Rate My Professor Jennifer Cullin

Jennifer M. Cullin is a biological anthropologist and human biologist serving as Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University Bloomington. Her biocultural research program utilizes the biological normalcy framework to investigate health disparities arising from anti-fat bias and fat stigmatization among U.S. youth. Cullin focuses on physiological adaptations to chronic psychosocial stress in social environments, assessing how perceived fat stigma relates to allostatic load—a measure of physiological wear and tear from chronic stress—across populations varying by obesity prevalence. This involves surveys, biomarkers, and ethnographic interviews. Her research interests include stigma, health disparities, obesity, psychosocial stress, embodiment, biological normalcy, allostatic load, biocultural anthropology, human biology, global health, and public health. Funded by the National Science Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation, her findings lend credence to the role of fat stigma in exacerbating health disparities beyond adiposity itself.

Cullin earned her Ph.D. in Anthropology (Biological Anthropology) from Indiana University Bloomington in 2021, an M.A. in Anthropology (Evolutionary Anthropology) from California State University, Fullerton in 2011, and a B.A. in Anthropology from California State University, Fullerton in 2004. After completing her doctorate, she served as Visiting Assistant Professor in the Human Biology Program and as Lecturer in Anthropology and Human Biology at Indiana University Bloomington prior to her current tenure-track appointment. Key publications include Cullin, J.M. (2023). "Biological normalcy and body fat: Obesity prevalence, fat stigma, and allostatic load among late adolescents and young adults." American Journal of Biological Anthropology 181(4): 575-587; Cullin, J.M. (2021). "Implicit and explicit fat bias among adolescents from two U.S. populations varying by obesity prevalence." Pediatric Obesity 16(5); Cullin, J.M. (2021). "What is normal body weight? Perceptions around ‘average’ and ‘healthy’ body weight among adolescents in Indiana." American Journal of Human Biology 33(5); and Wiley, A.S., & Cullin, J.M. (2016). "What do anthropologists mean when they use the term biocultural?." American Anthropologist 118(3): 554-569. Cullin’s scholarship advances understandings of how cultural norms of body size influence biological health outcomes and equity.