Curriculum Vitae

.Isidore Lobnibe
lobnibei@wou.edu

 CURRENT ADDRESS
Western Oregon University
 Social Science Division/Dept of Anthropology

210 HSS Building
Tel; 503-838-8306
Fax: 503-838-8635

 CURRENT POSITION

Tenure-track Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Western Oregon University, 2007 to present

EDUCATION

 PhD in Anthropology (2007), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Certificate in Gender Relations and International Development (2003), awarded by Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

MA in Anthropology (2002), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

BA (French and History) & Dip. Ed. (1995), University of Cape Coast, Ghana

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RESEARCH INTERESTS

Social organization, agrarian and environmental systems, labor migration, economic anthropology, British social anthropology, historiography, political ecology, Prison, and the Black Diaspora

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SELECTED PUBLICATIONS/

Going to Jong: Toward a theory of Rural-Outmigration from Northwest Ghana. Ghana Journal of Development Studies (accepted)

“Of Jong Migrants and Jongsecans: Understanding Contemporary Rural-Outmigration from Northwest Ghana”Journal of Dagaare Studies( accepted)

 2009    Between Aspirations and Realities: Northern Ghanaian Migrant Women and the Dilemma of Household (Re) Production in Southern Ghana. Africa Today.vol 55.5(winter issue).

2008   Walking for Land, Drinking Palm Wine: migrant farmers and the historicity of land conflict in Brong Ahafo, Ghana”. In Trans-Atlantic Migration: The Paradoxes of Exile. Edited by Toyin Falola & Niyi Afolabi. Pp-141-163.  New York: Routledge.

 2006   Legitimating a Contested Boundary: Northern Ghana Immigrants and the Historicity of Land Conflict in Ahyiayem, Brong Ahafo. Ghana Studies vol (9):61-90

2006   “From My Fieldnote Book: A gender dimension of an ongoing dissertation” Perspectives, Rresearch Notes & News: November vol 27, no1. WGGP Publication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign http://www.ips.uiuc.edu/wggp

2005  Forbidden Fruit in the Compound: A Case Study of Migration, Spousal Separation and Group-Wife Adultery in Northwest Ghana. Africa, Journal of the International African Institute. Edinburgh: 75(4), 559-581.

2004   Book review of Writing and Colonialism in Northern Ghana: The Encounter between the Lodagaa and the “World on Paper”, by Sean Hawkins, University of Toronto Press.  American Anthropologist, June, 106:2: 409-410.

( in preparation)  Looking Back on Decades of Life Career and Cambridge Anthropology in the Volta Region: An Interview with Jack Goody.

(in preparation ) Rethinking the Community-Based Development Approach: The Case of   NGOs and Gender Sensitivity in Northern Ghana.

(in preparation) Conviviality in Pito( Sorghum Beer) Bars: Popular Culture at the ural-Urban Interface in Middle Ghana

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TEACHING EXPERIENCE: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

(a)Teaching Assistant, 2000-2007 - Department of
Anthropology

(b) Instructor; African-American Studies & Research Program:
  Taught Introduction to African- American Studies, spring 2002, Fall 2003 & Spring 2004

(c)Facilitator of new teaching assistants-Summer- 2001

• All- Campus Orientation for Teaching Assistants

Notre Dame Secondary/ Seminary School, Ghana; Classroom Teacher,-1994-1999

• Designed and taught classes in History, French and English
• Attained the rank of senior superintendent in the Ghana Education Service

• Hamile Junior Secondary School, Upper West Region, Ghana- 1989-1990

• National Service Teacher

RESEARCH AND FIELDWORK EXPERIENCE

• Conducted  one month  field research on prison labor in Ghana, Summer 2008

• One week residence at St John’s College (University of Cambridge, UK) during which I interviewed Sir. Professor Emeritus Jack Goody,  2- 8 March, 2006 under the sponsorship of  the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Historical and Archival Program (HAP) Grant

• Conducted 10 months  doctoral dissertation field research among  immigrant  farm workers from northwest Ghana in villages of Brong-Ahafo and the Afram Basin, Ghana, September, 2004  to July 2005

• Conducted one month  field research in Burkina Faso and Northern Ghana as part of the National Science Foundation  Ethnographic Training with Professor Mahir Saul, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana, summer 2001

• Conducted  three months of preliminary research  in southern Ghana among Dagara farm laborers, Summer 2001

• Research Assistant to Professor Carola Lentz, University of Frankfurt, Germany on Earth-Shrine Boundaries, Ethnicity  and Settlement Histories among the Dagara  and Sissala of Northwestern Ghana,  West Africa; 1994-2000.

 GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS

. The Wenner-Gren Foundation Historical and Archival Program (HAP) grant to interview Professor. Emeritus Jack Goody of Cambridge University, $3,500 (grant# Gr.HAP-65), 21, March  2005

. Professional International Development Fellowship of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, New York  to aid  coursework in the University of Illinois, 2001-2003

National Science Foundation/ Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Summer Research  grant to conduct Ethnographic Field  Training with Dr. Mahir Saul $5,000 Summer 2002

• Recipient of the Kathleen Cloud International Research Grant of the Women and Gender in Global Perspectives, University of Illinois, $500,  Fall 2006, to  support dissertation writing

• University of Illinois Center for African Studies  travel grant  to present a Paper at  the African Migration conference, University of Texas at Austin, $150  March 2006

• University of Illinois Graduate College Pre-doctoral Dissertation Writing Fellowship, Spring 2005

• University of Illinois Graduate College Dissertation Travel Research grant to support field research in Ghana, $3,000 , May 2004

• Human Dimensions of Environmental Systems Program  Research grant to support fieldwork in Ghana, $2,000 , Summer 2004

•  Recipient of the Kathleen Cloud International Travel Research  fellowship to support research in Ghana, $500,  Summer 2004

PRESENTATIONS & CONFERENCES

• The Settlement Camp Prison: A model transitional facility in Ghana. Paper to be presented (with Vivian Amantana) at the Western Society of Criminology, California State University, February 5-7 2009 San Diego.

• Ghana@ 50: Celebrating a Nation.  Panel organizer (with Carola Lentz) at the African studies Association Conference, November 13-16, 2008 Chicago

• Chair and Panel discussant of Ghana@50: Celebrating a Nation. African Studies Association, November, 14 Chicago, 2008

•  Ghana and the Return of Diasporic Ancestors: What the burial sites of W.E.B Dubois, George Padmore and Kwame Nkrumah in Accra mean for Africans and its Diaspora. Paper presented at the Pacific Northwest Political Science Association meeting, 7 October 2008; Portland, Oregon.

•  Between Aspirations and Realities: Northern Ghanaian Migrant Women and the dilemma of household (Re) production in Southern Ghana. Paper presented at Lewis and Clark College, Portland Oregon,  14 March 2007

• Recent Transformations in Migrant Labor from the West African Savanna: The Case of Dagara Farmers in Southern Ghana.  Paper presented at the Migration Studies Group workshop with co-sponsorship from the Center for Africa Studies, University Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 4 October  2006

• “Walking for Land, Drinking Palm Wine”: migrant farmers and the historicity of land conflict in Brong Ahafo, Ghana.  Paper presented at African Migration Conference, University of Texas, Austin, 24 March  2006

• “The Wife or the Money”: A case study of migration, spousal separation and women’s resistance in northwestern Ghana.  Paper presented at the Second Annual Graduate student symposium of the Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 15 March  2003

• “Pushing Frontiers: The Social Dynamics of Dagara Farm Labor Migration in Southern Ghana”  A Dissertation proposal  presentation at the Human Dimensions of Environmental Systems Scholars Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 23 October  2003

• Out-Migration and Blame Allocation for Environmental Degradation in Southern Ghana: The effects of the savanna environmental discourse on farm Laborers from Northwestern Ghana. Poster presentation at the Annual Environmental Council Week, University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign, 14 April 2002

• Preliminary report into Dagara farm labor migration to southern Ghana.  Paper jointly presented with Professor Mahir Saul at a Public Colloquium in the Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 11 November, 2001

AWARDS, HONORS AND RECOGNITIONS

• Recipient of the 2006 Edward M. Bruner Prize for Academic Excellence and Promise in Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois graduate program award.
• Phi Kappa Phi recognition for outstanding scholarship, April 2004

• Awarded the Graduate Teacher Certificate (GTC) by the Center For Teaching Excellence, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 2003

• Listed twice( Fall 2005) and  (Fall 2003 ) on Campus-wide  list of Teachers ranked excellent by their students  at the University  Illinois

• Recipient of the  1997 Regional Best Teacher Award( Upper-East),Ghana Education Service, Ghana

MANUSCRIPT  EVALUATOR
  Reviewer ; University of Toronto Press, Canada
  Reviewer ; Africa Today, Indiana University

UNIVERSITY AND INSTITUTIONAL SERVICE
  Honors committee, Member

 International Education & Services Committee, Member

Social Science Division Curriculum, Member

MEMBERSHIP / AFFILIATION WITH SCHORLARY ORGANIZATIONS
American Anthropological Association
Society for Economic Anthropology
African Studies Association
 Ghana Studies Council

LANGUAGES SPOKEN AND WRITTEN

English , French , Dagara (native), Akan (Twi, good command)

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