Amy Nichols-Belo


Amy Nichols-Belo Entered 2002 anicholsbelo@virginia.edu
Sociocultural Anthropology Regional focus: East Africa. Topical interests: Witchcraft, African religion, gender, modernity, development, medicine and healing. I have been working towards long-term research in Mwanza, Tanzania's second-largest city, since 2001. Mwanza is one of Africa's fastest-growing cities and is the center of Usukuma or Sukumaland, the area inhabited by the WaSukuma, Tanzania's largest ethnic group. I have spent three summers doing fieldwork and studying KiSwahili in rural Sukumaland, Zanzibar, and Mwanza. My dissertation project examines how the categories jadi ("tradition") and maendeleo ("development" or "modernity") are locally constructed, constituted, and deployed in discourse and practice surrounding Sukuma witchcraft. I am interested in Sukuma notions of jadi and maendeleo as shaped by the discourses of churches, NGOs, and newspapers; in representations of Sukuma culture as "exotic"; and in life within a multiethnic and commercializing urban environment. While at UVa, I have worked as a TA in both the anthropology and SWAG (Studies in Women and Gender) departments. I've also taught the following independent courses: "African Modernities: Disease, Development and Witchcraft" (Summer 2005), "Anthropology of Sex and Gender" (January 2006, with Holly Donahue Singh), "Witchcraft, Healing, and Popular Religion" (Spring 2006), and "Introduction to Anthropology" (Summer 2006). MA Paper (UVA): 2004. Re-gendering Calamity in Sukumaland: Appeasing Male Ancestors, Killing Female Witches MS Thesis (Va. Tech): 2003. Globalization on the Ground: Health, Development, and Volunteerism in Meatu, Tanzania Publications: 2006. The Globally Competent Engineer: Working Effectively with People Who Define Problems Differently. Journal of Engineering Education (April). (with Gary Lee Downey, Juan C. Lucena, Barbara Moskal, Thomas Bigley, Chris Hays, Brent Jesiek, Liam Kelly, Jane Lehr, Jonson Miller, Sharon Ruff, and Rosamond Parkhurst). 2003. Review of Making babies, making families: What matters most in an age of reproductive technologies, surrogacy, adoption, and same-sex and unwed parents. Contemporary Sociology 32(3): 306-307.

Entered 2002
anicholsbelo@virginia.edu

Sociocultural Anthropology

Regional focus: East Africa.

Topical interests: Witchcraft, African religion, gender, modernity, development, medicine and healing.

I have been working towards long-term research in Mwanza, Tanzania's second-largest city, since 2001. Mwanza is one of Africa's fastest-growing cities and is the center of Usukuma or Sukumaland, the area inhabited by the WaSukuma, Tanzania's largest ethnic group. I have spent three summers doing fieldwork and studying KiSwahili in rural Sukumaland, Zanzibar, and Mwanza. My dissertation project examines how the categories jadi ("tradition") and maendeleo ("development" or "modernity") are locally constructed, constituted, and deployed in discourse and practice surrounding Sukuma witchcraft. I am interested in Sukuma notions of jadi and maendeleo as shaped by the discourses of churches, NGOs, and newspapers; in representations of Sukuma culture as "exotic"; and in life within a multiethnic and commercializing urban environment.

While at UVa, I have worked as a TA in both the anthropology and SWAG (Studies in Women and Gender) departments. I've also taught the following independent courses: "African Modernities: Disease, Development and Witchcraft" (Summer 2005), "Anthropology of Sex and Gender" (January 2006, with Holly Donahue Singh), "Witchcraft, Healing, and Popular Religion" (Spring 2006), and "Introduction to Anthropology" (Summer 2006).

MA Paper (UVA): 2004. Re-gendering Calamity in Sukumaland: Appeasing Male Ancestors, Killing Female Witches

MS Thesis (Va. Tech): 2003. Globalization on the Ground: Health, Development, and Volunteerism in Meatu, Tanzania

Publications:

2006. The Globally Competent Engineer: Working Effectively with People Who Define Problems Differently. Journal of Engineering Education (April). (with Gary Lee Downey, Juan C. Lucena, Barbara Moskal, Thomas Bigley, Chris Hays, Brent Jesiek, Liam Kelly, Jane Lehr, Jonson Miller, Sharon Ruff, and Rosamond Parkhurst).

2003. Review of Making babies, making families: What matters most in an age of reproductive technologies, surrogacy, adoption, and same-sex and unwed parents. Contemporary Sociology 32(3): 306-307.