51st Meeting of the
Human Biology Association
March 18-20, 2026 | Denver, CO, USA
Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 19th Mar 2026, 06:49:32pm EDT
|
Session Overview |
| Date: Tuesday, 17/Mar/2026 | |
| 7:00pm - 9:00pm |
Executive Committee Meeting Location: Plaza Court 6 |
| Date: Wednesday, 18/Mar/2026 | |
| 7:00am - 8:00am |
Community Building and Networking Program Location: Plaza Court 8 Chair: Kaylee Appleton |
| 8:00am - 10:00am |
In-Person Poster Session Location: Plaza Exhibit Chair: Andrew Wooyoung Kim Adverse childhood experiences, loneliness, and adult mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa: An online, cross-sectional study Pushing up ti plants: intersections between mortuary practice, religion, culture, and ecology in Tanna, Vanuatu Neural signatures of stress-adapted cognition: ERP evidence linking early life stress to socio-emotional processing Estrone, adiposity, and inflammation in minimally-invasive samples: A pilot study The Impact of Iron on Maternal Mental Health: A Causal Analysis Using Directed Acyclic Graphs Perceptions of “good mothering” among university-aged women in upstate New York, US, and Xalapa, Mexico. Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) access in a pilot study among people experiencing homelessness in Oregon, USA Assessing Self-Reported Physical Activity as a Predictor of Lipid Biomarkers in a Low-Resource Community from Southwestern Illinois Identifying social determinants of health and barriers to diabetes management in individuals with diabetes or prediabetes in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador Mapping endocrine vulnerability: spatial patterns of parathyroid hormone disruption and environmental inequality in the U.S. Does self-perception of social standing impact your health? Evaluating subjective social status and epigenetic age acceleration in Cebu Chronic disease, acute onset: a qualitative study of cardiometabolic disease in rural Yucatán Vulnerable males: maternal birth weight has sex specific associations with infant birth weight in the CLHNS Relationship between geographical slope and child health in Lima, Peru Body mass index, body temperature and sleep among Akwesasne women Household composition and adult nutritional status among BaYaka foragers in the Republic of the Congo Association between years since menopause, metabolic syndrome, and cognitive function in rural South African adults Blood pressure does not increase in response to menopause among forager-horticulturalists in the Bolivian Amazon Linking perceived and measured water quality to coping behaviors and psychosocial stress in San Cristóbal, Galápagos Islands Private religious practice, but not public religious practice, and marital status are associated with change in cognitive function in a longitudinal sample of older adults Connections Between Food Cravings and Nutritional Deficiencies Examining heat-related health risk and menopause status in urban environments: A meta-analysis from Philadelphia Adrenal puberty and mucosal immunity among juveniles and adolescents in Utila, Honduras Contextualizing exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in household water in a small island community in Honduras “Three foods make a meal”: Rwandan grandmothers as keepers of nutritional knowledge amid changing foodways. Gut microbiome-mediated phenotypic plasticity in human evolution and health Does social support improve health? A test using social networks and health in Vanuatu Blood pressure, nail cortisol, EBV antibody titers, and CRP among refugees from Serbia and Kenya Using the Veggie Meter to assess fruit and vegetable consumption among children Building foundations for biocultural engagement: Preliminary insights from Igbo women in Minnesota Associations of post-traumatic stress disorder and metabolic syndrome with accelerated brain aging in South African adults: A case-control study Does dietary quality predict inflammation in low-resource settings? Evidence from the Rural Embodiment and Community Health (REACH) study Do those with ADHD hold occupations that work to their strengths? Relationships of ADHD diagnosis and polygenic scores with occupational history and job skills in Add Health Rural Embodiment and Community Health (REACH) study: exploring differences of food insecurity across two low-resource U.S. communities Evaluating new methods for capillary blood sample collection to facilitate field-based research in human biology Global variation in children’s appetite regulation: Exploring the relationship between circulating leptin and adiposity among the Indigenous Shuar of Ecuador Perinatal experiences and biological stress in Appalachia: A mixed-methods pilot study The effect of mind-body therapies (MBTs) on biomarkers of inflammation in cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis Perceptions of prostate cancer prevention among middle-aged men in southeastern Mexico: A human biology perspective (Truly) global birth stories Brown adipose tissue activity and metabolic responses to cold exposure Indicators of metabolic syndrome among Shuar occur at lower BMI than standard obesity thresholds. Body fat percentage, not early life experiences, predicts blood pressure in children in Utila, Honduras The Role of Workplace Hierarchies in Nurses’ Stress and Experiences: A Biocultural Perspective Anthropometric Predictors of Hypertension in Ageing Populations: Evidence from Lucknow, India The impact of environmental enteric dysfunction and immune activity on Indigenous Shuar children’s growth: evidence from osteocalcin, a biomarker of bone formation Evidence of selection on the BDNF Val66Met (rs6265-A) variant across global populations Exploring environmental factors related to childhood physical activity in a low-resource U.S. community: a mixed-methods pilot study Hormonal decay after death: Evaluating DHEA-S as a potential molecular marker for postmortem interval estimation How are socioeconomic status and food insecurity related to hepatic health in US adults? A systematic review of social and environmental determinants of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in human milk Inequality, food insecurity, and HIV: A test of syndemicity in Cameroon Perinatal exposure to lead, arsenic, and zinc and adolescent neurodevelopmental outcomes in Nepal: A prospective cohort study Contraceptive preferences and decision-making among women in American Samoa: A mixed-methods study to inform future family planning efforts Socioeconomic Inequity and In-Hospital Mortality from Diabetes in Mexican Children Associations between University of Oregon Health Services sexual wellbeing programs, STI positivity rates, and number of students testing for STIs Brown adipose tissue activation in young adults Market integration and children’s gut health: Predictors of circulating endotoxin-core antibodies, a marker of environmental enteric dysfunction, among the Shuar of Ecuador Differences in sexual minority cognitive health between older adults living in Canada and the United States Unmasking kidney disease in a remote, hot-dry environment: High prevalence of reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate among semi-nomadic pastoralists Assessment of childhood fruit and vegetable intake using the Veggie Meter: Preliminary findings from a low-resource U.S. community Executive Function and Diabetes Identity Integration in Adolescents and Emerging Adults with Type 1 Diabetes (Brief Title: T1DEFT – Type 1 Diabetes Executive Function and Identity Study) Epigenetic landscapes: Shaping susceptibility to health and disease The association of physical activity, acculturation, and cardiometabolic risk among first-generation South Asian American immigrants Fragmentation of care during the postpartum period: An evolutionary perspective Cross-cultural perspectives on men’s age-related testosterone decline: Evidence from the U.S. and farming and forager communities in the Congo Basin Major and minor sickness classifications among Hadzabe foragers Glucose breath tests among Maasai children in rural Kenya: Exploring the role of gut health in the relationship between water insecurity and child growth Correlating the postmortem interval to the human necromicrobiome in a semi-arid desert environment How does polygynous marriage affect cooperative childrearing networks in The Gambia? Socio-ecological determinants of Rickettsia spp. seroprevalence in Yucatan, Mexico: Insights from an ecological analysis Multi-pollutant exposure and sexual maturation in adolescents |
| 8:00am - 4:00pm |
Registration Location: Governer's Square Foyer |
| 8:45am - 9:00am |
Coffee Available |
| 10:00am - 11:00am |
Virtual Poster Session Chair: Guillermo Zorrilla-Revilla Does BAT thermogenesis protect against changes in blood pressure levels during in cold exposure? Preliminary results from the BAT in NYC Study Urbanism and fetal death in Mexico. An exploratory analysis of cases occurring between 2020 and 2024. Biotechnological Interventions for Mental Health Support in Cancer Patients Examination of differences in height, weight, and body mass index of students in two disparate school districts in central New Jersey Society, Health and Disease in Contemporary Times: The Impacts of Quality of Life on Socioenvironmental, Climatic and Denialist Factors in the Amazon and Brazil Infant Mortality in Mexico, 2014–2023: persisting trend may indicate persisting inequities Sex Differences in Low-Intensity Facial Movements During Neutral Conversation: Evidence from Kabardian Population Body Size Variation Among Agricultural and Coastal Sundanese Populations in West Java, Indonesia “Preocúpate cuando no hay agua… y estrésate cuando sí hay”: Experiencias de mujeres de colonias populares ante la inseguridad hídrica en el hogar en Xalapa, Veracruz. Embodied fitness: Handgrip strength and kin-related parental altruism Brazil before and after the Hunger Map: Current considerations on food policies in the Pará Amazon. Neurological sequelae of Long COVID among adults in Johannesburg, South Africa: A cross-sectional, case-control study Early life nutrition, adult metabolism, and brown adipose tissue among New York City residents Curated Selves: Bioanthropological Reflections on the Body and Identity of Brazil's Digital Generation Embodiment and stigmatization: Biocultural perspectives on polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and women’s health Reproductive justice and sterilization among sexual minority women in the U.S. |
| 11:00am - 12:30pm |
Editorial Board Meeting Location: Governer's Square 14 |
| 11:00am - 1:00pm |
Lunch Break |
| 11:30am - 12:30pm |
Breakout Session: Building resources for community engaged research in human biology: Gathering member feedback and determining next steps Location: Governer's Square 14 |
| 1:00pm - 2:15pm |
Plenary Session Location: Governer's Square 14 Chair: Michael Muehlenbein Introduction to Plenary Session 1:05pm - 1:12pm Scholarly renewal as a lesson learned 1:12pm - 1:19pm Challenges of collecting and transporting biological samples from the field to the lab 1:19pm - 1:26pm The Adventures of Poop Girl and Number 2: Lessons learned collecting and analyzing stool samples for parasitological detection in field settings 1:26pm - 1:33pm Bringing WEIRD instruments to the bush: reflections on applying and discarding validated surveys for work with rural Namibian agropastoralists 1:33pm - 1:40pm Beyond the promise: Navigating challenges with point-of-care tests in field research 1:40pm - 1:47pm Salivary bacteria-killing assay: protocol standardization and performance checks 1:47pm - 1:54pm The measurement of hot flashes for cross-population comparisons 1:54pm - 2:01pm There is Contamination Everywhere: how the wild west of ancient DNA was won (with a little help from Bigfoot) 2:01pm - 2:08pm Minimally invasive assessment of gut function: Tips and tools from the Human Evolutionary Biology and Health Lab 2:08pm - 2:15pm Getting the Signal Right: Methodological Considerations in Hair Cortisol Dynamics |
| 2:15pm - 2:30pm |
Coffee Break Location: Governer's Square Foyer |
| 2:30pm - 3:30pm |
Plenary Session (continued) Location: Governer's Square 14 Chair: Michael Muehlenbein A modest message on methods 2:37pm - 2:44pm One “lona”, two “cubetas”, three “pancles” and invisible tortillas- the importance of situated knowledge for food-related research. 2:44pm - 2:51pm How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Formal Theory 2:51pm - 2:58pm Benefits and pitfalls of using secondary datasets to answer anthropological questions 2:58pm - 3:05pm Torn between the field, the bench, and the computer: the necessity of collaboration in human evolutionary biology research 3:05pm - 3:12pm Study populations and women’s health 3:12pm - 3:19pm The value of fieldwork and the people who make it possible 3:19pm - 3:26pm oh to turn back the clock…learning from missed opportunities to create transdisciplinary biocultural approaches |
| 3:30pm - 4:00pm |
Plenary Discussion Chair: William Leonard Chair: Gillian Bentley |
| 4:00pm - 5:00pm |
Break |
| 5:00pm - 6:00pm |
Keynote Speaker, Larry Schell: Human Biology Research: Rickety Roads and Superhighways Location: Governer's Square 14 |
| 6:30pm - 9:30pm |
Welcome Reception Location: Plaza E |
| Date: Thursday, 19/Mar/2026 | |
| 8:00am - 9:45am |
Podium A: Stress, Inequality, and Health Across the Life Course Location: Governer's Square 14 Chair: Ines Varela-Silva Allostatic load mediates the long-term health impact of childhood adversity 8:07am - 8:14am Updating the DOHaD model of racial health inequality: The push-pull forces that uncouple CVD from birth weight 8:14am - 8:21am DOHaD, famine, and disease: A meta-analysis across different ages of exposure 8:21am - 8:28am Stress and Anxiety as Mediators Between Adult ADHD and Depression: Evidence from Young Adults in Delhi-NCR, India 8:28am - 8:35am Exploring gender, social support, health, and aging in an urban US population – Integrating mixed methods approaches in studies of human biology in vulnerable communities 8:35am - 8:42am Healthcare access disruptions and maternal mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic among Latinas receiving prenatal care in El Paso, Texas 8:42am - 8:49am Syndemic water and food insecurity in Galapagos: Impact on adult metabolic health in households with diabetes 8:49am - 8:56am Factors Associated with Food Insecurity Among People Experiencing Homelessness in Oregon 8:56am - 9:03am The additional chronic stress burden of reproductive status on women in a high-water insecurity environment 9:03am - 9:10am Early life environments predict the gut microbiome composition of adult women in Cebu, Philippines 9:10am - 9:17am Impact of prenatal heavy metals exposure and early-life neurodevelopment on gut microbiota composition at age 15: a cohort study in Terai region, Nepal 9:17am - 9:24am Rural Embodiment and Community Health Study: A multi-omics approach reveals the embodiment of environmental contaminant exposure through the gut microbiome in two low-resource U.S. communities 9:24am - 9:31am Pollutant exposures and endocrine disruption of the calcium–parathyroid hormone axis 9:31am - 9:38am Early life enacted stigma and its impacts on health among transgender and nonbinary adults 9:38am - 9:45am The hidden strain of resilience: Differences in cardiovascular function among transgender and nonbinary people reporting post-traumatic growth |
| 8:00am - 4:00pm |
Registration Location: Governer's Square Foyer |
| 9:45am - 10:00am |
Coffee Break |
| 10:00am - 11:00am |
In Memoriam: Daniel C. Benyshek Location: Governer's Square 14 Welcome and Introduction 10:05am - 10:12am Invited Memorial Session: Daniel Benyshek 10:12am - 10:19am The Anthropology of Hope: Continuing the Work of Dan Benyshek 10:19am - 10:26am Toward a more humanist anthropology: reflections on our friend Dan Benyshek 10:26am - 10:33am Planting seeds of knowledge: Reflections on Daniel Benyshek’s work in maternal nutrition 10:33am - 10:40am Smackdowns, Obscene Sample Sizes, and Marie Kondo: Honoring Dan Benyshek 10:40am - 10:47am Enduring pedagogy: Daniel C. Benyshek’s legacy on the practice and teaching of medical anthropology 10:47am - 10:54am Dan Benyshek - some thoughts on humanism and science |
| 11:00am - 1:00pm |
Lunch Break |
| 11:30am - 12:30pm |
Student Breakout Session: Redefining Success: Career Pathways Beyond Academia Chair: Emily Hart Barron Chair: Madison Aileen Cavaleiro Honig
|
| 12:00pm - 3:00pm |
Therapy Dogs Location: Plaza Court 6 |
| 1:00pm - 2:30pm |
Podium B: Emerging Themes in Biocultural Anthropology Location: Governer's Square 14 Chair: Katherine Daiy Biocultural anthropology for the challenges of the 21st century: Building an engaged and applied future 1:07pm - 1:14pm Tracing the thematic evolution of the American Journal of Human Biology (1989–2025) using a mixed-methods approach that combined BERT, a large language model, with qualitative expert review 1:14pm - 1:21pm Exploring the biocultural approach in Canadian medical anthropology 1:21pm - 1:28pm CHEER (Creative Health Equity & Empowerment Resources): an innovative arts-based toolkit to improve health outcomes focused on ethnic minorities 1:28pm - 1:35pm Crystal ball or cracked lens? Comparing predictive sampling strategies across variable environments 1:35pm - 1:42pm Exploring Genetic Variation in the Bodh Tribe of North India: Evidence from SNP Markers and 1000 Genomes East Asian Data. 1:42pm - 1:49pm Pulmonary function, digit ratio, and facial shape in modern Yakuts of North-Eastern Siberia 1:49pm - 1:56pm Reindeer herders of northern Finland maintain higher surface temperatures over brown adipose tissue positive region relative to their indoor counterparts across seasons 1:56pm - 2:03pm Age-Related Changes in Tsimane Sleep 2:03pm - 2:10pm Hot flashes and night sweats in relation to sleep problems and daytime fatigue 2:10pm - 2:17pm Adult leg and trunk length predict epigenetic aging in a metropolitan Cebu, Philippines, birth cohort. Weight-based discrimination is associated with accelerated biological aging independent of body composition in a state representative sample of US adults |
| 2:30pm - 2:45pm |
Coffee Break |
| 2:45pm - 4:15pm |
Podium C: Ecology, Immunity, and Infectious Disease Location: Governer's Square 14 Inflammaging mediates testosterone declines in later life among men in the UK Biobank 2:52pm - 2:59pm Energetic trade-offs in pregnancy: associations between physical activity, body mass index, and c-reactive protein across trimesters 2:59pm - 3:06pm Poverty, stress, and milk immune competence in Michigan mothers 3:06pm - 3:13pm Sexual minority status predicts elevated inflammation in young adults from Cebu, Philippines 3:13pm - 3:20pm A Pilot Study of Depressive Symptoms and Reduced Glucocorticoid Sensitivity in Young Adult Men Living with and at Risk for HIV 3:20pm - 3:27pm Associations of social belonging, loneliness, and social safety with ex-vivo inflammatory regulation patterns among Dominican and Haitian adults in the Dominican Republic’s tourism sector 3:27pm - 3:34pm Investigating the role of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) access in parasitic infection and intestinal inflammation: pilot study among people experiencing homelessness in Oregon, USA 3:34pm - 3:41pm Hookworm parasitism shapes energy balance and cardiovascular disease risk in northeast Madagascar 3:41pm - 3:48pm Potential human-to-human transmission of a zoonotic poxvirus in northeast Madagascar 3:48pm - 3:55pm Prevalence of β-Thalassemia Trait among young adults in Delhi-NCR, India: screening challenges and genetic diversity 4:02pm - 4:09pm Patterning of the diurnal cortisol rhythm in a subsistence agriculturalist population, West Kiang, The Gambia |
| 4:15pm - 5:00pm |
Break |
| 5:00pm - 6:30pm |
Business Meeting Location: Governer's Square 14 |
| 7:00pm - 9:00pm |
Student Reception |
| Date: Friday, 20/Mar/2026 | |
| 8:00am - 9:30am |
Podium D: Food Systems, Microbiomes, and Cardiometabolic Health Location: Governer's Square 14 Chair: Achsah Foster Dorsey Urbanization Does Not Always Mean Loss: Microbiome Diversity Patterns in the Turkana of Kenya 8:07am - 8:14am Intestinal microbiota change in households abandoning food production in Maya agriculturalists from the Yucatán Peninsula. 8:14am - 8:21am How complex dietary fibers can be used to shape the human gut microbiome toward reduced inflammatory potential 8:21am - 8:28am Food sharing is associated with higher food variety and dietary diversity in a multi-ethnic Indigenous peri-urban community in the Brazilian Amazon 8:28am - 8:35am Are evolutionary models linking economic insecurity and obesity supported in Minatitlán (Mexico)? Insights from a biocultural study conducted among food-insecure women 8:35am - 8:42am Two-Eyed Seeing: Indigenous ecological knowledge and cardiometabolic disease risk 8:42am - 8:49am Gender, wealth-type, place, and country-food policy: A multicountry analysis of obesity and hypertension 8:49am - 8:56am Obesity and its association with hypertension and dyslipidaemia in adults from Mansa district, Punjab: a population-based cross-sectional study 8:56am - 9:03am Role of One Carbon Metabolic Pathway Genes and Folate Status on Antihypertensive Drug Response among Rural Adults in Punjab, India 9:03am - 9:10am Demographic correlates of cardiovascular disease and inflammation among adults from southwest Illinois and the Mississippi Delta 9:10am - 9:17am Anthropometric and lipid Predictors of hypertension among adolescents in Delhi NCR. 9:17am - 9:24am Testing relationships between weight status, weight perception, and depression among US adolescents across varying epidemiological contexts: A biological normalcy approach using 2023 national YRBS data |
| 9:30am - 9:45am |
Coffee Break |
| 9:45am - 11:15am |
Podium E: Childcare, Nutrition, and Growth Location: Governer's Square 14 Chair: Jessica Hlay Parental investment theory and the concept of "on demand" breastfeeding 9:52am - 9:59am The effects of women’s work on breastfeeding outcomes and time allocation in Bangladeshi Shodagor fishing and trading communities 9:59am - 10:06am Maternal perceptions and infant temperament shape early feeding practices in low-income African American dyads 10:06am - 10:13am Do infant feeding practices in Bolivian Aymara communities vary with infant gender, expressed parental gender preference, and/or household economic strategy? 10:13am - 10:20am Head versus Length Growth: The Role of Infection and Nutrition among Breastfed Infants in Michigan 10:20am - 10:27am Household socioeconomic conditions and the infant gut microbiome across the first nine months of life in the urban Amazon 10:27am - 10:34am Paternal care behaviors associated with differential diversity and relative abundance of infant gut and skin microbiota 10:41am - 10:48am Household composition and children’s dietary and nutritional intake in a rural Darai village, Nepal 10:48am - 10:55am Intestinal energy loss among Indigenous Shuar children of Amazonian Ecuador: Insights into human energetics, life history, and health 10:55am - 11:02am Simulating the effects of health and nutrition interventions on human growth 11:02am - 11:09am Secular trends in physical fitness among Azorean primary school children 11:09am - 11:16am Evaluating the relationship between household factors and male pubertal development in Utila, Honduras |
| 11:30am - 1:00pm |
EAS Symposium: What the nexus of human biology and behavior can tell us about human evolution Location: Governer's Square 14 Chair: Siobhán M. Cully Chair: Karen L Kramer Introduction to EAS Session 11:34am - 11:41am Salivary testosterone predicts developmental variation in children’s play networks beyond age effects in Utila, Honduras 11:41am - 11:48am Associations between caregiver presence, child cortisol, and nutritional status among BaYaka foragers in the Republic of the Congo 11:48am - 11:55am Converging pathways of social factors and health: market integration (MI), kin support, and hypertension in small-scale society 11:55am - 12:05pm Coalitions matter for both men and women: insights from three subsistence communities in southwest Ethiopia 12:05pm - 12:12pm An evolutionary view on gendered kidney transplantation in Bangladesh 12:12pm - 12:22pm Charity begins at home: The importance of kinship and other biologically-relevant variables in cooperation research 12:22pm - 12:29pm Who deserves to be helped? Global perspectives on social welfare, generosity, and mutual aid 12:29pm - 12:41pm Traversing a fitness valley in the Pliocene: Dietary shifts and the impact of handling costs on hominin evolution 12:41pm - 12:53pm An automated geospatial urbanicity index for anthropological field sites 12:53pm - 1:00pm Adaptive variation in social exchange: embodied wealth and strategies of in investment in kin and cooperators |
| 7:00pm - 10:00pm |
EAS Party |