Casey Roulette
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology
Project: “Socioecological Stress and Transition from Homelessness Among SDSU Students”
Dr. Casey Roulette is a biological anthropologist with interests in human biology, behavioral ecology, medical anthropology, cultural transmission, and community health. He is director of the human biology laboratory, which houses equipment that assays human biological specimens (e.g. saliva, urine) for biomarkers related to life histories, immune function, drug use, and stress. Dr. Roulette conducts research in Sub-Saharan Africa among Congo Basin foragers and East African pastoralists, where he uses evolutionary and biocultural principles to examine the intersections of behavior, biology, and health. Some of his past and ongoing research projects include: the evolutionary ecology of human drug use; tobacco and cannabis use among Congo Basin foragers; substance use in the ethnographic record; ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology of Maasai food-medicines; interventions to limit antimicrobial resistance among Maasai; and the evolution of teaching.