Nadia Neff, 2026-2027 PhD Fellow

April 24, 2026

Meet PhD fellow, Nadia Neff. Nadia is a PhD student in the Anthropology department. Her project is titled: The Biocultural Legacy of Inequality: Diet and Health among the Classic Maya 

Nadia notes that “My research is inspired by a simple yet powerful question: how did people in large-scale societies navigate various forms of inequality in their daily lives, particularly regarding something as fundamental as food acquisition and preparation? For my dissertation, I am using biochemical analyses of human remains from Classic Maya urban centers in southern Belize to reconstruct how social and environmental pressures shaped diet, health, and survival strategies. This fellowship will enable me to continue developing high-resolution methods to reconstruct the lived experiences of past individuals and to link individual biology to broader systems of inequality. In addition to facilitating the completion of my dissertation, it supports my commitment to collaborative, community-engaged research and sharing my findings beyond academia.”