Dr.

Leslie Quade

, BA, MSc

Postdoctoral Fellow

RG »Prehistoric Identities«

Contact

Telephone:

Location: Dominikanerbastei 16 | 1010 Vienna

Biographical sketch

Leslie Quade is a bioarchaeologist and palaeopathologist, specialising in the analysis of stress and health from human skeletal remains. She is particularly interested in how early life stress during the first 1000 days of life impacts health throughout the life course. She has degrees in biological anthropology, bioarchaeology and palaeopathology, including a BA from Columbia University (NY, USA) and a MSc and PhD from Durham University (UK). She has worked as a contract osteologist in the UK, Czech Republic, USA, France, Italy and Austria. From 2021 to 2023, Leslie Quade was a post-doc at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic, where she investigated the ‘stress’ hormone cortisol in baby teeth from archaeological and living populations for the first time. This research was supported by a Wenner-Gren Post-PhD research grant.   

In 2024, she was awarded “Disruptive Innovation - Early Career Seed Money” grant by the FWF & OeAW, to explore dental cortisol in prehistory. She will begin a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship with the project ‘DE-STRESS - Detecting stress in early-forming teeth: Advancing, optimising and interpreting dental cortisol methods and data for archaeology’ in 2025.  

Research Projects

  • STRESSED - Detecting stress in prehistory through dental cortisol: developing new bioarchaeological tools and methods. Disruptive Innovation - Early Career Seed Money
  • Identifying exposure to early life stress from baby teeth: an optimization and extension study in the Pregnancy During the Pandemic cohort. One Child Every Child Strategic Catalyst Branch Award, University of Calgary, CA
  • DE-STRESS - Detecting stress in early-forming teeth: Advancing, optimising and interpreting dental cortisol methods and data for archaeology. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship, beginning 2025

Research interests

  • Relationships between stress, health and dental cortisol concentrations in living and past populations
  • Impact of cultural, sociopolitical and environmental disparities and stress on child and adult health
  • Trauma, health and living conditions in 18th-20th century military settings
  • Exploration of innovative techniques and theory with a focus on interdisciplinary collaborations