Erica Kilius

Dr. Erica Kilius is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Northern British Columbia's Faculty of Indigenous Studies, Social Sciences and Humanities. Her research bridges biocultural anthropology and public health, focusing on health inequities, risk perception, and sleep dynamics in marginalized communities. She employs mixed methods to study how socioeconomic factors, environment, and evolutionary history shape health outcomes.

Education:

• PhD (University of Toronto)
• MPH (Simon Fraser University)
• BSc Honours (University of Toronto)

Her work examines sleep as a health mechanism in contexts like South African agropastoral communities and Canadian university students during the pandemic. She investigates how structural barriers, such as livestock theft and healthcare access, affect well-being. Recent projects include gendered sleep patterns among BaYaka foragers and pandemic-related stress in dreams.

Advising & Grants: Currently supervising graduate students in Interdisciplinary Studies. Collaborates on applied research projects addressing health-environment-livelihood intersections. No specific grants mentioned, but active in community-based research.

Labs/Teams: Engaged with interdisciplinary teams studying global health disparities and sleep anthropology, particularly in Congo Basin and South African communities.