Jennie E. Burnet, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Anthropology
Director of the Institute for Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Georgia State University

Jennie E. Burnet is an associate professor of anthropology and director of the Institute for Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta, United States of America. 

Her research explores the cultural and psychological aspects of war, genocide, and mass violence and the micro-level impact of large-scale social change in the context of conflict. 

She is the award-winning author of Genocide Lives in Us: Women, Memory and Silence in Rwanda. Her forthcoming book, To Save Heaven and Earth: Rescue during the Rwandan Genocide, examines how and why some Rwandans risked their lives to save Tutsi from the carnage. Her research has appeared in Politics & Gender, African Affairs, African Studies Review, and Women’s Studies International Forum.

The majority of her research has focused on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, its aftermath, and its long-term impacts on Rwandan society. Her early research focused on how women rebuild their lives in the wake of genocide and war, how they give meaning to their experiences, and how they navigate the dangerous emotional and political terrain of memory. Her second major research project focused on the extrinsic and intrinsic motivations of Rwandans who risked their lives to save others during the 1994 genocide. The project led her to consider the origins of agency in the midst of mass violence.

Her current research focuses on:

• understanding the long-term impacts of racialized violence in the American South on affect, embodied memory, and political geographies.
• documenting the history of Islam in Rwanda and the roles of Rwandan Muslims’ in the 1994 genocide.
• women’s social movements and women’s roles in democratization, conflict resolution, and peace building.

Dr. Burnet mentors a diverse group of graduate and undergraduate research assistants from multiple disciplines. As a mentor, Dr. Burnet provides numerous training opportunities through assisted experiential learning and research assistantships.

Dr. Burnet holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Prior to joining Georgia State University in August 2015, she was an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Louisville.