welcome

I am a demographer who studies social influences on health in India.  One area of my research investigates the intergenerational transmission of poor population health resulting from India's exceptionally poor maternal nutrition.  It traces links among gender, stratification, and poor birth, childhood, and adult health outcomes. This research informs my current work on neonatal mortality and health care at birth in northern India.

Another area of my research finds consequences of poor sanitation in developing countries for early life health, including for mortality, height, and anemia.  I have also studied the causes of open defecation in rural India.  Rural India's high rates of rural open defecation are linked to a renegotiation of caste and untouchability.

My research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, as well as Demography, Demographic Research, Social Science & Medicine, Economic & Political Weekly, and other journals.  My book, with Dean Spears, is titled Where India Goes: Abandoned Toilets, Stunted Development, and the Costs of Caste.