Associate Professor/Chair
Education
- Ph.D.,University of Michigan, 2012
- Postdoctoral Research, Brown University in Providence, RI
Teaches
SOCI 323 – Medical Anthropology
See our Anthropology Teaching Resources for classroom activity ideas.
Research
Her work centers on the intersections of health, kinship and care in sub-Saharan Africa and the United States.
Doula Research
Dr. Block’s doula research explores doula caregiving practices, doula communities, and doula perspectives on advocacy and reproductive justice. She is part of a research team, the Midwest Doula Research Collective, along with Dr. Angela Castañeda (DePauw University) and Dr. Julie Searcy (Butler University).
Links to their work:
- Searcy, J.J., Block, E. & Castañeda, A.N. Strategic Advocacy: Doula Care, Liminality, and Reproductive Justice. St Comp Int Dev (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12116-024-09431-5
- Infographic
- Preliminary Report
COVID-19 Research
Dr. Block’s COVID-19 research examines the experiences of healthcare providers working with COVID-19 patients in the United States. This project seeks to understand how COVID-19 is impacting the professional experiences and personal lives of healthcare providers, and the experiences of patients resulting from the uncertainty, risk and rapid changes brought by the pandemic.
Block, Ellen, and Rebecca A. Karb. “Isolation of care: COVID-19 and the burden of healthcare provision.” Human Organization 83, no. 1 (2024): 70-81.
Block, E. and C. Vindrola-Padros (2021) “Making Do: COVID-19 and the improvisation of care in the UK and the US. In Manderson, Lenore, Nancy J. Burke, and Ayo Wahlberg, eds. Viral Loads: Anthropologies of urgency in the time of COVID-19. London: UCL Press: 303-323.
Selected chapters from Caring on the frontline during COVID-19: Contributions from Rapid Qualitative Research. Cecilia Vindrola-Padros and Ginger Johnson, eds. London: Palgrave Macmillan
Selected chapters from Caring on the frontline during COVID-19: Contributions from Rapid Qualitative Research. Cecilia Vindrola-Padros and Ginger Johnson, eds. London: Palgrave Macmillan
HIV/AIDS and Lesotho Research
In her first book, “Infected Kin: Orphan Care and AIDS in Lesotho.” (2019, Rutgers University Press), Block argues that AIDS is fundamentally a kinship disease, examining the ways it transcends infected individuals and seeps into kin relations and networks of care. The creative collaboration between Block and her writer/husband Will McGrath (author of Everything Lost is Found Again) blends ethnographic scholarship and creative nonfiction to bring to life the joys and struggles of the Basotho people at the heart of the AIDS pandemic.
Ellen’s research has been funded most recently by a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Grant, and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council grant. Her work appeared in a number of books and journals including JRAI, Anthropological Quarterly, AIDS Care, Death Studies, and Social Dynamics.
INFECTED KIN TEACHING RESOURCES: A variety of teaching materials and supplemental resources for Instructors using this book in their classes.
More information about Prof. Ellen Block, including her publications, can be found on her CV or her academia.edu page.
Service
Dr. Block is Executive Director of The Tiny Lives Foundation, which serves orphans and vulnerable children in Lesotho.