Professor Bennett is a medical anthropologist based at the Nossal Institute for Global Health. Her key areas of expertise are: sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), gender-based violence (GBV), and health equity and inclusion.

She is a global leader in research on SRHR in Indonesia, and her current research includes: Indonesian women’s lived experiences of cervical cancer; Indonesia’s progress towards primary and secondary prevention of this disease; the impacts of COVID-19 on access to SRH care; and understanding the intersectional drivers of health inequity among vulnerable populations in Indonesia.

Professor Bennett’s work engages women, adolescents and providers of SRH care. Her research profile in SRHR encompasses: reproductive cancers, infertility, adolescent health and early motherhood, HIV and AIDS and other STIs, family planning, abortion, sexual violence, domestic violence, reproductive coercion, patient education, medical education, and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health education.

She is an expert advisor on the Technical Advisory Groups for the WHO’s Action Plans for Cervical Cancer Elimination in the South East Asian and the Western Pacific Regions. Her recent co-edited book; Cancer and the Politics of Care: Inequalities and Interventions in Global Perspective (UCL Press: 2023) offers an unprecedented critique of global cancer inequalities from anthropological perspectives across five continents, and is downloadable for free at the UCL Press web page.

Professor Bennett is a strong advocate of mixed method approaches designed to produce a comprehensive evidence base for policy briefs, patient education and other translational outcomes. Co-creation of translational outcomes is core to her research praxis, with the aim of supporting communities, health workers, governments and community-based organisations to collectively work towards health equity. She has over 25 years of experience in research, research training and health-related capacity building in Indonesia, and has also worked in Fiji, Malaysia, Singapore and Botswana, as well as within Australia’s culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Her work is concerned with identifying the components required for culturally-safe health care for different vulnerable populations.

As a consultant she has collaborated with DFAT/AusAID, the Global Forum for Health, GTZ, the Ford Foundation, Save the Children, UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank and World Vision, as well as with the Australian, Indonesian and Fijian Governments. She also has a long and fruitful history of collaboration with community-based organisations, who play pivotal roles in “filling the gaps” in terms of SRH care provision in resource poor contexts.

Professor Bennett is Head of the Education and Learning Unit at the Nossal Institute and is the strategic lead in the design of the Institute’s custom education activities, including tailored courses, training tools and manuals, and the design of capacity building activities that meet the professional certification requirements of our partners. She is committed to the co-design of high-impact custom education and training, that builds and strengthens communities of practice in global health. She also enjoys post graduate supervision and invites expressions of interest from students wishing to pursue research on topics related to her expertise.