Anthropology in Action

As Sara Jane Renfroe ’18 prepared to graduate from Rollins in 2018, she strongly considered going the PhD route right away. After all, she’d found her calling—pursuing anthropology and gender equity—as an undergrad. But her faculty mentors encouraged her to gain some real-world experience first. They steered her toward immersive learning with local immigrant services organizations, an internship in India, and a graduate program that would lead to applied work.

Renfroe took their advice, and it turned out to be just the right move. This year, with a master’s degree in human rights from Columbia University and several years of professional experience under her belt, she became one of just 80 scholars to receive the prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship, which will fully fund her PhD at the University of Cambridge.

“Gates emphasizes wanting to do work that leads to some sort of global good,” she explains, “and that commitment has a hundred percent shaped my pathway, which started at Rollins.”

In the fall, Renfroe will begin her PhD focused on medical pluralism in Mexico City. As she describes it, the work is nuanced and complex, demanding not only theoretical knowledge but also a grounded understanding of the people and communities it affects. Thanks to her Rollins education and applied work, she is well positioned to do exactly what the Gates Cambridge Scholarship envisions: turn rigorous research into meaningful change.

We recently caught up with Renfroe to talk about her path, her research, and the Rollins experiences that set it all in motion.

What will you be working on as a Gates Cambridge Scholar? “I’ve proposed to work in Mexico City with Indigenous Latina women who’ve moved to Mexico City from other parts of Mexico or other countries within Latin America, and I’ll be looking at medical pluralism specifically: how women are making active decisions to blend health-care systems, engaging in community building, and generating new sources of knowledge around reproductive health as acts of agency and resistance.”

How did Rollins help prepare you for this prestigious opportunity? “The most important skill I learned at Rollins and still use today is reflectiveness around positionality—thinking critically about who I am and what that represents in structures of power and being reflective about it in order to make change. That came from my mentor, anthropology professor Rachel Newcomb, but also from the Alfond Scholars program, which I was a part of. Rollins also gave me a strong intellectual foundation: how to be an academic, how to write, read, and discuss rigorously. And communication—research, speaking opportunities, communicating with empathy, and really listening. I learned how to make space.” 

You found your passion for gender equity at Rollins too. How did that happen? “Gender equity became more and more of an interest when I was working with Dr. Newcomb because she exposed me to these injustices. When I was doing immersive learning at Hope CommUnity Center and the Farmworker Association of Florida in Apopka, I saw how people coming from certain countries with certain language backgrounds faced compounded barriers. Something as simple as using bills and documentation to formalize immigration status. Immigrant women often didn’t have bills in their name, so they had less access. The intersectionality of it meant women were often more vulnerable, but they also supported each other and found unique solutions. It really became a passion for me.” 

It sounds like Rachel Newcomb’s mentorship was really pivotal. “It was everything. She basically adopted me my freshman year. She knew I was an anthropology major before I even knew anything about anthropology. When we conducted research in Spain through a grant from Rollins, we lived together in Barcelona, working with Moroccan women who’d migrated to Catalonia. She also created all these opportunities for immersion to help me and other students learn about the context of immigration in Central Florida. She constantly provided opportunities to grow as a person, always with this spirit of reflective, applied anthropology. I couldn’t have gotten luckier.”

How did you keep pursuing this work after graduating? “I went to Columbia University for a master’s in human rights. I wanted to gain a more applied understanding of how to make change in systems that are structurally inequitable. My master’s was focused on migration and displacement. While I was studying, I interned at Freedom House, Watchlist for Children and Armed Conflict, then at a refugee resettlement agency. Eventually, I became a staff member, supporting and managing the volunteer program, helping people find jobs, and managing emergency assistance due to COVID.”

What have you learned from all of your varied experiences thus far? “Overall, the most important thing we can do, from the position of being based in the U.S. with the skill set that folks from my background have, is capacity strengthening. That means working with local teams, sitting in between them and donors like USAID or UNICEF, knowing the structures, doing the grant writing, managing donor expectations, and supporting the people actually doing the work. I went to Angola a month ago, for example, to do qualitative research that will go into a report for the Ministry of Health to improve the cholera response. It’s about providing resources and support to people on the ground to be able to make change as they see necessary within their own communities.”

What kind of impact do you hope to have through your PhD? “This feels like a real opportunity, especially at a moment when we’re reevaluating how global health programs are implemented. As much as I love this field, there are real challenges, especially the one-size-fits-all approach. My PhD will be a case study in how and why Indigenous Latina women in Mexico City are using health-care approaches that international aid organizations wouldn’t expect. I want to help the field better reflect what people actually need and want—how they actually want to experience pregnancy and birth and navigate decisions regarding health-care services—rather than framing it as noncompliance or assuming people ‘just can’t’ access services. I want to contribute to how we conceptualize and develop interventions.”

What gives you hope? “As a Gates Cambridge scholar, I’ll be a part of a community of people from all over the world who care about equity and improving lives. I’m excited to learn from them and to do a real deep dive into one topic over time rather than the shorter-term projects I’ve been doing. To really learn from people and focus on this so that I can hopefully make a difference.”