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Maleah Fekete
Sociologist
About
mafekete@iu.edu
I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Irsay Institute for Sociomedical Research at Indiana University, with a Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University. My research lies at the intersection of medical sociology, cultural sociology, and biosocial science. I study how social environments “get under the skin” to shape health and aging, integrating qualitative analyses of meaning-making around stress with quantitative studies of population-based surveys and epigenetic data.
My recent work has examined how classed cultural repertoires shape resilience in the face of stress and how adverse childhood experiences and adult stressors accelerate biological aging. Currently, in my biosocial work, I am advancing studies that test how specific forms of substance use relate to accelerated epigenetic aging and that build a supervised learning-based surrogate of stress exposure. In parallel, in my cultural work, I am developing a model of classed resilience to stress, showing how working- and middle-class adults draw on distinct cultural repertoires that can compound or buffer psychological harm. Across projects, I aim to bridge cultural, demographic, and biological perspectives to illuminate how adversity and resilience unfold in health outcomes over the life course.
In my free time, I enjoy pickleball, hiking, watching artsy movies, and hanging out with my collaborator (see collaborator page).
Publications
Rosenfield, Sarah, Dawne Mouzon, and Maleah Fekete. Forthcoming. “Gender and Mental Health." The Sociological Study of Mental Health: Theories, Contexts and Systems (4th ed.).
Small, Mario, Kristina Brant, and Maleah Fekete. 2024. “The Avoidance of Strong Ties." American Sociological Review.
Fekete, Maleah. 2024. “Updating A Social Cognitive Model of PTSD: Implications for Cross-Group PTSD Research." Current Psychology.
Fekete, Maleah. 2022. “Confluent Love and the Evolution of Ideal Intimacy: Romance Reading in 1980 and 2016.” Journal of Popular Romance Studies.
Marsden, Peter V., Maleah Fekete, and Derek S. Baum. 2021. “Contributions of the General Social Survey to Egocentric Network Research.” in Personal Networks: Classic Readings and New Directions.
Small, Mario and Maleah Fekete. 2019. “Social Networks.” In “State of the Union: The Poverty and Inequality Report,” ed. Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, special issue, Pathways Magazine.
Under Review
Fekete, Maleah and Gabriele Ciciurkaite. Revise and Resubmit. “The Role of Stress Proliferation in Linking Childhood Stressors to Accelerated Biological Aging." Social Science and Medicine.
Fekete, Maleah. Revise and Resubmit. “Beyond 'Deaths of Despair': Narratives of Distress and Risk-Taking Behaviors Among Rural Working-Class Men." Rural Sociology.
Fekete, Maleah, Tianyao Qu, Siyun Peng, Brea Perry, and Adam Roth. Under Review. “Later Life Social Interactions in Community Spaces."
Fekete, Maleah. Under Review. “Classed Closeness: How Social Class Shapes the Meaning and Use of Close Ties."
Ciciurkaite, Gabriele, Byungkyu Lee, Siyun Peng, Maleah Fekete, Colter Mitchell, and Brea Perry. Under Review. "Psychosocial Stressors Across the Life Course, Accelerated Biological Aging, and Morbidities."
Qu, Tianyao, Maleah Fekete, Siyun Peng, Brea Perry, and Adam Roth. Under Review. “Hidden Gendered Costs: Cognitive Effort in Real-Time Interactions."
Finkelstein-Fox, Lucy, Isabelle L. Miranda, Lorraine C. Drapek, Annika Toivonen, Sharon L. Borber, Areej R. El-Jawahri, Christina Psaros, Maria Lopes, Jenna Flaherty, Maleah Fekete, and Elyse R. Park. Under Review. “Initial Development of a Brief Mind-Body Sexual Well-Being Program for Female Colorectal and Anal Cancer Survivors: A Mixed Methods Study of Survivor Needs and Treatment Preferences."
Serota, Michael, Alexander Sarch, Maleah Fekete, and Daniel McCarthy. Under Review. “Criminal Minds and Community Views."
Education
Harvard University
Ph.D. | Sociology, 2024
Secondary Field | Computational Science and Engineering, 2021
Masters Degree | Sociology, 2020
University of California, Berkeley
Bachelor Degree | Interdisciplinary Studies Field, German, 2017