Adia Benton

Adia Benton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Northwestern University. Her research and teaching focus on global health, biomedicine, development/humanitarianism, political economy, race, gender, and sports, with regional expertise in Sierra Leone, Mozambique, and the United States. She explores patterns of inequality in care distribution, particularly in crisis settings, drawing on her prior career in public health and post-conflict development.

• PhD in Social Anthropology from Harvard University (2009)
• Recipient of the 2017 Rachel Carson Prize for her book HIV Exceptionalism

Benton's research examines the politics of care in contexts of scarcity, including global health governance, epidemic response, and racialized health disparities. Her work bridges academic and public discourse through her blog ethnography911.org and Twitter (@ethnography911).

Recent publications analyze humanitarian imagery, security paradigms during epidemics, and temporality in HIV/AIDS treatment. She is currently working on books about surgical care equity, dracunculiasis eradication (with Amy Moran-Thomas), and the National Football League.

• Scientific Award: Rachel Carson Prize (2017) for HIV Exceptionalism

Contact: adia.benton@northwestern.edu