September 19, 2024
Suzanne Hanchett
Talk Summary: Discussing her 56-year journey from anthro major and grad student, to assistant professor, to practicing and applied anthropologist, Suzanne Hanchett will share her thoughts about the ways that her background in anthropology turned out to be useful outside of academia. Her practicing and applied work has included grant-writing for two large non-profits, high-level positions in New York City government on foster care and adolescent pregnancy, and 25 years as an international development consultant to organizations such as CARE, UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank, and WaterAid UK, with a focus on women’s participation, access to safe water, and promoting adequate sanitation. Program evaluation jobs and other assignments have entailed complex combinations of quantitative and qualitative data. Practicing and applied jobs also have required significant collaboration with social workers, engineers, and professionals with other backgrounds. She will discuss her thoughts about the ways that academic life discourages such collaboration. Another issue addressed in her talk is how non-academic researchers and writers can pursue scholarly projects without support from academic institutions. Suzanne has regularly published articles about her applied work and formed a strong connection with the University of Sussex, Institute of Development Studies, Sanitation Learning Hub. She attends AAA and SfAA conferences regularly, but finds American academics less interested in the work of applied/practicing anthropologists than those in some other countries. Her scholarly interests continue today, and she has formed her own publishing company – Development Resources Press — publishing three books of her own (based on 1969s fieldwork and applied work in Bangladesh) and editing two others. Suzanne also will share her thoughts about how some exposure to non-academic anthropologists could enhance students’ ability to understand how their educational background might be of use in multiple kinds of careers.
Bio: Dr. Sazanne Hanchett is a social/cultural anthropologist. She did her dissertation research in Karnataka State, India, and taught for 10 years at Queens College (City University of New York), Bard College, and Barnard College. From 1979 to 1991 she worked as a practicing anthropologist, focusing on community development, reproductive health, teen pregnancy, and child welfare in New York City. Since 1991 she has worked as an applied anthropologist in international development, mainly in Bangladesh, on gender and development, and on water and sanitation issues as a consultant to organizations such as UNICEF, CARE, WaterAid, and others. She has written a number of articles for peer-reviewed journals, and she is the author of three self-published books based on her work in India and Bangladesh (devresbooks.com). Dr. Hanchett is a Fellow of the American Anthropological Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology, President o