Rosa De Jorio

Associate Professor of Anthropology
(Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Areas of Interest: kinship/gender; the politics of culture; culture and the historical imagination; Islam; globalization; Mali, West Africa.

Background:
Rosa De Jorio received a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a M.Sc. in social anthropology from the London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK; and a B.A. (Laurea) in Modern Literature with a specialization in ethno-anthropology from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” Italy.

Research Interests:
De Jorio has carried out extensive fieldwork research in Mali, West Africa predominantly in urban areas. Topics of enquiry include the politics of culture; women’s networks and organizations; domestic rituals; Islam and the public sphere; and globalization. Her research was sponsored by several institutions including the Social Science Research Council, the Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities (MUCIA), and the Italian institute for African studies (Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente).

Courses Offered:
Kinship and the Family in a Cross-cultural Perspective
People and Cultures of the World
People and Cultures of Africa
Survey of Anthropological Theories
Cross-cultural Methods
Cities and Globalization
Memory, History, and Anthropology
Gender, the Body, and Culture

Recent Publications:

Articles and Book Chapters
In Press. “Da Siti Sacri a Patrimonio Pubblico: il Caso di Djenné, Mali” (From Sacred Sites to Public Patrimony: the Case of Djenné, Mali). In Beltrami, Vanni. Volume in Memoria di Bernardo Bernardi. Roma: Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’ Oriente.

2009. “Between dialogue and contestation: gender, Islam, and the challenges of a Malian public sphere.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Association 15 (1): 95-111.

2006. “Politics of Remembering and Forgetting: The Struggle over Colonial Monuments in Mali.” Africa Today 52(4): 79-106.

2003. “Narratives of the Nation and Democracy in Mali: a View from Modibo Keita’s Memorial” Cahiers d'Études africaines 172 (4): 827-855.

2002. “When is 'Married' Married? Multiple Marriage Avenues in Urban Mali.” Mande Studies 4:31-44.

2002. “Gendered Museum, Guided He(tour)topias: Women and Social Memory in Mali." Polar: The Political and Legal Anthropology Review 25 (2): 50-72.

2001. “Women’s organization, the ideology of kinship, and the state in postindependence Mali” (pp. 322-340). In Stone, Linda (ed.) New Directions in Anthropological Kinship. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.

2001. “Negoziare tradizioni e modernità: il Museo della Donna 'Muso Kunda' a Bamako, Mali” (Negotiating traditions and modernity: the Woman’s Museum “Muso Kunda” in Bamako, Mali. Etnosistemi 8 (8): 79-90.

Encyclopedia Entries
2007. “Memory, Women, and Community: Sub-Saharan Africa” in Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures. Volume 6, Leiden: Brill pp. 47-51 (with Maria Grosz-Ngaté)

2005 "Kinship" in Horowitz, Maryanne Cline (ed.) New Dictionary of the History of Ideas, Vol. 3. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons.

2001. “Malian National Culture” In Ember, Melvin and Carol R. Ember, (eds.) Countries and Their Cultures. Vol III, pp. 1384-1399. New York: Macmillan Reference USA.

Special Issues Editor

2006. Introduction to Special Issue on “Memory and the Formation of Political Identities in West Africa” Africa Today 52(4): v-ix.

2002. Introduction to Special Issue on “Narratives of the Past/Sites of Memory: Constructing Social, Religious, and Political Identities in the Postcolony.” Polar: The Political and Legal Anthropology Review 25 (2): 1-4.


Contact information:
Office: 51/2209
Phone: 904-620-1642
Email: rdejorio@unf.edu