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A Population, Family, and Health Research Initiative

Friday, 10/03/2008
3:30pm - 5:00pm
The Blackwell Inn, 140 Pfahl Hall, 2110 Tuttle Park Place Dr. Jane Menken, Professor of Sociology and Director of Institute of Behavioral Science - University of Colorado, Boulder 2nd Annual Joan Huber Lecture in Population
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IPR Administration Dr. Randall J.Olsen, Director Dr. Elizabeth Cooksey, Associate Director Susan Pennington, Office Manager Jeanne Huba, Grant Coordinator
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Home > People > Faculty > Richard Steckel

Richard Steckel

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Professor, Department of Economics
Professor, Department of Anthropology
Professor, Department of History
The Ohio State University
454 Arps Hall
Columbus, Ohio 43210
phone: 614-292-5008

  • Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1977


  • Research Interests: I have two major research interests involving health.  First, two projects are underway to analyze historical stature from American slaves and from 19th century Plains equestrian nomads.  The former were extraordinarily short as children but grew rapidly as teenagers, while the latter were very tall.  The two populations, though living only a thousand miles apart were nearly polar opposites in terms of nutritional status.  Second, I have a very large project underway that collects and then analyzes skeletal data on health for 100,000 people who lived in Europe over the past 10 millennia.  We have ambitions to organize a larger, global project of this type.


  • Current Research:currently has three large projects, including a comparative international study of health and welfare during industrialization, and an interdisciplinary project involving physical anthropologists and economic historians on very long-term trends in health and nutrition in the Western Hemisphere.