Taylor van Doren, PhD
@taylorvandoren.bsky.social
Asst Prof of Medical Anthropology at High Point 🟣
Former NSF postdoc at UAA ❄️
Biological Anth PhD from Mizzou 💀
Pandemics, inequality, demography, diseases! 👩🏻💻
she/her/hers 🩵
Former NSF postdoc at UAA ❄️
Biological Anth PhD from Mizzou 💀
Pandemics, inequality, demography, diseases! 👩🏻💻
she/her/hers 🩵
Pinned
pandemic studies is community health
pandemic studies is public health
pandemic studies is global health
people may have "pandemic studies fatigue" but some of us were here before, during, and will be long after, because we need continuous pandemic studies.
pandemic studies is public health
pandemic studies is global health
people may have "pandemic studies fatigue" but some of us were here before, during, and will be long after, because we need continuous pandemic studies.
I know there's not really a botox shortage or anything, but botox is a super effective treatment for muscle spasticity and chronic migraine and it can only mean good things for people who really need this medicine for clinical rather than aesthetic purposes
Botox sales are sagging as competition and the “natural look” take over.
The Fight to Save the $2.7 Billion Botox Empire
Competition and the “natural look” have created a perfect storm.
bloom.bg
November 13, 2025 at 7:07 PM
I know there's not really a botox shortage or anything, but botox is a super effective treatment for muscle spasticity and chronic migraine and it can only mean good things for people who really need this medicine for clinical rather than aesthetic purposes
just had the lovely experience of being denied by aetna for a medicine I need so what the f*ck is the point of health insurance
November 13, 2025 at 1:58 PM
just had the lovely experience of being denied by aetna for a medicine I need so what the f*ck is the point of health insurance
New Lily Allen album is ASTOUNDING. Album of the year caliber stuff and I hope she wins tons of awards and says “f*ck you* to David Harbour in every acceptance speech!!!
October 28, 2025 at 11:32 PM
New Lily Allen album is ASTOUNDING. Album of the year caliber stuff and I hope she wins tons of awards and says “f*ck you* to David Harbour in every acceptance speech!!!
I need everyone to stop sending me high priority red exclamation mark emails. There is absolutely nothing related to my job that is an emergency. Let’s just all chill please
October 27, 2025 at 2:30 PM
I need everyone to stop sending me high priority red exclamation mark emails. There is absolutely nothing related to my job that is an emergency. Let’s just all chill please
Why are universities fully sliding into the skid with incorporating AI into EVERYthing?? I don't want to fill out another survey answering how they can help me use AI in all my courses. Can't we hold the line?
October 23, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Why are universities fully sliding into the skid with incorporating AI into EVERYthing?? I don't want to fill out another survey answering how they can help me use AI in all my courses. Can't we hold the line?
I've been studying the 1918 flu for a decade and just did something for the first time: submitted an article to Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses. good luck to me
October 22, 2025 at 8:27 PM
I've been studying the 1918 flu for a decade and just did something for the first time: submitted an article to Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses. good luck to me
all I have to do to finish this project is have an original idea, find all the previous research on this topic, read it, understand it, integrate it, shape it into a meaningful framework, execute analysis without errors, write it, and communicate it with perfect clarity. that's not that bad
October 22, 2025 at 4:08 PM
all I have to do to finish this project is have an original idea, find all the previous research on this topic, read it, understand it, integrate it, shape it into a meaningful framework, execute analysis without errors, write it, and communicate it with perfect clarity. that's not that bad
ugh I love when I have italian in the crockpot and that first sweet smell of fennel, oregano, and thyme punches through
October 21, 2025 at 7:01 PM
ugh I love when I have italian in the crockpot and that first sweet smell of fennel, oregano, and thyme punches through
anthropologists to the front
Simplistic stories about the dangers of polygamy can be compelling & intuitive, but what is the evidence that monogamous marriage is advantageous for society?
theconversation.com/rethinking-p...
theconversation.com/rethinking-p...
Rethinking polygamy – new research upends conventional thinking about the advantages of monogamous marriage
Simplistic stories about the dangers of polygamy can be compelling and intuitive. But new research suggests some arguments about its harms don’t hold up.
theconversation.com
October 21, 2025 at 6:10 PM
anthropologists to the front
When did we all collectively become complacent to the fact that the White House belongs to the People?
It’s not his house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it.
October 21, 2025 at 12:50 PM
When did we all collectively become complacent to the fact that the White House belongs to the People?
Have you ever been very deep in writing a paper and all of a sudden just lift your fingers off the keys and say "why am I doing this" #AcademicSky
October 14, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Have you ever been very deep in writing a paper and all of a sudden just lift your fingers off the keys and say "why am I doing this" #AcademicSky
This would have been enough to end a political career permanently not that long ago
Kristi Noem, while governor of South Dakota, supplemented her roughly $130,000 salary by secretly accepting $80,000 donated to a political nonprofit she was affiliated with, records show.
She never disclosed this income on federal ethics forms.
(Published June)
She never disclosed this income on federal ethics forms.
(Published June)
Kristi Noem Secretly Took a Cut of Political Donations
A dark money group paid $80,000 to Noem’s personal company when she was governor of South Dakota. She did not include this income on her federal disclosure forms, a likely violation of ethics requirem...
www.propublica.org
October 10, 2025 at 11:23 AM
This would have been enough to end a political career permanently not that long ago
I'm obsessed with not just the fact that the Nobel Peace Prize was not awarded to cheeto in command, but that the explanation of why it WAS awarded to María Corina Machado included a paragraph on why it would NEVER be awarded to cheeto in command
October 10, 2025 at 11:13 AM
I'm obsessed with not just the fact that the Nobel Peace Prize was not awarded to cheeto in command, but that the explanation of why it WAS awarded to María Corina Machado included a paragraph on why it would NEVER be awarded to cheeto in command
I have so many potential papers with just analyses and results finished that will probably never get done. I need a team to finish these off so they see the light. There’s just not enough time for me to get to them. If you need something to do, let me know - you can have it all
October 8, 2025 at 4:48 PM
I have so many potential papers with just analyses and results finished that will probably never get done. I need a team to finish these off so they see the light. There’s just not enough time for me to get to them. If you need something to do, let me know - you can have it all
One of the most important things to remember right now is that you have to keep it 100 on the land, the sea, the sky
October 7, 2025 at 2:00 PM
One of the most important things to remember right now is that you have to keep it 100 on the land, the sea, the sky
Dusting off the Newfoundland death records. Hello old friends, haven't seen you since dissertation station.
October 6, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Dusting off the Newfoundland death records. Hello old friends, haven't seen you since dissertation station.
I just declined to revise a manuscript for a journal for the first time. I thought maybe it's better not to force it and one of the reviews would have been near impossible to overcome (both based on what they said and their attitude about the paper). So, it feels bad, but here we are.
October 6, 2025 at 6:20 PM
I just declined to revise a manuscript for a journal for the first time. I thought maybe it's better not to force it and one of the reviews would have been near impossible to overcome (both based on what they said and their attitude about the paper). So, it feels bad, but here we are.
The last time I went to the movie theater was April 2019 for Avengers: Endgame. I was 8 weeks pregnant with my daughter. Today I took that daughter to see her first movie in theaters! We saw Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie, and she was a perfect movie theater citizen.
October 4, 2025 at 6:09 PM
The last time I went to the movie theater was April 2019 for Avengers: Endgame. I was 8 weeks pregnant with my daughter. Today I took that daughter to see her first movie in theaters! We saw Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie, and she was a perfect movie theater citizen.
I've seen a lot of these maps lately, and I just wanted to say that I think a lot of them are way too definitive and that it's silly to color the entire map red between California and New York. Surely you can hold space for more nuance than that.
October 2, 2025 at 5:39 PM
I've seen a lot of these maps lately, and I just wanted to say that I think a lot of them are way too definitive and that it's silly to color the entire map red between California and New York. Surely you can hold space for more nuance than that.
I realized something. In the 1st half of the semester in my Mass Media & Society class, I taught the book "Amusing Ourselves to Death", whose author argued that the future was Huxleyian rather than Orwellian. My student's had read neither 1984 nor BNW. There's a message in here somewhere
October 2, 2025 at 5:09 PM
I realized something. In the 1st half of the semester in my Mass Media & Society class, I taught the book "Amusing Ourselves to Death", whose author argued that the future was Huxleyian rather than Orwellian. My student's had read neither 1984 nor BNW. There's a message in here somewhere
Excited to share my new article "Body size and risk of death during the 1918 influenza pandemic in Alaska", available in American Journal of Human Biology 🔓!! (@humbioassociation.bsky.social) Thanks to my co-authors for enabling me w. this crazy idea
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Body Size and Risk of Death During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic in Alaska
In the aftermath of the 2009 H1N1 influenza A pandemic, research revealed the relationship between body size and the severity of influenza outcomes. However, there is little data available on body si....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 1, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Excited to share my new article "Body size and risk of death during the 1918 influenza pandemic in Alaska", available in American Journal of Human Biology 🔓!! (@humbioassociation.bsky.social) Thanks to my co-authors for enabling me w. this crazy idea
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Okay I was planning on teaching Death Without Weeping (1993) in one of my upper level ethnography classes, but now flipping through this book again years later I'm afraid it's way too intense. I hate that I'm even thinking this way. This is an important book (flawed, yes, but important).
September 29, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Okay I was planning on teaching Death Without Weeping (1993) in one of my upper level ethnography classes, but now flipping through this book again years later I'm afraid it's way too intense. I hate that I'm even thinking this way. This is an important book (flawed, yes, but important).
Deciding in real time to possibly change an ethnography on my syllabus next semester solely because I cannot find the one I originally wanted to teach on my bookshelves
September 29, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Deciding in real time to possibly change an ethnography on my syllabus next semester solely because I cannot find the one I originally wanted to teach on my bookshelves
so I asked chatgpt a coding question and the whole thing is just absolute shite. nothing works and if I thought it could get confused, then I would think it was confused - but it doesn't have a brain, so it's not thinking at all
September 25, 2025 at 7:34 PM
so I asked chatgpt a coding question and the whole thing is just absolute shite. nothing works and if I thought it could get confused, then I would think it was confused - but it doesn't have a brain, so it's not thinking at all
this is, quite simply, psychotic
This is delusional but you don’t have to read the whole thing.
Boils down to: he’s shutting down the government because he thinks he’s a king.
Boils down to: he’s shutting down the government because he thinks he’s a king.
September 23, 2025 at 6:27 PM
this is, quite simply, psychotic