Dr. Bennett has been a member of the Saint Vincent College faculty since 2010 and currently serves as dean of the School of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, is chair of the Sociology and Anthropology Department, and director of the College’s anthropology, public health, and global engagement programs.
As an applied medical anthropologist with a background in public health, Dr. Bennett studies child health and nutrition in indigenous populations in Guatemala and works with community-based organizations to develop, improve, and evaluate maternal and child health programs. She has actively involved Saint Vincent College students from disciplines ranging from anthropology and English to biology and engineering in these projects, taking them to Guatemala to participate in a build on her research and practice projects.
Dr. Bennett is dedicated to experiential learning and community-engaged learning and incorporates these into her courses. She also regularly presents and publishes on these pedagogies. In addition to developing opportunities for students to do research in Guatemala, she carries out applied research projects locally with student research teams. Dr. Bennett teaches courses across the four fields of anthropology and has run study abroad courses to Guatemala and Peru.
Education
PhD, University of Connecticut MA, University of Connecticut
Courses
Foundations of Public Health Global Health Practice Medical Anthropology Ethnographic Research Methods Applied Anthropology Cultural Anthropology Anthropological Linguistics Introduction to Anthropology Anthropology and World Art Culture and Health in Guatemala Cultures of the Bible History and Culture of Peru Biological Anthropology Archaeology First Year Seminar and Senior Seminar
Selected Publications
Walter, Cynthia and Elaine M. Bennett 2019 Water Quality Challenges in Under-served Communities. In Cascading Challenges in the Global Water Crisis. Eds. Gerard Magill and James Benedict. Cambridge Scholars Press.
Bennett, Elaine M. 2018 A Simple, Practical Framework for Organizing Relationship-based Reciprocity in Service-learning Experiences: Insights from Anthropology. International Journal for Service Learning and Community Engagement 6(1).
Bennett, Elaine M. 2017 Exploring the Role of Stigma in a Malnutrition/Infectious Disease Syndemic: Lessons from Guatemala. In Stigma Syndemics: New Directions in BioSocial Health (Eds. Ostrach, Lerman, Singer. Edited by Merrill Singer, Bayla Ostrach, and Shir Lerman. Lexington Press.
