Media Mentions
The Washington Post
The surprising science of how fatherhood changes the brain
June 18, 2026
While men with higher testosterone were more likely to become partnered fathers, they experienced larger declines in testosterone than single non-fathers, one study found. Indeed, fathers who spent a significant amount of time on child care had lower testosterone levels than those who were not involved.
Los Angeles Times
Why new dads shouldn’t panic about low testosterone
June 10, 2026
New dads can also experience a decline in testosterone. According to a 2011 paper from University of Notre Dame professor Lee Gettler, part of the largest study on fatherhood and testosterone ever conducted, men averaged around a 25% drop in testosterone after becoming fathers.
Horizontes Spotlight Series: Alex E. Chávez
May 31, 2026
Every Sunday evening from 7PM to 9PM, Horizontes explores the musical horizons of Latin America starting in Brazil and continuing through South America and up through the countries on the Caribbean.
Horizontes explores the musical “horizons” of Latin America and beyond on KUTX 98.9 Austin every Sunday 7-9pm. The program has been on the air at KUT and KUTX for over 50 years and on July 7th, 2024, Austin musician Alex Marrero took over from longtime host Michael Crockett, for the next generation of Latin music on KUTX. The 2-hour program is a musical journey to wherever Latin music is made, be it Canada, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, or anywhere in between.
BBC News
Dad brains: How fatherhood rewires the male mind
April 20, 2026
When the American anthropologist Lee Gettler, then an undergrad student, heard about these findings in the early 2000s, he was hooked. "I asked [my lecturer] whether anyone was studying these questions in human fathers, and the answer at that point was largely no", says Gettler, now the director of the Hormones, Health, and Human Behavior Laboratory at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
Mentions
Anthropology
Finding normalcy and dignity - Rahul Oka on life in refugee camps
April 10, 2026
Rahul Oka is an economic anthropologist and trained archeologist originally from India. He is now working at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana at the Department of Anthropology.
WVPE
Healthcare Headlines: Cells that are not our own may unlock secrets about our health
February 13, 2026
Kristine Chua, a biological anthropologist in the University of Notre Dame’s Department of Anthropology, co-lead on the The Microchimerism, Human Health & Evolution Project. The work was recently published in the journal Advanced Science. Chua discusses some of the findings.
Professors Cara Ocobock and Sarah Lacy win General Anthropology Division (GAD) Prize for Exemplary Cross-Field Scholarship for "Woman the Hunter"
January 21, 2026
2025 Winner: Woman the Hunter
RTE Radio 1
Why dressers and delph are at the heart of Irish homemaking
November 18, 2025
We present an extract from Irish Dressers and Delph, Homemaking Through Time, the new book by Professor Meredith S. Chesson.
PBS
One of Africa’s largest refugee camps redesignated as a city by Kenyan government
April 08, 2025
Rahul Oka, an associate research professor with the University of Notre Dame, said it lacks the resources — particularly water — and infrastructure to sustain a viable economy that can rely on local production.
Newsweek
Does Europe Have a Free Speech Problem?
February 25, 2025
Maurizio Albahari, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, made a similar point: "In European democracies, freedom of speech is best understood not as a fundamental moral 'value,' as Vance puts it, but as a fundamental political principle. "As such, free speech is routinely reconciled with other, equally fundamental political principles—from freedom of expression, including prayer, for all recognized religious groups, irrespective of their numerical weight, to the protection of legally sanctioned individual and collective rights, including the protection of the public from false advertising or the incitement to lawless action."
No evidence Italian government is moving migrants into Vatican City
November 22, 2024
Maurizio Albahari, a migrant and refugee mobility expert and associate professor of anthropology at Notre Dame University (archived here), said moving irregular migrants to Vatican City is not part of Italian government policy and "will likely never be."
"The government cannot risk antagonizing Pope Francis in such a crass way, and Saint Peter's Square is actually patrolled by the Italian police, so it would be a bit of an institutional short-circuit, even before being a diplomatic incident," he said in a November 22 email.
Vatican City has one of the most stringent residency and citizenship programs in Europe. Although visitors can travel freely between Rome and the Vatican, officials usually only grant citizenship and permission to reside there to government employees, church officials, and their families (archived here).
Pope Francis has transported small numbers of refugees from war-torn regions, including Syria, but they were settled with a Catholic community elsewhere in Rome instead of behind the Vatican's walls.
Rolling Stone
Inward Journey: How Alex E. Chávez Found Healing Through Sounds of the Border
November 13, 2024
The border is never far from Alex E. Chávez’s mind. The musician, writer, and professor — known for his work with the Chicago band Dos Santos — has long immersed himself in thinking and scholarship around the complexities of migration. His latest project, his debut album, Sonorous Present, goes deep, offering an intimate reflection of borderlands, memory, and both literal and figurative passages.
The Atlantic
The Horseshoe Theory of Psychedelics
November 01, 2024
“If the only thing you knew about someone is that they’re pro-psychedelics, that wouldn’t necessarily be an obvious indication of their political affiliation,” Aidan Seale-Feldman, a medical anthropologist at the University of Notre Dame who studies the current psychedelic renaissance, told me. “It is surreal that in this era of so much division and difference in the U.S. that psychedelics are something that people would actually have in common.”
The Guardian
How a plastic cave made in Spain keeps Amazonian culture alive 5,000 miles away
October 22, 2024
“Potalapitsi of things are no less real than the original,” says Chris Ball, an anthropologist at Notre Dame University, in the US state of Indiana, who has worked with the Wauja people for two decades.
“To make a replica is to honour the original, empower the original and bring the original into the present here and now. It really differs from the modern capitalist idea of mechanical reproduction as somehow lessening.”
As they approach the new cultural centre on the inauguration day, the Wauja people continue to perform their ritual dance. The ceremony determines which boys will become leaders. It was traditionally held at the original cave but has not occurred in about a decade.
“Hopefully, it can now happen next year,” says Tukupe, as Wauja people crowd around him to see the newly unveiled replica. “I believe we are in the presence of our ancestor [Kamukuwaká], who fought throughout his life. We are here giving continuity to that fight.”
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The Washington Post
Men’s brains change when they become dads
June 14, 2024
Higher testosterone levels in men, among other things, help facilitate competition in pursuing partnerships with future mates. “So the idea is that declining testosterone as men are transitioning to fatherhood resets focus and priorities … onto the family,” said Lee Gettler, a professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame and lead author of the testosterone study.
Chicago Tribune
New techniques being used to analyze finds at Collier Lodge
April 25, 2024
New archaeological techniques are being used to analyze artifacts uncovered during digs at the Collier Lodge site along the Kankakee River. Mark Schurr, an anthropology professor at the University of Notre Dame, has led excavations at the site for 20 years.
Originally published at news.nd.edu.