Dr Sarah Bennison

Dr Sarah Bennison

Coordinator

Researcher profile

Email
sb333@st-andrews.ac.uk

 

Biography

Research interests

I am an interdisciplinary researcher specialising in irrigation customs and community water governance in the Peruvian Andes, with specialist expertise in the Huarochirí province of Lima. I am particularly interested in the following topics in relation to the Andean region:

  • ritual management of water
  • customary law
  • ritual functions of khipus ('quipus')
  • local texts
  • twentieth century nation-building, social change and linguistic transformation
  • indigenous/ancestral ontologies of landscape
  • Andean ontologies of the body 

My area of expertise also includes the early colonial Quechua Huarochirí Manuscript.

Outputs

Book: The Entablo Manuscript: Water Rituals and Khipu-Boards of San Pedro de Casta, Peru. University of Texas Press. 2023.

My research is published in peer-reviewed journals, including Anthropological Linguistics, Latin American Research Review and Indiana. I have also written peer-reviewed book chapters in English and Spanish. My publications include articles for research-focussed media outlets, including Sapiens magazine and Latin America Bureau. 

Previous roles at the University of St Andrews

In 2021, I took up a post as Research Fellow of the St Andrews Network for Climate, Energy, Environment and Sustainability (STACEES). 

In 2022, I took up a further role as Research Fellow in the School of Geography and Sustainable Development, working on a UKRI-funded project exploring climate change in northern Peru; led by Prof Nina Laurie. 

Between 2017 and 2021, I worked on a Leverhulme Trust-funded research project on quipus (khipus; Andean cord notation) in the Department of Social Anthropology.

Research background:

In 2016, I completed an interdisciplinary Latin American Sudies PhD at Newcastle University. My research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council explored irrigation rituals and customary law in Huarochirí, home to the Quechua Huarochirí Manuscript of c.1608. The thesis also explored indigenous legislation at the international and national level (in Peru), problematising the criteria for Prior Consultation Law. Since groups from Huarochirí define themselves as Spanish-speaking and non-indigenous, according to the Peruvian State criteria they could not be conferred the right to prior consultation at the time of writing.

My research draws from insights into Peruvian society gained through twenty years of extended stays in the country, including over a decade of ethnographic fieldwork trips in Huarochirí. 

Leadership work

I served as Director of the Centre for Amerindian, Latin American and Caribbean Studies in 2018/2019 during the centre's 50th anniversary year. I ran a regular seminar series in addition to a series of anniversary-focussed events including the centre's first interdisciplinary networking event. I also built and launched a new centre website.

In 2017, I co-founded the Early Career Women's Network at St Andrews University and co-led the network until 2020.

Research areas

Profile

In November 2024, I joined the Global Research Centre for Diverse Intelligences as Coordinator, based at the University of St Andrews. I am passionate about collaboration, innovation and making research accessible. 

Values

I am passionate about disability inclusion, research ethics and integrity. More generally, I am enthusiastic about contributing positively to a supportive, diverse and fair research environment.

Selected publications

 

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