Karen Rosenberg is a biological anthropologist with a specialty in paleoanthropology. She received her degrees from the University of Chicago (B.A. 1976) and the University of Michigan (M.A. 1980, Ph.D., 1986) and has taught at the University of Delaware since 1987.

Rosenberg has studied human fossils and modern human skeletal material in museums in Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa. Her research interests are in the origin of modern humans and the evolution of modern human childbirth and human infant helplessness. She has published in edited volumes as well as anthropological and clinical obstetrical journals. Among other publications, Rosenberg is the co-editor (with Wenda Trevathan) of a forthcoming book, Costly and Cute: Infant Helplessness and Human Evolution, and co-editor (with Jeremy DeSilva), of a special issue of Anatomical Record on the evolution of the human pelvis.

Rosenberg teaches several courses within biological anthropology and especially enjoys engaging undergraduate students in research and presenting scientific ideas to the general public.