Anthropometric historians use stature and other anthropometric measures to assess health and nutrition in the past. The research Dr. Steckel conducts specializes in measuring and analyzing long-term trends in the standard of living using diverse sources and methodologies, including heights and skeletal remains.

His current work in this area considers the case of American slaves, who were extraordinarily short as children (below the 1st percentile of modern height standards) but recovered as teenagers to the 20th percentile. His project measures the extent to which nutritional deprivation in early childhood imposed cognitive deficits that compromised earning and wealth accumulation on the generations born in slavery.

Richard H. Steckel earned his A.B. from Oberlin College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. At OSU he’s a member of both the President’s and Provost’s Advisory Committee. Also, he serves on a review panel of the National Institutes of Health and has been president of the Economic History Association and the Social Science History Association.