Florencia Torche

During her year at CASBS, Florencia Torche will study the evolving impact of the pandemic on infant health as the epidemiological, social, and institutional context changes over time, with special attention to diverse and evolving sources of inequality in such impacts. A premise of this work is that the impact of the pandemic is not over. While some of the initial risks of COVID mortality and morbidity have subside, new COVID variants and waves of infection pose evolving risks. Novel sources of stratification continue to emerge, driven by geographic variation in patterns of infection, differential access and acceptance of vaccines and differential access to information and care.

Torche is the Dunlevie Family Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. Her research and writing focus on social inequality and social mobility, educational disparities, and marriage and family dynamics. Her recent scholarship has extensively studied the influence of early-life exposures and circumstances –starting before birth– on individual health, development, and wellbeing using natural experiments and causal inference approaches.