People

Elena Lesley

Assistant Professor

Dr. Elena Lesley

contact

Office: SOC 138 
Email: eslesley@usf.edu

Education

  • PhD, Anthropology, Emory University
  • MS, Global Affairs, Rutgers University
  • BA, Political Science, Brown University

Teaching

Religion, Health, and Healing; Cross-Cultural Issues in Mental Health; Introduction to Cultural Anthropology; Introduction to Anthropology (four-field); Qualitative Data Analysis for Public Health; Health Policy, Law and Advocacy; Public Health Research Methods; Public Health Program Planning

Research

Medical and psychological anthropology, global mental health; applied anthropology; transitional justice; immigrant/refugee health; humanitarianism; religion (Buddhism and Islam) Southeast Asia

Recent Publications

Select Articles & Chapters

Lesley, Elena. 2023. “The Anthropologist as Audience: Engaged Listening among Khmer Rouge Survivors and Ukrainian War Refugees.” Medicine Anthropology Theory 10(1): 1-12.

Lesley, Elena. 2023. “Therapeutic Improvisation in Cambodia: Moderated exposure, the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocidal Crimes, and the quest to weave the “world’s longest krama.” Memory Studies 16(3): 593-610.

Lesley, Elena [Co-authored with Hoy Vathana]. 2022. “Reconstructing the ‘Small

Family’ after Democratic Kampuchea: Forced Marriage, Ritual Renewal and Parent-Child Entanglement in Cambodia.” In Challenging Conceptions: Children Born of Wartime Rape and Sexual Exploitation, Eds. Kimberly Theidon and Dyan Mazurana. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lesley, Elena. 2021. “Immaterial Alliances: Constructions of Self-Other Relations and Conceptions of Belonging in the Therapeutic Narratives of Muslim and Buddhist Cambodians.” Ethos: Journal for the Society of Psychological Anthropology 48(3): 379-400.

Lesley, Elena. 2021. “Lessons for the Future: Khmer Rouge Survivor Testimonies as

Sites of Individual and Social Regeneration.” Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology 86(3): 570-591.

Reviews

Lesley, Elena. 2023. “Review of The Movement for Global Mental Health: Critical Views from South and Southeast Asia.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly.

Public-facing pieces

Lesley, Elena. 2022. “Multi-Generational Voices from the Wreckage of War-Torn Ukraine.” Washington, DC: Think Global Health