Assistant Professor

Department of Anthropology

Loyola University Chicago

Lake Shore Campus, BVM 707

Office Phone: 773-508-3472

Personal Website: https://paulatallman.com/

 

Paula Skye Tallman is a biocultural anthropologist who investigates the drivers of health inequities among marginalized populations in South America and South East Asia, with a focus on connecting this scholarship to social justice initiatives. She received her Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology from Northwestern University in 2015 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship focused on indigenous well-being and conservation at The Field Museum of Natural History in 2016. Dr. Tallman has over a decade of field experience working with indigenous Amazonian populations in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Her research has been funded by institutions such as the National Science Foundation, Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the British Academy.

Dr. Tallman's most recent research project unites her with a team of investigators in anthropology, public health, and humanitarianism to examine the relationship between water insecurity and gender-based violence in Indonesia and Peru. Funded by the British Academy’s "Knowledge Frontiers: International Interdisciplinary Research Program", their team is using mixed methods to examine whether women are at risk for violence as they struggle to obtain water to meet household obligations. To ensure this research is applied to social justice action, it is being conducted in partnership with NGOs such as Oxfam International, Water Witness International, SOPAN in Indonesia, and PRISMA in Peru.

 

As an educator, Dr. Tallman's goal is to cultivate critical thinking and engagement with the multiple dimensions of global inequalities and to work with students to develop professional and laboratory skills. She encourages students to reach out for mentorship in scientific or grant proposal writing or training in biological and/or cultural research methods.

Anth 106: Sex, Science, and Anthropological Inquiry

Anth 103: Biological Background for Human Social Behavior (Biocultural Anthropology)

Anth 362: Issues in Biological Anthropology (Epidemics)

 

2021   Tallman PS, Sanchez-Samaniego G, Valdés-Velásquez A. The “Double Burden of Malnutrition” in the Amazon: Drastic Changes in Diets, Obesity, and Anemia Over 40 Years in Awajún Communities in Peru. Ecology of Food and Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1080/03670244.2021.1916925

 

2021  Sanchez-Samaniego G, Tallman PS Valdés-Velásquez A. Metabolic Syndrome Risk Unexpectedly Predicted by Traditional Food Consumption among the Awajún of the Peruvian Amazon. Annals of Human Biology. https://doi.org/10.1080/03014460.2021.1908424

 

2020  Tallman PS, Pace C, Southgate T, Riley-Powell A, Valdés-Velásquez A, Salmón-Mulanovich G, Hartinger SM, Paz-Soldán VA. Ecosyndemics: The Potential Synergistic Health Impacts of Highways and Dams in the Amazon. Social Science and Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113037

 

2020  Tallman PS. Review of "Climate Change and Social Inequality: The Health and Social Costs of Global Warming" by Merrill Singer. American Journal of Human Biology.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23428

 

2019  Tallman PS, Valdés-Velásquez A, Salmón-Mulanovich G, Riley-Powell A, Villafuerte LB, Hartinger SM, Paz-Soldán VA. A “cookbook” for vulnerability research. Frontiers in Public Health. 7 (352): 1-7

 

2019  Tallman PS. Water insecurity and mental health in the Amazon: Economic and ecological drivers of distress. Economic Anthropology. 6 (2): 304-316

2018  Tallman PS. “Now we live for the money”: Shifting markers of status, stress, and immune function in the Peruvian Amazon. Ethos. 46 (1): 134-157 

 

2017  Wali A, Alvira D, Tallman PS, Ravikumar R, Macedo M. Together we can thrive: Linking well-being and conservation in the Amazon region of Peru. Ecology and Society. 22 (4):6

 

2016  Tallman PS. The Index of Vulnerability: An anthropological method linking social-ecological systems to mental and physical health outcomes. Social Science and Medicine. 162: 68-78.