Dr Jane Parish

Title: Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Social Anthropology
Phone: (+44) 01782 734232
Email:
Location: CBC0.011
Role: School Director of Learning and Teaching
Contacting me: Office hours or email for an alternative appointment
Parish_Jane

I came to Keele in 1994 as a lecturer in anthropology/sociology. My field of expertise is West African witchcraft – I spent 18 months in a small town on the border of Ghana/Ivory Coast looking at anti witchcraft shrines and the significant part played by witches, zombies and the like in everyday life. Since then my main fieldwork sites have been Liverpool, Paris and New York – the latter looking at occult discourses among migrant Africans in Manhattan.

I am a social anthropologist who has studied West African witchcraft among the Akan, Ghana. I have published a number of articles on this. I am co-editor of The Age of Anxiety (Blackwell 2001), where I look at conspiracy theorising and the human sciences. I am currently undertaking ethnographic research among different ethnic groups in Liverpool, looking at issues of moral obligation, trust and secrecy among extended kin networks.

Research interests include: West African witchcraft, conspiracy theories, moral obligation, trust and secrecy among extended kin networks. My PhD looked at anti witchcraft shrines in Ghana.

Since then my major research themes have been:

  • Witchcraft and occult discourses amongst the Africa diaspora looking especially at West African communities in Liverpool, Paris and New York
  • West African anti witchcraft shrines in Paris and New York
  • Conspiracy theories and the global economy

Selected Publications

  • Parish JAE. 2013. Chasing Celebrity: Akan Witchcraft and New York City. Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology, vol. 78(2), 280-300. doi>
  • Parish JAE. 2011. West African Witchcraft, Wealth and Moral Decay in New York City. Ethnography, vol. 12(2), 247-265. doi>
  • Parish JAE. 2011. Social suffering and anxiety: deciphering illness and suffering at Akan anti-witchcraft shrines in Paris. Anthropology and Medicine, vol. 18(3), 303-313. doi>
  • Parish J. 2010. Circumventing Uncertainty in the Moral Economy. West African Shrines in Europe, Witchcraft and Secret Gambling. African Diaspora, vol. 3(1), 76-92. doi>
  • Parish J. 2007. Locality, luck and family ornaments. Potteries, Museum and Society, vol. 5(3), 165-179.

Full Publications List show

Books

  • Parish J and Parker M. 2001. The Age of Anxiety. Conspiracy Theory and the Human Sciences. Blackwell, Oxford.

Journal Articles

  • Parish JAE. 2013. Chasing Celebrity: Akan Witchcraft and New York City. Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology, vol. 78(2), 280-300. doi>
  • Parish JAE. 2011. West African Witchcraft, Wealth and Moral Decay in New York City. Ethnography, vol. 12(2), 247-265. doi>
  • Parish JAE. 2011. Social suffering and anxiety: deciphering illness and suffering at Akan anti-witchcraft shrines in Paris. Anthropology and Medicine, vol. 18(3), 303-313. doi>
  • Parish J. 2010. Circumventing Uncertainty in the Moral Economy. West African Shrines in Europe, Witchcraft and Secret Gambling. African Diaspora, vol. 3(1), 76-92. doi>
  • Parish J. 2007. Locality, luck and family ornaments. Potteries, Museum and Society, vol. 5(3), 165-179.
  • PARISH JAE. 2005. From Liverpool to Freetown: West African Witchcraft, Conspiracy and the Occult. Culture and Religion, vol. 6(3), 353-368. doi>
  • PARISH JAE. 2005. Witchcraft, riches and roulette: An ethnography of West African gambling in the UK. Ethnography, vol. 6(1), 105-122. doi>
  • PARISH JAE. 2004. Kitsch taste and the consumption of Jackie 'O'. The Sociological Review, vol. 52(1), 90–105. doi>
  • PARISH JAE. 2003. Antiwitchcraft Shrines among the Akan: Possession and the Gathering of Knowledge. African Studies Review, vol. 46(3), 17-34. doi>

Chapters

  • Parish J. 2001. Black market, free market: Anti-witchcraft shrines and fetishes among the Akan. In Magical Interpretations, Material Realities. Modernity, Witchcraft and the Occult in Postcolonial Africa. Moore H and Sanders IT (Eds.). Routledge, London.
  • Parish J. 2001. Consuming averages: Interpreting luck and the social mass. In The Consumption of Mass. Lee N and Munro R (Eds.). Blackwell, Oxford.
  • Parish J and Parker M. 2001. Introduction. In The Age of Anxiety. Conspiracy Theory and the Human Sciences. Parish J and Parker M (Eds.). Blackwell, Oxford.

I teach two specialised modules based on my research interests a level one module:

  • SOC-10013 Modernity and its Darkside - Module Leader
  • SOC-20033 Witchcraft, Zombies and Social Anxiety - Module Leader
  • SOC-30025 Streets, Skyscrapers and Slums