Lauren Carruth Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Environment, Development & Health Environment, Development & Health
- Degrees
- PhD, Anthropology, The University of Arizona
MS, Nutrition Science & Humanitarian Policy, Tufts University - Bio
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Professor Lauren Carruth is a medical anthropologist specializing in humanitarian assistance, global health, nutrition, displacement, migration, and the Horn of Africa.
Her research focuses on five themes: (1) labor and inequity within the humanitarian industry, (2) irregular labor migrations between Ethiopia and Gulf States, (3) the relationship between food insecurity, medical insecurity, and diabetes, (4) nutritional wasting in emergencies and the development of therapeutic foods, and (5) emerging zoonotic diseases in the Horn of Africa.
Dr. Carruth's 2021 book, "Love and Liberation: Humanitarian Work in Ethiopia's Somali Region," was published in 2021 by Cornell University Press.
Her work is funded by the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, and she has been published in journals including The Lancet, BMJ, Social Science & Medicine, Culture Medicine & Psychiatry, Global Public Health, The Journal of Modern African Studies, and Disasters, as well as in Scientific American and the Washington Post.
Prior to arriving at American University, Prof. Carruth was a postdoctoral scholar at Princeton University in the Global Health and Health Policy Program, and at George Washington University in the Elliott School of International Affairs. Between 2002 and 2007 she worked for the UN World Food Program in Ethiopia, UNICEF in Ethiopia, and the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University.
- For the Media
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Teaching
Spring 2024
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SIS-899 Doctoral Dissertation
Fall 2024
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SIS-619 Special Studies in Int'l Pol: Humanitarian Interventions