Maleah

FEKETE

Maleah Fekete received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University in 2024. Broadly, her research seeks to understand the social processes that shape stress-related psychological distress and biological aging. She examines how biological and social factors—including gender, close relationships, and patterned meaning-making—contribute to disparities in responses to stress. Her work focuses on mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, substance use disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as biomarkers of physiological aging, including epigenetic age acceleration. She is especially interested in understanding how individuals' learned ways of interpreting their experiences influence their vulnerability to mental disorders. She has published her research in outlets including American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Social Science & Medicine, and Rural Sociology.