Background
Laure Spake is a biological anthropologist interested in children and their growth, developmental and health outcomes across space and time. Her research draws on insights from behavioral ecology, life history theory, and biocultural frameworks to better understand the causes and consequences of human variation.
She maintains an active field research program in The Gambia, where she has worked since 2021 on topics related to allomothering, cooperation, and maternal and child wellbeing. Concurrent ongoing projects integrate datasets from contemporary and past populations to study growth and skeletal biology with relevance to human biology, evolutionary anthropology, bioarchaeology, and forensic anthropology.
Education
- PhD, Simon Fraser University
- MA, Simon Fraser University
- BA, McGill University
Research Interests
- Growth and development
- Human variation
- Health, stress, and well-being
- Quantitative methods
- Statistical computing