Dr. Amber Benezra Named David and G.G. Farber Junior Faculty Fellow

A sociocultural anthropologist and assistant professor of science and technology studies, Amber Benezra researches the links between microbiomes and public health.

The School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) named Dr. Amber Benezra, a sociocultural anthropologist and assistant professor of science and technology studies, as the recipient of the David and G.G. Farber Junior Faculty Fellow in Science and Technology Studies.

Established by Stevens Trustee Emeritus Dr. Dave Farber '56 M.S. '61 Hon. D.Eng. '99 and his late wife, Gloria (G.G.), the fellowship recognizes and supports faculty in HASS who study and raise public awareness about the social impacts of scientific and technological development. The award was established under the leadership of Dean Kelland Thomas.

Focused on the human microbiome, Benezra collaborates with scientists across disciplines to tackle global public health issues like malnutrition. Her work considers how the microbes that live in and on the human body affects health and illness. "The microbes each person has are particular to you-where you were born, what food you eat, what part of the world you live in," says Benezra. "But our microbial populations are also impacted by structural issues: poverty, access to health care, food security, things like toxic exposures."

"My research really centers on bringing anthropological questions to bear on the science, so that biological data and social inequities are considered together in determining how microbiomes will be researched and what the biomedical interventions might be."

To raise public awareness, Benezra often needs to fight public perceptions that all germs are bad and cause disease. "In reality, most aren't. Our microbes are central in keeping us alive," says Benezra, pointing to how these microscopic organisms help digest our food, train our immune systems, and even moderate our moods.

Another challenge to raising awareness lies in convincing scientists of qualitative research's value and demonstrating that social determinants of health are just as important as biological factors. In her field research, Benezra worked to align the rapid, large-scale research on maternal child health in resource-poor countries with an ethnography of everyday social practices of Bangladeshi mothers and their children. Against the backdrop of systemic poverty, she and scientific collaborators considered the qualitative and quantitative connections between gut microbes and malnutrition.

Benezra is a strong advocate for cross-disciplinary collaboration, a message she frequently emphasizes to her students. "Solving engineering problems, developing medical technologies, and innovating don't matter if we aren't accounting for the social, structural drivers of these problems," says Benezra. "Working ethically, equitably, and in partnership with each other is the only way science and tech is going to be effective."

Her 15 years of research culminated in Benezra's first book Gut Anthro: An Experiment in Thinking with Microbes, published in 2023 by the University of Minnesota Press. An anthropological inquiry and ethnography of microbes, the book traces her partnership with a human microbial ecologist to create a collaborative "anthropology of microbes." Included is an exploration of how racial categories are used in microbiome research, with Benezra calling for transdisciplinary approaches to address racial health disparities without reducing race to just a biological or social label.

In her newest research project, Benezra will once again collaborate with human microbial ecologists to explore how systems of difference like race, gender, class, and ability influence the composition of gut microbes. "If health is increasingly determined by our microbes, what are the social ways we get those microbes?" she asks.

"I'm excited to be working with junior scientists who are genuinely committed to integrating social justice into their lab practices, experiments, and scientific work," concluded Benezra, reflecting the core values of the David and G.G. Farber Junior Faculty Fellowship.