inequalities and comorbidities (primarily tuberculosis and other infectious respiratory diseases like bronchitis and whooping cough) that led to differential 1918 influenza pandemic outcomes on the island of Newfoundland. In 2021, I was an American Journal of Public Health Think Tank Fellow.
The photo of me at the top of this page was taken at Lepramuseet St. Jørgens Hospital in Bergen, Norway, which is the famous (and quite lovely) leprosy hospital run by Dr. Gerhard Armauer Hansen, for whom the disease is now named (Hansen’s disease).
Taylor van Doren, PhD 