Susan Brownell
Education: Dr. Susan Brownell received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1990. She joined the university in Fall, 1994. She is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Interim Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures.
Research and Teaching: Dr. Brownell is an internationally recognized expert on Chinese sports. She has done fieldwork in China, primarily in Beijing. Her research interests are international business, sports and body culture, and women's issues. She is currently conducting research on "The Body in Consumer Culture in Beijing," including cosmetic surgery, fashion models, and upscale fitness clubs. At UM-St. Louis, she teaches Ideas and Explanations in Anthropology, Senior Seminar, Sex and Gender Across Cultures, The Body in Culture, Cultures of East Asia, and Culture and Business in East Asia. Every two years she also teaches a graduate-level course at Washington University for the Joint Program on East Asian Studies. This course is open to UM-St. Louis graduate students and advanced undergraduates.
Personal History: Dr. Brownell grew up in Virginia. She traces her interest in China back to the stories told by her grandmother, whose father was governor of Mississippi, a civil rights proponent, and lawyer for the Mississippi Chinese Association in the 1910s and 20s. Her love of anthropology began as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, where she took Victor Turner's famous seminar, in which the participants reenacted different rituals from around the world.
She was also a nationally-ranked track and field athlete in the U.S. before she joined the track team at Beijing University in 1985-86 while she was there for a year of Chinese language studies. She represented Beijing in the 1986 Chinese National College Games and set a national record in the heptathlon. In 1987-88 she returned to the Beijing University of Physical Education for a year of dissertation research.
She has taught at Middlebury College, the University of Washington, and Yale University.
Professional Activities: Dr. Brownell is the author of the book, Training the Body for China: Sports in the Moral Order of the People's Republic (University of Chicago Press, 1995). This is the first book on Chinese sports based on fieldwork in China by a Westerner. She is a member of the Research Council of the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Dr. Brownell has acted as a consultant and expert on Chinese sports for different media, including Sports Illustrated, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, "The Sports Factor" on Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio, "The Ultimate Athlete" on The Discovery Channel, China Central Television, and others.