Susan Brownell
Susan Brownell is a professor of cultural anthropology at the University of Missouri St. Louis. She is known for her work on sport in China, the Olympic Games, World's Fairs, and the anthropology of the body and gender. Early life and education 
Brownell's childhood was spent in Virginia where she competed for Lexington High School. She attended the University of Virginia, where she was a college athlete who specialized in the heptathlon and pentathalon. She competed in the United States' 1980 and 1984 trials for the Olympic team. In 1982 she received her B.A. from the University of Virginia and was an All-American in the heptathlon. As a graduate student, Brownell spent extended periods of time in China, and competed with a Chinese team in the 1986 National College Games. In 1990 she earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California Santa Barbara. Brownell has been at the University of Missouri–St. Louis since 1994. Work
Brownell's first introduction to China was from stories her grandmother told her. Some of her work focuses on the body in culture and society; medical anthropology; gender and sexuality; plastic surgery; beauty pageants; and world's fairs. Brownell was in China at the Beijing Sport University for one year with funding from the Fulbright Program. During that period her research centered on the 2008 Summer Olympics which were held in Beijing. Selected publications

Awards and honors 
In 2015, she won the University of Missouri St. Louis's Chancellor's Award for Research and Creativity. References

External links
Brownell's faculty page at the University of Missouri St. Louis

Living people
University of Virginia alumni
University of California, Santa Barbara alumni
University of Missouri–St. Louis faculty
American women writers
American women anthropologists
People from Lexington, Virginia
Academics of physical education and sport
Year of birth missing (living people)