Christina M Balentine

I am a critical biocultural anthropologist, evolutionary biologist, and anthropological geneticist. I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut. I received my PhD in 2023 in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior from the University of Texas at Austin and was co-advised by Dr. Deborah Bolnick and Dr. Melissa Kemp. From 2021–22, I was also a Predoctoral Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History with Dr. Logan Kistler.

I’m fascinated by humankind’s ability to thrive in extreme environments around the world. I study how biotic and sociocultural factors interact to impact the genomic variation we see in Indigenous populations in the Americas today. Visit My Research to learn more!

I am also passionate about informal STEM education. I have developed outreach programs for schools and museums and was a co-organizer for the biology outreach program Science Under the Stars at UT Austin. I hope to continue doing STEM outreach and genomics research after I complete my PhD. See STEM Outreach for more information and links to programming I’ve done.