Dr Jane Parish
- Title
- Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Social Anthropology
- Location
- CBC0.011
- Role
- UG Sociology Programme Director
UG SSVC Subject Convenor for Sociology
Study Abroad Subject Tutor (Sociology)
- Phone
- +44(0)1782 734232
- j.a.e.parish@keele.ac.uk
Biography
Jane Parish is an anthropologist whose research looks at the West African diaspora in Europe and the United States. Conducting fieldwork among Ghanaian immigrants in London, Liverpool, Paris, New York and Detroit, she looks at how conflicts about wealth, accumulation and identity, are negotiated through witchcraft discourses at Akan spirit shrines. Publishing extensively on these topics in peer reviewed journals, her most recent work is with Akan shrine priests in Brooklyn, Harlem and The Bronx and shows how shrines seek to reconcile the lavish consumption and extravagant lifestyles found in Manhattan with the failing American dream of their Black African and African American clients living in America’s rust belt.
Research and scholarship
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
Teaching
- SOC-10013 Modernity and its Darkside - Module Leader
- SOC-20033 Witchcraft, Zombies and Social Anxiety - Module Leader
- SOC-30025 Streets, Skyscrapers and Slums
Selected Publications
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2018. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) The ritual moment of social death. Anthropology Today, vol. 34(1). doi> link> full text>
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2018. The Cosmology of Economy: West African Witchcraft, Finance and the Futures Market. Culture and Religion. doi> link> full text>
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Uncanny objects and the fear of the familiar: Hiding from Akan witches in New York City. Journal of Material Culture. full text>
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2004. Kitsch taste and the consumption of Jackie 'O'. The Sociological Review, 90–105, vol. 52(1). doi>
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2005. Witchcraft, riches and roulette: An ethnography of West African gambling in the UK. Ethnography, 105-122, vol. 6(1). doi>
Full Publications Listshow
Books
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2001. The Age of Anxiety. Conspiracy Theory and the Human Sciences. Blackwell, Oxford.
Journal Articles
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2018. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) The ritual moment of social death. Anthropology Today, vol. 34(1). doi> link> full text>
-
2018. The Cosmology of Economy: West African Witchcraft, Finance and the Futures Market. Culture and Religion. doi> link> full text>
-
Uncanny objects and the fear of the familiar: Hiding from Akan witches in New York City. Journal of Material Culture. full text>
-
2004. Kitsch taste and the consumption of Jackie 'O'. The Sociological Review, 90–105, vol. 52(1). doi>
-
2005. Witchcraft, riches and roulette: An ethnography of West African gambling in the UK. Ethnography, 105-122, vol. 6(1). doi>
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2015. Mining morals, muck and Akan gold in New York City. Anthropology Southern Africa. doi> full text>
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2015. Beyond Occult Economies: Akan spirits, New York Idols and Detroit automobiles. HAU : Journal of Ethnographic Theory. doi> full text>
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2013. Chasing Celebrity: Akan Witchcraft and New York City. Ethnos: Journal of Anthropology, 280-300, vol. 78(2). doi>
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2011. West African Witchcraft, Wealth and Moral Decay in New York City. Ethnography, 247-265, vol. 12(2). doi>
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2011. Social suffering and anxiety: deciphering illness and suffering at Akan anti-witchcraft shrines in Paris. Anthropology and Medicine, 303-313, vol. 18(3). doi>
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2010. Circumventing Uncertainty in the Moral Economy. West African Shrines in Europe, Witchcraft and Secret Gambling. African Diaspora, 76-92, vol. 3(1). doi>
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2007. Locality, luck and family ornaments. Potteries, Museum and Society, 165-179, vol. 5(3).
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2005. From Liverpool to Freetown: West African Witchcraft, Conspiracy and the Occult. Culture and Religion, 353-368, vol. 6(3). doi>
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2003. Antiwitchcraft Shrines among the Akan: Possession and the Gathering of Knowledge. African Studies Review, 17-34, vol. 46(3). doi>
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2000. From the body to the wallet: Conceptualising Akan witchcraft at home and abroad. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 487-500, vol. 6.
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1999. The dynamics of witchcraft and indigenous shrines among the Akan. Africa, 426-428, vol. 69(3).
Chapters
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2001. Introduction. In The Age of Anxiety. Conspiracy Theory and the Human Sciences. Parish J and Parker M (Eds.). Blackwell, Oxford. doi>
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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.
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2001. Consuming averages: Interpreting luck and the social mass. In The Consumption of Mass. Lee N and Munro R (Eds.). Blackwell, Oxford.
