John Schaefer

Introduction

John Schaefer teaches courses in cultural anthropology, applied anthropology, Middle Eastern studies, and migration and refugee studies. His primary research area has been the Arab Middle East, in particular Morocco.

Education

Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin

M.A., University of Arkansas

B.S., John Brown University

Teaching

John Schaefer teaches courses in cultural anthropology, applied anthropology, Middle Eastern studies, and migration and refugee studies at the Middletown campus. He is a member of the Center for Teaching and Learning at the Regionals, 2018-2020.

Between 2009 and 2012, he was an assistant professor of anthropology at the American University in Cairo, Egypt.

Research

John Schaefer was born in Accra, Ghana, in 1974 and lived in northern Ghana until 1991. Since 1997 his primary research area has been the Arab Middle East, in particular Morocco. His primary interests are in musical roots and routes across the Sahara Desert.

He is currently completing a book manuscript with the tentative title of The Black Sahara: Gnawa Identity and Spiritual Work in Morocco. The book derives from fieldwork conducted between 2001 and 2010 among Gnawa musicians in Morocco, who practice spirit possession and conduct trance healing rituals.

He has also published and presented more broadly on such topics as activism in Cairo's Tahrir Square, Moroccan protest music, psychedelic trance festivals, interactional analysis of music, and the use of the Internet in Ghana.

Collaboration

Dr. Schaefer is secretary of the Middle East Section of the American Anthropological Association (2017-2020) and has been Webmaster since 2014.

Other Activities

John has reviewed manuscripts for several journals: Brussels Studies (Brill Publishers, Leiden), Globalizations (London), ALIF: Journal of Comparative Poetics (Cairo), Contemporary Islam (Dordrecht), and Text, Practice, Performance (Austin, Texas).