Dr Susan M. Kenyon
Professor Emerita, Anthropology
skenyon@butler.edu
(317) 704-4863
Areas of Expertise
Socio-cultural anthropology; anthropology and history; Northern
Africa; Sudan; Muslim cultures; gender; religion and ritual;
comparative medical systems; international economic
development.
Major Publications
2012 - Spirits and Slaves in Central Sudan: the Red
Wind of Sennar. New York and London: Palgrave Macmillan
Press.
2004 - Five Women of Sennar: Culture and Change in Central
Sudan. Second edition, Waveland Press: Long Grove,
Illinois. First edition, 1991, Clarendon Press:
Oxford.
1980 - The Kyuquot Way: The Study of a West Coast
(Nootkan) Community. National Museums of Man Mercury Series, no
61. Ottawa, Canada.
See also link to "Peer-reviewed articles
and book chapters".
Education
B.A (Honours), History. London University, Bedford
College. 1965.
M.A., Anthropology. Bryn Mawr College, PA. 1972
Ph.D . Anthropology. Bryn Mawr College, PA. 1977
Professional Experience
Teaching
1990- 1991. Indiana University-Purdue
University in Indianapolis: Visiting Assistant Professor
1991-1995. Valparaiso University,
Indiana: Assistant Professor (1991-3), Associate professor
(1993-5).
Butler University 1995-2008
Associate Professor, 1995-2001
Professor, 2001-2008
Professor Emerita, 2008-Present
Director of Gender Studies, 1998-2001
Director of the Anthropology Program, 1995-2004
Head, Department of History and Anthropology, 2004-2006
Field Research
1972, 1974. Doctoral Research in Kyuquot, most northerly
settlement of the West Coast (Nootkan) peoples, British Columbia,
Canada.
1979-1985. Independent Research in the Republic of Sudan
into gender and popular religion in a poor urban district of
Sennar. Also assisted the Sennar Mahiwal Umiya project,
helping poor urban women manufacture and sell home crafts
(supported by funds from the Small Projects Fund of the Dutch
Embassy, Khartoum)
1985-1989. Independent Research in Indonesia into gender and
popular religion in an urban kampung (village). Was also adviser to
the director and member of the board of management of Yayasan
Tenaga Sukarela Sosial (YTSS, a non-governmental organization in
Bogor), and Editor, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and
Pacific (ESCAP) at the CGPRT (Coarse Grains, Pulses, Roots and
Tubers) Centre in Bogor, Indonesia.
1991-1995. Co-Investigator, Michigan State U/Purdue
U/Costa Rica U project, to "Improve the Digestibility and
Nutritional Quality of the Common Bean through Traditional Plant
Breeding Molecular Biology and Food Technology." As the
social scientist on the project my role was to ensure that social
and cultural constraints and context were fully part of the
research design and implementation and entailed three field trips
to Costa Rica. This project was funded by US-AID, through the
Bean/Cowpea Collaborative Research Support Program (CRSP).
2000. One month fieldwork in Sudan (Khartoum, Sennar), supported
by a Butler Academic Committee grant, to look at continuity and
change in women's lives, and set up a new long-term research
project on therapeutic choices in contemporary
Sudan. Project title: The Impact of Clinical Medicine on
the Pluralist Healing System of Central Sudan.
2001. Four months field research in Sudan, investigating the
training of doctors in the new medical school at the University of
Sennar, part of the broader project looking at therapeutic
choices. I also collected data to update my work on the lives
of women of Sennar, and on the work of other types of healers in
the region. This research was supported by a Butler Academic
Committee (BAC) grant.
2004. Six weeks of ethnographic field research in Sennar, Sudan,
investigating the career of herbalist and business man, Ismael
el-Dul. Research supported by Holcombe Academic Committee
grant, Butler University
Since 2009, I have been living on the Caribbean island of St
Kitts, where I have initiated an oral history project, focusing on
the lives of elderly women.