Elizabeth Clausing – IAPHS – Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science

Elizabeth Clausing

Elizabeth Clausing is a doctoral candidate in anthropology , having received in BS and BA in Honors Integrative Biology and Anthropology at the University of Illinois.

Elizabeth Clausing is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego working in Dr. Amy Non’s Genetic Anthropology Lab. She received a BS and BA in Honors Integrative Biology and Anthropology at the University of Illinois. Her dissertation examines how subjective measures of stress (psychosocial stress) associates with objective measures of stress (epigenetic aging, DNA methylation, and hair cortisol). She is particularly interested in how stress can impact the body through epigenetic inheritance via DNA methylation in mothers and children. She is also interested in how early childhood experiences (e.g., low socioeconomic status, childhood adversity) can affect health in adulthood.

From an evolutionary perspective, epigenetics provides a way for variation within a species to rapidly increase, providing opportunity for adaptation to new, arising selection pressures. Her current project focuses on how stress is embedded, especially under the current political climate (i.e. proposed anti-immigrant policies) in Latina immigrant mothers and their children, and how this in turn can be embodied and expressed negatively in the form of health disparities. The goal of this research is to elucidate how the social environment can alter gene expression patterns that are further passed down to offspring, allowing for them to better thrive in their environment.