Biomedical anthropology, nutrition, human biology, early life determinants of bod composition and obesity, infant and child feeding. Her research focuses on understanding the biocultural and biomedical influences on growth and physiology during infancy and childhood. She is particularly interested in how early life nutrition and environmental exposures shape long-term health and obesity risk. She is currently examining the physical and social environments associated with the development of inflation in Chinese children, adolescents, and adults through an NIG K award.
Relevant Experience:
• Overseas experience in China
Distinctions:
• -ongoing 2011 Fellow, Dannon Institute, Nutrition Leadership Institute
2007 Dean’s Teaching Fellowship, Emory University (declined). 2007 Graduate Symposium Paper Prize, Department of Anthropology, Emory University. 1999 Phi Beta Kappa
Dissertations and Theses Supervised in Past 5 Years:
8
Relevant Courses Taught:
• ANTH 143 Human Evolution and Adaption • ANTH 318 Human Growth and Development in Comparative Perspective • ANTH 319 Global Health • ANTH 499 Human Disease Ecology • ANTH 499 Biocultural Perspectives on Maternal and Child Health • ANTH 704 Graduate Core Course in Evolution and Ecology
Recent Publications:
• 2017 (In press) Thompson, AL, LS Adair, and ME Bentley ‘Whatever average is:’ understanding African-American mothers’ perceptions of infant weight, growth and health. Current Anthropology.
• 2014 Thompson, AL, KM Houck, LS Adair, P Gordon-Larsen, S Du, B Zhang, and BM Popkin. Associations between Pathogenic and Obesogenic Factors and Inflammation in Chinese children, adolescents, and adults. American Journal of Human Biology. 26:18-28.
• 2013 Downey, L, E Hodges, A Thompson, and M Bentley. Breastfeeding cessation: Associations with maternal and infant characteristics among African-American first time mothers. Maternal and Child Nutrition.
• 2013 Hill, SN, AL Thompson, ME Bentley, HM Wasser, and JB Kotch. Early child care and infant obesity at three months among low-income African-Americans in North Carolina. Maternal and Child Health Journal
• 2013 Wasser, HM, AL Thompson, AM Siega-Riz, LS Adair, EA Hodges, ME Bentley. Obesogenic diets begin early in a cohort of infants and toddlers born to low-income, first-time, African-American mothers: the Infant Care, Feeding, and Risk of Obesity study. Journal of the American Dietetic Association (JADA).
• 2011 Thompson, AL and P Gordon-Larsen. The Anthropology of Obesity. In The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Obesity, ed. John Cawley. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pg. 60-86.
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