Jessaca Leinaweaver

Jessaca Leinaweaver is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Brown University, specializing in cultural anthropology and anthropological demography. Her work focuses on Peru and its diaspora, particularly transnational adoption, child migration, and kinship practices.

Her research explores:

• informal child fostering in Andean communities
• aging and elder care in rural Peru
• kinship dynamics in transnational adoption
• state involvement in child welfare
• demographic implications of migration

Major scientific awards include the Margaret Mead Award for her first book. Her fieldwork has been funded by Wenner-Gren Foundation, National Science Foundation, Fulbright IIE, Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, and SSHRC Canada.

Recent publications analyze:

• microbiographic insights from Peruvian child welfare databases
• Andean community care systems from children's perspectives
• adoption-related disappearances in Spain
• transnational adoption's impact on racial identity
• digital ethnography using FamilySearch