Emily Mendenhall
School of Foreign Service
Emily Mendenhall is a professor in the Science, Technology and International Affairs Program in the School of Foreign Service. She is a member of the Global Health Initiative faculty committee.
International activities include:
- Author of Rethinking Diabetes: Entanglements with Trauma, Poverty, and HIV (Cornell University Press, 2019) and the forthcoming Unmasked: COVID, Community, and the Case of Okoboji in March 2022.
- Lead author of a series of articles on syndemics in The Lancet published in 2017, which provides an innovative way to think about social determinants of health.
- Principle Investigator of the National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center study “Soweto Syndemics” at the University of the Witwatersrand.
- Published more than three dozen articles and four op-eds on medical anthropology and global health.
- Inaugural co-editor-in-chief of Social Science and Medicine—Mental Health.
Participating in:
January 22, 2025
News: Cultural and Contextual Adaptation of the Solastalgia Sub-scale of the Environmental Distress Scale in Drought-affected Kilifi, Kenya
In a study published in Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health, the Department of Global Health's Shabab Wahid and the School of Foreign Service's Emily Mendenhall conducted a transcultural translation and cultural adaptation of the Solastalgia…
August 6, 2024
News: When Climate Displaces a Way of Life: The Uncounted Toll on Mental Health on the Front Lines of Climate Change
Undergraduate student Ben Oestericher (SFS’25), Assistant Professor Shabab Wahid, and Professor Emily Mendenhall, in collaboration with Edna N. Bosire at Aga Khan University, write about their two-month exploratory study of climate change and mental…
February 28, 2024
News: New Global Mental Health and Well-being Initiative Launches at Georgetown University
Launched in February 2024, this new initiative is an interdisciplinary coalition of faculty, staff, and students that plan to conduct research, develop pedagogy, and engage in informed activism and advocacy to improve mental well-being and…
November 10, 2023
News: What Tony Fauci Says About Long COVID and Other Postviral Illnesses
Dr. Anthony Fauci, distinguished university professor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine in the division of infectious diseases, discusses postviral illnesses such as long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome…
April 6, 2023
News: STIA Professor Emily Mendenhall Wins Guggenheim for Anthropological Work on COVID-19
Emily Mendenhall, professor in the Science, Technology and International Affairs Program in the School of Foreign Service, received a 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship, which is given to exceptional individuals making their mark in scholarship in their…
June 23, 2022
News: Fall 2021 GHI Fellow Research Showcases the Interdisciplinary Nature of Global Health
Every semester, the Global Health Initiative Student Fellows Program matches students with a faculty mentor so that they may work on the faculty member's research project. This article showcases four student-faculty pairs and their work during the…
August 26, 2021
News: How COVID, Inequality and Politics Make a Vicious Syndemic
Emily Mendenhall (Science, Technology, and International Affairs Program) co-authored an article in Scientific American about the syndemic caused by the intersecting issues of COVID-19, inequality, and politics.
April 7, 2021
News: BMJ Global Health Publishes "Migration and Health in Social Context"
Global Health Initiative grants supported early research now published in "Migration and Health in Social Context" in the BMJ Global Health Journal, featuring Georgetown professors addressing factors that impact migrants seeking clinical care.
September 20, 2020
News: A New Paper on Medical‑Legal Partnerships Serving Immigrant Communities in the United States
Avery League (SFS'20), along with Georgetown faculty from the Walsh School of Foreign Service and Georgetown University Medical Center, co-authored a paper named "A Systematic Review of Medical‑Legal Partnerships Serving Immigrant Communities in the…
August 25, 2020
News: How an Iowa Summer Resort Region Became a COVID-19 Hot Spot
Emily Mendenhall, an associate professor at the School of Foreign Service, recently published an article on Vox discussing how the Iowa Great Lakes became a regional coronavirus hot spot. A group of Georgetown students is working with her on a…
December 2, 2024
Digital Activism in Kenya Event
Long COVID has been defined by digital activism around the globe, bringing together patients, researchers, and clinicians afflicted by the chronic condition. Long COVID itself was spun through patient activism and has cultivated a culture of patient…
April 23, 2024
Long COVID & a History of Invisible Illness Event
May 10, 2023
Unmasked: COVID, Community, and the Case of Okoboji Event
In this seminar, Emily Mendenhall, professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, discussed her investigations into how people responded to COVID-19 in her hometown in northwest Iowa. Her investigations led to the publishing of the…
April 4, 2022
Unmasked: COVID, Community, and the Case of Okoboji Event
Medical anthropologist Emily Mendenhall's book Unmasked: COVID, Community, and the Case of Okoboji is the story of what happened in Okoboji, a small Iowan tourist town when a collective turn from the coronavirus to the economy occurred in the COVID…
October 1, 2020
On the Tyrannies of 'Local Health' Event
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New Global Mental Health and Well-being Initiative Encourages Creativity and Collaboration Feature
Prioritizing An Urgent Need
Mental disorders are increasingly being recognized as a leading cause of disease burden. According to the WHO, globally, mental disorders account for 1 in 6 years lived with disability, with those with severe mental health…
Fall 2021 GHI Fellow Research Showcases the Interdisciplinary Nature of Global Health Feature
Read on to meet four of the GHI fellows and their mentors from the fall 2021 semester.
Andrés Constatin and Kayla Zamanian
Kayla Zamanian (SFS’23), a science, technology, and international affairs major with minors in French and medical humanities…
Student Spotlight: Zach Fritz Feature
Tell us about your interest in global health.
My curiosity in global health was piqued due to its multidisciplinary emphasis on holistic care. Health lies at the intersection of many institutions and fields, such as biology and law, with constant…
Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service Georgetown Unit
The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service was founded in 1919 as the first school of international affairs in the United States. It offers a range of undergraduate and graduate programs in Washington, D.C., and through Georgetown's campus in…
Main Campus Georgetown Unit
The Main Campus is the administrative center of Georgetown University and home to six of its schools: the College of Arts & Sciences, the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, the McDonough School of Business, the McCourt School of Public…
Global Health Initiative 2019 Faculty Forum Part Two Video
The 2019 GHI Faculty Forum was an opportunity for members of the Georgetown community to come together from across campuses and schools to learn more about one another's work in global health and explore collaboration opportunities.
Emily Mendenhall Discusses the Science, Technology and International Affairs Major Video
The 2019 GHI Faculty Forum was an opportunity for members of the Georgetown community to come together from across campuses and schools to learn more about one another's work in global health and explore collaboration opportunities.