Dr. Linda Bennett to Address U of M Graduates Aug. 17
For release: August 7, 2003
For press information, contact Gabrielle Maxey

Dr. Linda A. Bennett, an internationally recognized researcher on alcohol-related problems, will address 722 graduates at the University of Memphis' commencement Sunday, Aug. 17. Ceremonies begin at 3 p.m. at The Pyramid.

Bennett, a professor of anthropology at the U of M, received the 2003 Board of Visitors Eminent Faculty Award. A member of the U of M faculty since 1986, she served as chair of the Anthropology Department from 1994 to 1998, when she became associate dean for graduate studies and research in the College of Arts and Sciences.

During 1992-93, she conducted a cross-cultural study of the diagnosis and classification of alcohol and drug use and abuse for the World Health Organization. Dr. Bennett has also done fieldwork on alcoholism in the former Yugoslavia. She has written several books, including The American Experience with Alcohol and The Alcoholic Family, as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters.

Dr. Bennett was a member of the anthropology faculty at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, from 1966 to 1969. In 1974 she joined the Center for Family Research in the Department of Psychiatry at George Washington University Medical Center, where she launched a 12-year study of alcoholism in American families.

Bennett serves as immediate past president of the Society for Applied Anthropology. She initiated the Consortium of Practicing and Applied Anthropology Programs in 2000, and is chair of its steering committee.

Bennett earned her bachelor's degree in social sciences from Clarion State College in Clarion, Pa., her master's degree in anthropology from Indiana University and her doctorate in anthropology from American University in Washington, D.C.

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