Assistant Professor
Peterson Hall Building, Room 314
3460 McTavish, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 0E6
Email: alexis.dennis [at] mcgill.ca
Office hours: By appointment
Research Areas
Race and Racism, Population Health, Medical Sociology, Life Course.
Biography
PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2022
MPH, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2014
Dr. Dennis is a population health scientist and sociologist with cross-training in public health. Her research broadly investigates how and why structural and social stratification processes generate inequality in health and wellbeing. She is particularly interested in uncovering the mechanisms that give rise to health inequalities across and within racial/ethnic groups. Dr. Dennis is also attentive to the need to refine theory, conceptualization, and measurement in her work to better reflect how our quantitative measures may have qualitatively different meanings across racial/ethnic groups. A central strand of her research investigates why Nonwhites do not consistently reap the same beneficial health returns to material resources as Whites. One project in this area examines how access to various types of socioeconomic and material resources across early portions of the life course gives rise to racial/ethnic inequalities in depression observed among US adults by midlife. Another thread of Dr. Dennis鈥� research examines how various forms of racism differentially restrict opportunities for health and wellbeing across and within racial/ethnic groups in the United States.
Selected Publications
Boen, Courtney E., Y. Claire Yang, Allison E. Aiello, Alexis C. Dennis, Kathleen Mullan Harris, Dayoon Kwon, and Daniel Belsky. 2023. 鈥淧atterns and Drivers of Black-White Disparities in Biological Age Acceleration in Mid-to-Late Life.鈥� Demography, 60(6) 1815鈥�1841
Renson, Audrey, Alexis C. Dennis, Grace Noppert, Elizabeth McClure, Allison Aiello. 2022. 鈥淚nterventions on socioeconomic and racial inequities in respiratory pandemics: a rapid systematic review.鈥� Current Epidemiology Reports. 9(2):66-76.
Hargrove, Taylor W., Lauren M. Gaydosh, Alexis C. Dennis. 2021. 鈥淓ducational Gradients in CMR by Race/ethnicity, Nativity, and County-level Characteristics.鈥� Demography.
Dennis, Alexis C. 2021. 鈥淭hose Left Behind: Socioeconomic Predictors and Social Mediators of Psychological Distress among Working-aged African Americans in a Post-industrial City鈥� Du Bois Review. 18(1):119-151.
Dennis, Alexis C., Esther O. Chung, Evans K. Lodge, Rae Anne Martinez, and Rachel E. Wilbur. 2021. 鈥淟ooking Back to Leap Forward: A Framework for Operationalizing the Structural Racism Construct in Minority Health Research.鈥� Ethnicity & Disease, 31(Suppl 1):301-310.
McCarraher, Donna R., Catherine Packer, Sarah Mercer, Alexis C. Dennis, Harry Banda, Namakau Nyambe, Randy M. Stalter, Jonathan K. Mwansa, Patrick Katayamoyo, and Julie A. Denison. 2018. 鈥淎dolescents living with HIV in the Copperbelt Province of Zambia: Their reproductive health needs and experiences.鈥� PLOS ONE.
Velloza, Jennifer, Melissa H. Watt, Laurie Abler, Donald Skinner, Seth C. Kalichman, Alexis C. Dennis, and Kathleen J. Sikkema. 2017. 鈥淗IV-risk behaviors and social support among men and women attending alcohol-serving venues in South Africa: Implications for HIV prevention.鈥� AIDS and Behavior. 21(Suppl 2):144-154.
Watt, Melissa H., Alexis C. Dennis, Karmel W. Choi, Nonceba Ciya, John A. Joska, Corne Robertson, and Kathleen J. Sikkema. 2017. 鈥淚mpact of Sexual Trauma on HIV Care Engagement: Perspectives of Female Patients with Trauma Histories in Cape Town, South Africa.鈥� AIDS and Behavior. 21(11):3209-3218.
Dennis, Alexis C., Sarah M. Wilson, Mary V. Mosha, Gileard G. Masenga, Kathleen J. Sikkema, Korrine E. Terroso, and Melissa H. Watt. 2016. 鈥淓xperiences of Social Support among Women Presenting for Obstetric Fistula Repair Surgery in Tanzania.鈥� International Journal of Women鈥檚 Health 8:429-439.
Watt, Melissa H., Lisa A. Eaton, Alexis C. Dennis, Karmel W. Choi, Seth C. Kalichman, Donald Skinner, and Kathleen J. Sikkema. 2015. 鈥淎lcohol Use During Pregnancy in a South African Community: Reconciling Knowledge, Norms, and Personal Experience. Maternal and Child Health Journal 20(1):48-55.
Sikkema, Kathleen J., Alexis C. Dennis, Melissa H. Watt, Karmel W. Choi, Tatenda Yemeke, and John A. Joska. 2015 . 鈥淚mproving Mental Health Among People Living with HIV: A Review of Intervention Trials in Low- and Middle-income Countries.鈥� Global Mental Health 2:e19-42.
Dennis, Alexis C., Clare Barrington, Sayaka Hino, Michele Gould, David Wohl, and Carol E. Golin. 2015. 鈥溾�榊ou鈥檙e in a World of Chaos:鈥� Experiences Accessing HIV Care and Adhering to Medications After Incarceration.鈥� Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care 26(5):542-555.
Grewe, Mary Beth, Arianna Taboada, Alexis Dennis, Elizabeth Chen, Kathryn Stein, Sable Watson, and Alexandra F. Lightfoot. 2015. 鈥溾�業 learned to accept every part of myself鈥�: the transformative impact of a theatre-based sexual health and HIV prevention programme.鈥� Sex Education: Sexuality, Society, & Learning 15(3):202-217.
Denison, Julie A., Harry Banda, Alexis C. Dennis, Catherine Packer, Namakau Nyambe, Randy M. Stalter, Jonathan K. Mwansa, Patrick Katayamoyo, and Donna R. McCarraher. 2015. 鈥溾�楾he sky is the limit鈥�: Adhering to Antiretroviral Therapy and HIV Self-management from the Perspectives of Adolescents Living with HIV and their Adult Caregivers.鈥� Journal of the International AIDS Society 18(1):19358.
Grodensky, Catherine A., Carol E. Golin, Chaunetta Jones, Meheret Mamo, Alexis C. Dennis, Melinda G. Abernethy, and Kristine B. Patterson. 2015. 鈥溾�業 Should Know Better鈥�: The Roles of Relationships, Spirituality, Disclosure, Stigma, and Shame for Older Women Living with HIV Seeking Support in the South.鈥� Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care 26(1):12-23.
Dennis, Alexis C. and Julia.T. Wood. 2012 . 鈥溾�榃e鈥檙e not going to have this conversation but you get it!鈥�: Black Mother-Daughter Communication about Sexual Relationships.鈥� Women鈥檚 Studies in Communication 35(2):204-223.
Courses Taught
Undergraduate Courses:
SOCI 310 Sociology of Mental Disorder
SOCI 225 Medicine and Health in Modern Society
Research Grants
2024-2027 鈥淯ne exploration de l'in茅galit茅 raciale structurelle et du bien-锚tre de la population Canadienne (An exploration of structural racial inequality and well-being in the Canadian population)鈥�. Principal investigator. Fronds du Recherche du Quebec 鈥� Soci茅t茅 et culture, 脡stablissement de nouveaux professeurs-chercheurs. Total costs: $44,948 CAD
2023-2024 鈥淔rom Neurons to Neighborhoods.鈥� CONNECT Team - Healthy Brains, Healthy Lives, 海角社区. Co-Investigator. (Anna Weinberg, Alexis Dennis, Sam Nelson, Keita Christophe). Total costs: $100,000 CAD.
2022-2023 鈥淎 Scoping Review of Structural Racism and Racial and Ethnic Inequality in Wellbeing in Canada.鈥� 海角社区 Internal Social Sciences and Humanities Development Grant. Principal Investigator. Total costs: $5,000 CAD.