Catherine Fuentes

Catherine Fuentes

Teaching Professor
704-687-5100
Barnard 218

Teaching Professor and Undergraduate Coordinator

PROFILE: Dr. Catherine Mitchell Fuentes is a teaching professor of anthropology at UNC Charlotte. She specializes in applied and medical anthropology. She has worked in Latin America, New England, and the southeastern United States. Her research has looked at how trauma, particularly in the form of domestic violence and sexual assault, leads to increased health risks, risks for addiction, and incarceration among women. She has conducted research in order to understand women’s unique pathways to incarceration and resultant service needs to reduce recidivism at the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office Jail (MCSO) in Charlotte, NC. Her current research examines the ways in which lifetime trauma impacts motherhood for a population of women incarcerated at the MCSO. She has served on the North Carolina Governor’s Crime Commission as Chair of the Crime Victims Services subcommittee and is currently a board member of Step Up to Family Safety; a non-profit working to educate and end domestic violence in North Carolina.

Fuentes Curriculum Vitae

EDUCATION:

  • PhD, University of Connecticut at Storrs – Department of Anthropology, 2005
  • MA, University of Connecticut at Storrs –Department of Anthropology 2001
  • BA, North Carolina State University (Summa Cum Laude) – Department of Philosophy 1994

RECENT TEACHING:

  • Culture, Health, and Illness (Introduction to Medical Anthropology) (Online and In-Class)
  • Introduction to Four-Field Anthropology
  • Urban Anthropology
  • The Anthropology of Violence
  • Senior Seminar – Capstone Research for Anthropology Majors at UNCC

RESEARCH INTERESTS/AREAS OF EXPERTISE:

  • Medical Anthropology and Applied Anthropology
  • Incarcerated Women
  • Domestic Violence
  • Trauma

AWARDS/HONORS/GRANTS:

  • 2015 Public Anthropology’s Ruth Benedict Global Citizenship Award
  • 2013 Nominated for status of Fellow member for the Society for Applied Anthropology
  • 2011 Recipient of the UNCC College of Arts & Sciences Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Full-Time Lecturer.
  • 2010 The Eleanor Roosevelt Global Citizenship Award by the Center for Public Anthropology.
  • 2005 2nd Place Poster Award; the Society for Applied Anthropology ($200)
  • 2005 Travel Award for presentation at the Society for Applied Anthropology; The Research Foundation of the University of Connecticut ($800)
  • 2004 National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Grant ($11,950)
  • 2004 Graduate Fellowship for Doctoral Research; The Department of Anthropology ($6,000)
  • 2004 Doctoral Dissertation Grant. The Research Foundation of the University of Connecticut Doctoral Dissertation Grant ($500)
  • 2004 University Predoctoral Fellowship; The Graduate School of the University of Connecticut ($1,900)
  • 2003 Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship; Research Foundation of the University of Connecticut ($2,000)
  • 2004 Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant; Research Foundation of the University of Connecticut ($500)
  • 2003 Sexual Assault Advocate of the Year. The Women’s Center of Northeastern Connecticut.

SELECT PUBLICATIONS:

  • Fuentes, Catherine M. Mitchell. 2014 Nobody’s Child: The Role of Trauma and Interpersonal Violence in Women’s Pathways to Incarceration and Resultant Service Needs.” Medical Anthropology Quarterly. 28(1): 85-104.
  • Fuentes, Catherine M. Mitchell. 2011 “Applying Anthropology to Improve the Lives of Incarcerated Women in the United States.” CourseReader. Detroit: Gale, 2011.Cengage Online.
  • Fuentes, Catherine M. Mitchell. 2011 Breaking the Pathways Between Family Violence and Sexually Transmitted Infections: A Test of Two Theories. Human Organization. 70(2):128-138.
  • Fuentes, Catherine M. Mitchell. 2009 Confucianism. In H. James Birx, Editor, Encyclopedia of Time. SAGE Publications.
  • Fuentes, Catherine M. Mitchell. 2009 Aboriginal Dream Time. In H. James Birx, Editor, Encyclopedia of Time. SAGE Publications.
  • Fuentes, Catherine M. Mitchell. 2008 Pathways from Interpersonal Violence to Sexually Transmitted Infections: A Mixed-Method Study of Anglo, Latina, and African American Women. Journal of Women’s Health. 17(10):1591-1600.
  • Fuentes, Catherine M. Mitchell. 2005 Bride Price. In H. James Birx, Editor, Encyclopedia of Anthropology. SAGE Publications.
  • Fuentes, Catherine M. Mitchell. 2005 Polyandry. In H. James Birx, Editor, Encyclopedia of Anthropology. SAGE Publications
  • Fuentes, Catherine M. Mitchell. 2005 The Mbuti Pygmies. In H. James Birx, Editor, Encyclopedia of Anthropology. SAGE Publications http://clas-pages.uncc.edu/catherine-mitchell-fuentes