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Department of Anthropology
Brandeis University
P.O. Box 549110, MS 006
Waltham, MA 02454-9110

(781) 736-2210
(781) 736-2232 (FAX)

Office location: Brown 228
lcarpent@brandeis.edu

Janet McIntosh

Brown 207
Department of Anthropology
Brandeis University
P.O. Box 549110, MS 006
Waltham, MA 02454-9110
janetmc@brandeis.edu
(781) 736-2215

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION
Linguistic anthropology, psychological anthropology, religion; East Africa.

Background and Description

Janet McIntosh is a cultural anthropologist specializing in linguistic anthropology, psychological anthropology, the study of religion, and East Africa. After earning a BA (summa cum laude) from Harvard University in anthropology and a second BA (with first class honors) from Oxford University in philosophy and psychology, she undertook graduate training at the University of Michigan, earning her Ph.D in 2002 and winning a Distinguished Dissertation Award. Dr. McIntosh has recent and forthcoming articles in such journals as Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, Journal of Pragmatics, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Africa, Journal of Religion in Africa, and Language and Communication. Her publications have addressed language ideologies, ritual and ritual language, code-switching, stance and narrative, personhood, essentialism, the politics of Islam and African traditionalism, ethnicity, and postcoloniality. Her book, The Edge of Islam: Power, Personhood, and Ethnoreligious Boundaries on the Kenya Coast, is forthcoming with Duke University Press (2009). Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, she is currently conducting research toward a new project on the narrated dilemmas of former colonial settlers and their descendants in Kenya. The courses she teaches at Brandeis include “Language, Ethnicity and Nationalism,” “Linguistic Anthropology,” “Psychological Anthropology,” “Colonialism/Postcoloniality: Encounters and Dilemmas,” “Communication and Media,” and “Language in American Life”. Before coming to Brandeis she taught at University of Michigan, Harvard University, and MIT. She lives in Brookline with her husband Tom and son Tobias.

Link to Curriculum Vitae

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Forthcoming. The Edge of Islam: Power, Personhood, and Ethnoreligious Boundaries on the Kenya Coast. Duke University Press.

Forthcoming. “Stance and Distance: Ontological Doubt and Social Boundaries in Witchcraft Narratives of White Kenyans” in Alexandra Jaffe, ed. Sociolinguistics of Stance. Oxford University Press.

Forthcoming. “Elders and ‘Frauds’: Politics, the Commodification of Expertise, and the Performance of Ethnic Authenticity among Mijikenda.” Africa.

2006. “’Going Bush’: Black Magic, White Ambivalence, and Boundaries of Belief in Post-Colonial Kenya.” Journal of Religion in Africa 36(3-4): 254-295.

2005. “Baptismal Essentialisms: Giriama Code Choice and the Reification of Ethnoreligious Boundaries.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 15(2): 151-170.

2005. “Language Essentialisms and Social Hierarchies among Giriama and Swahili.” Journal of Pragmatics 37(12): 1919-1944.

2005. “Liminal Meanings: Sexually Charged Giriama Funerary Ritual and Unsettled Participant Frameworks.” Language and Communication 25: 39-60.

2004. “Reluctant Muslims: Embodied Hegemony and Moral Resistance in a Giriama Spirit Possession Complex” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 10(1): 91-112.

2004. “Maxwell’s Demons: Disenchantment in the Field.” Anthropology and Humanism 29(1): 63-77.

2004. “Spirits and Social Change.” Kenya Past and Present 34: 67-72.

2004. “What Have the 9-11 Investigators Overlooked?” Anthropologists in the Public Sphere: Speaking out on War, Peace, and American Power. Ed. Roberto Gonzalez. Austin: University of Texas Press.

2002. Review of Patrizia Violi, Meaning and Experience. (Indiana University Press, 2001.) Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 12(2).

2002. "Cracking Codes and Speaking in Tongues: Language, Gender, and Power in Two Kenyan Divination Rituals." Gendered Practices in Language. Ed. S. Benor, M. Rose, D. Sharma, J. Sweetland, Q. Zhang. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.

2001. "Strategic Amnesia: Versions of Vasco da Gama on the Kenya Coast." Images of Africa: Stereotypes and Realities. Ed. Daniel Mungara and Victoria Larson. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press.

2001. "'Tradition' and threat: Women's Obscenity in Giriama Funerary Rituals." Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective, Third Edition. Ed. Caroline B. Brettell and Carolyn F. Sargent. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.

1998. "Symbolism, Cognition, and Political Orders." Science and Society. 62(4): 557-568.

1997. "Cognition and Power." Cogweb: Cognitive and Cultural Studies. [online] Site received the Society for Critical Exchange "Critical Excellence Award," Nov. 1997.

1996. "Professed Disbelief and Gender Identity on the Coast of Kenya." Gender and Belief. Ed. Natasha Warner et al. Berkeley: University of California Press.

(co-authored with Barbara Ehrenreich) 1997. The New Creationism. The Nation, June 9.

Reprinted in:

2001. Darwin, Third Edition. (Norton Critical Editions.) Ed. Philip Appleman. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

1999. Mistaken Identities: The Second Wave of Controversy over 'Political Correctness'. Ed. Cyril Levitt, Scott Davies, and Neil McLaughlin. New York: Peter Lang

1998. Free Inquiry. Spring '98, Vol. 18 No. 2 (under the title "Sizing up 'Secular Creationism'")

AWARDS and HONORS

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship and Faculty Research Award, 2008-2009
Norman Award for Faculty Scholarship, Brandeis University, 2007
Kermit H. Perlmutter Fellow (Award for Teaching Excellence), Brandeis University, 2006
Michael L. Walzer Award for Teaching, Brandeis University, 2005
Mazer Award, Brandeis University, 2004
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend, 2004
Consilience Fellow, Brandeis University, 2003-2004
Horace H. Rackham Distinguished Dissertation Award, University of Michigan, 2002 (Highest honor given to dissertations produced under the auspices of the University of Michigan.)
Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad, 1998-1999
Certificate of Distinction for Excellence in Teaching, Harvard University. (Received for performance in each of five classes taught 1999-2001)
Distinction in Doctoral Candidacy Examinations, University of Michigan, 1997
Jacob Javits Fellowship, 1993-1997
British Marshall Scholar, Oxford University, United Kingdom, 1991-1993

COURSES TAUGHT AT BRANDEIS

Language, Ethnicity and Nationalism
Linguistic Anthropology
Psychological Anthropology
Colonialism/Postcoloniality: Encounters and Dilemmas
Communication and Media
Language in American Life
Culture and Cognition
The Nature of Human Nature