Contact Information
607 S Mathews Ave.
M/C 148
Urbana, IL 61801
Office Hours
Grants
1993 Small Grant, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. For fieldwork on Beng infants, summer 1993.
1996 Summer Faculty Award, National Endowment for the Humanities. For writing of The Afterlife Is Where We Come from: Infants and Infant Care in West Africa
2012 European Commission/U.S. Department of Education (via the European Union Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Faculty Research/Course Development Grant
1985 Faculty Fellowship, Travel to Collections Program, National Endowment for the Humanities. To conduct research in the French National Archives (Overseas Section, Paris) on colonial-era Beng society, summer 1985.
1991 Summer Faculty Award, National Endowment for the Humanities. For writing of Parallel Worlds (co-authored with Philip Graham).
1992-93 Fellowship for University Teachers, National Endowment for the Humanities, To research a new project on cultural constructions of Beng infancy, AY 1992-93. Release from two semesters of teaching plus fieldwork funds
1999 Fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. For writing of The Afterlife Is Where We Come from: Infants and Infant Care Practices in West Africa. January 1999 - December 1999
2006 National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Faculty Award. For new fieldwork project among Cape Verdean immigrants in Lisbon, summer 2006.
1982-83 Dissertation Grant in Women's Studies, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. For writing of dissertation, AY 1982-83.
1979-81 International Doctoral Research Fellowship, Africa Program, Social Science Research Council. For fourteen months of doctoral fieldwork among the Beng of Ivory Coast and six months of dissertation write-up, Sept. 1979 – May 1981.
1982-83 Constance L. Tomkies Endowed Fellowship, American Association of University Women. For writing of dissertation, AY 1982-83.
Courses Taught
Combined Graduate/Advanced Undergraduate Level: Africans in Europe; Religions of Africa; Infants and Young Children in Cross-Cultural Perspective; Fieldwork in Cultural Anthropology: Theory and Method; Writing Ethnography; Cultures of Africa; Religion in Anthropological Perspective; Symbolic and Interpretive Anthropology
Graduate Level: Feminism, Gender and Sexuality; Feminist Theory in Anthropology; Explorations in Feminism and Postmodernism in Anthropology; Cultural Images of Women; Research Proposal Seminar; Dissertation Writing Seminar; Kinship/Culture/Power/Africa; Kinship and Social Structure in Africa; Integrated Four-Field Proseminar
Undergraduate Level: Memoirs of Africa; Cultural Images of Women; Women’s Lives; Women Cross-Culturally; Women in World Cultures; Images of the "Other"; Anthropology in a Changing World; Introduction to Cultural Anthropology; Introduction to Social Anthropology and Ethnology; Introduction to Modern Africa
Additional Campus Affiliations
Emerita - Center for African Studies
European Union Center
Emeritus Professor - Gender and Women's Studies
External Links
Highlighted Publications
BOOKS
Gottlieb, Alma, and Phillip Graham. Braided Worlds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (in press), 2012. U of Chicago Press page.
The Restless Anthropologist: New Fieldsites, New Visions. Edited by Alma Gottlieb, Chicago: University of Chicago Press (in press), 2012. U of Chicago Press page. Web page.
Gottlieb, Alma. The Afterlife Is Where We Come from: The Culture of Infancy in West Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
A World of Babies: Imagined Childcare Guides for Seven Societies. Edited by Judy DeLoache, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Gottlieb, Alma. Under the Kapok Tree: Identity and Difference in Beng Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Gottlieb, Alma, and M. Lynne Murphy. Beng-English Dictionary. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Linguistics Club, 1995.
Gottlieb, Alma, and Phillip Graham. Parallel Worlds: An Anthropologist and a Writer Encounter Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.
Gottlieb, Alma, and Phillip Graham. Parallel Worlds: An Anthropologist and a Writer Encounter Africa. New York: Crown/Random House, 1993.
Gottlieb, Alma. Under the Kapok Tree: Identity and Difference in Beng Thought. Bloomington: Indiana University Press (African Systems of Thought Series), 1992.
Blood Magic: The Anthropology of Menstruation. Edited by Alma Gottlieb, Edited by Thomas Buckley, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
The Afterlife Is Where We Come from: The Culture of Infancy in West Africa. 2013.
BOOK CONTRIBUTIONS
Gottlieb, Alma, and Phillip Graham. "Mad to be Modern." Being There: Learning to Live Cross-Culturally., edited by Sarah Davis, edited by Melvon Konner. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Who Minds the Baby? Beng Perspectives on Mothers, Neighbors, and Strangers as Caretakers." Substitute Parents: Alloparenting in Human Societies, edited by Gillian Bentley, edited by Ruth Mace. Oxford: Bergahn (Biosocial Society Symposium Series), 2009.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Rituals for and Care of the Newborn." The Child: An Encyclopedic Companion, edited by Richard Shweder, edited by Thomas Bidell, edited by Anne Dailey, edited by Suzanne Dixon, edited by Peggy Miller, edited by John Modell. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Loggers vs. Spirits: Competing Models of the Beng Forest." African Ethnoforests: Sacred Groves, Culture, and Conservation, edited by Celia Nyamweru. Oxford: James Currey, 2008, p. 149-163.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Ethnography: Theory and Methods." A Handbook for Social Science Field Research; Essays & Bibliographic Sources on Research Design and Methods, edited by Ellen Perecman, edited by Sara Curran. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2006, p. 87-117.
Gottlieb, Alma, and Phillip Graham. "Our Village Needs Chairs." Bridges to Friendship: Narratives on Fieldwork and Friendship, edited by Bruce Grindal, edited by Frank Salamone. Prospect Heights: Waveland, 2006, p. 204-217.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Babies’ Baths, Babies’ Remembrances: A Beng Theory of Development, History and Memory." Collective Memory and Generation in Africa, edited by Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg. London: International African Institute, 2006.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Non-Western Approaches to Spiritual Development among Infants and Young Children: A Case Study from West Africa." The Handbook of Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence, edited by Peter Benson, edited by Pamela King, edited by Linda Wagener, edited by Eugene Roehlkepartain. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2005, p. 150-162.
Gottlieb, Alma. "From Pollution to Love Magic: The New Anthropology of Menstruation." Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective, edited by Carolyn Sargent, edited by Caroline Brettell. Upper Saddle River: Pretice-Hall 2004, p. 256-267.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Foreword: Falling into Trust." Knowing Bodies, Feeling Minds: Towards Embodied Teaching and Learning, edited by Liora Bresler. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2004, p. 1-5.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Beng." Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender: Men and Women in the World’s Cultures, edited by Carol Ember, edited by Melvin Ember. New York: Kluwer/Plenum, 2003, p. 323-333.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Interpreting Gender and Sexuality: Approaches from Cultural Anthropology." Exotic No More: Anthropology on the Front Lines, edited by Jeremy MacClancy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002, p. 167-189.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Deconstructing the Notion of ‘Education’: A View from West Africa." Research in International Education: Experience, Theory and Practice, edited by Liora Bresler, edited by Alexandre Ardichvili. New York/Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2002, p. 83-101.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Luring Your Child into this Life: A Beng Path for Infant Care (Côte d’Ivoire)." A World of Babies: Imagined Childcare Guides for Seven Societies, edited by Judy DeLoache, edited by Alma Gottlieb. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000, p. 55-89.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Où sont partis tous les bébés? Pour une anthropologies du nourisson [Where Have All the Babies Gone? Toward an Anthropology of Infants]." En substances: Systèmes, critiques et symboliques -- Textes pour Françoise Héritier, edited by Emmanuel Terray, edited by Jean-Luc Janard. Paris: Favard, 2000, p. 367-385.
Gottlieb, Alma, and Bertin Kouadio. "Peoples and Cultures of Ivory Coast." Encyclopedia of Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by John Middleton. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Blood." The Blackwell Dictionary of Anthropology, edited by Thomas Barfield. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997, p. 41-42.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Blood Pacts/Blood Covenants." The Blackwell Dictionary of Anthropology, edited by Thomas Barfield. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997, p. 42-43.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Menstruation." The Blackwell Dictionary of Anthropology, edited by Thomas Barfield. Oxford: Blackwell, 1997, p. 320-321.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Rethinking Female Pollution: The Beng Case." Beyond the Second Sex: New Directions in the Anthropology of Gender, edited by Peggy Sanday, edited by Ruth Goodenough. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990, p. 113-138.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Witches, Kings, and the Sacrifice of Identity; or, The Power of Paradox and the Paradox of Power among the Beng of Ivory Coast." Creativity of Power: Cosmology and Action in African Societies, edited by W. Arens, edited by Ivan Karp. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989, p. 245-272.
Gottlieb, Alma, and Thomas Buckley. "A Critical Appraisal of Theories of Menstrual Symbolism." Blood Magic: The Anthropology of Menstruation, edited by Thomas Buckley, edited by Alma Gottlieb. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988, p. 1-50.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Claude Lévi-Strauss." Book of Days 1988: An Encyclopedia of Resource Guides on Historical Figures and Events, Ann Arbor: Pieria Press, 1988, p. 658-660.
"First Acts of Violence: Reflections on Breastfeeding and Enemas in West Africa." Childhood, Youth and Violence in Global Contexts: Researchers and Practitioners in Dialogue, Palgrave, 2014.
"Detaching from Attachment Theory: Perspectives from the West African Rain Forest." The Different Faces of Attachment, Cambridge University Press, 2014.
"Two Visions of Africa: Reflections on Fieldwork in an ‘Animist Bush’ and an Urban Diaspora." The Restless Anthropologist: New Fieldsites, New Visions, University of Chicago Press, 2012.
JOURNAL ARTICLES
Gottlieb, Alma. "Knowing Ed Bruner." Anthropology and Humanism, vol. 30, no. 2, 2006, p. 196-200.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Babies' Baths, Babies' Remembrances: A Beng Theory of Development, History and Memory." Africa, vol. 75, no. 1, 2005, p. 105-118.
Gottlieb, Alma. "The Afterlife Is Where We Come from: Infancy in West Africa." Expeditions, vol. 41, no. 4, 2004, p. 381-390.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Secrets and Society: The Beng of Côte d'Ivoire." Mande Studies, vol. 1, no. 2, 2000, p. 129-151.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Where Have All the Babies Gone? Toward an Anthropology of Infants (and Their Caretakers)." Anthropological Quarterly, vol. 73, no. 3, 2000, p. 121-132.
Gottlieb, Alma, and Phillip Graham. "Revising the Text, Revisioning the Field: Reciprocity over the Long Term." Anthropology and Humanism, vol. 24, no. 2, 1999, p. 117-128.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Do Infants Have Religion? The Spiritual Lives of Beng Babies." American Anthropologist, vol. 100, no. 1, 1998, p. 122-135.
Gottlieb, Alma, Judy S DeLoache, Sophia L Pierrpitsakos, David H Uttal, and Karl S Rosengren. "Grasping the Nature of Pictures." Psychological Science, vol. 9, no. 3, 1998, p. 205-210.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Infants, Ancestors and the Afterlife: Fieldwork's Family Values." Anthropology and Humanism, vol. 23, no. 2, 1998, p. 121-126.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Fabrication d'un Premier Dictionnaire de la Langue Beng : Quelques Considérations éthiques [Construction of a First Dictionary of the Beng Language: Some Ethical Considerations]." Journal des Anthropologues, vol. 70, 1997, p. 147-162.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Beyond the Lonely Anthropologist: Collaboration in Research and Writing." American Anthropologist, vol. 97, no. 1, 1995, p. 21-26.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Of Cowries and Crying: A Beng Guide to Managing Colic." Anthropology and Humanism, vol. 20, no. 1, 1995, p. 20-28.
Gottlieb, Alma. "The Anthropologist as Mother: Reflections on Childbirth Observed and Childbirth Experienced." Anthropology Today, vol. 11, no. 6, 1995, p. 10-14.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Hyenas and Heteroglossia: Myth and Ritual among the Beng of Côte d'Ivoire." American Ethnologist, vol. 16, no. 3, 1989, p. 487-451.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Rethinking Female Pollution: The Beng Case (Côte d'Ivoire)." Dialectical Anthropology, vol. 14, no. 2, 1989, p. 65-80.
Gottlieb, Alma. "American Premenstrual Syndrome: A Mute Voice." Anthropology Today, vol. 6, 1988, p. 10-13.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Cousin Marriage, Birth Order and Gender: Alliance Models among the Beng of Ivory Coast." Man, vol. 21, no. 4, 1986, p. 697-722.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Dog: Ally or Traitor? Mythology, Cosmology and Society among the Beng of Ivory Coast." American Ethnologist, vol. 13, no. 3, 1986, p. 477-488.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Stalking the Wild Symbol: Reflections on Sperber and Structuralism." Anthropology UCLA, vol. 13, 1984, p. 61-70.
Gottlieb, Alma. "American's Vacations." Annals of Tourism Research IX, vol. 2, 1982, p. 165-187.
Gottlieb, Alma. "Sex, Fertility and Menstruation among the Beng of the Ivory Coast: A Symbolic Analysis." Africa, vol. 52, no. 4, 1982, p. 34-47.
Gottlieb, Alma. "The Social Theories of Fustel and Durkheim: Toward an Analysis of a Neglected Relationship." Anthropology, vol. III, no. 1-2, 1979, p. 139-153.
SPECIAL ISSUES OF A JOURNAL
Gottlieb, Alma. The Afterlife Is Where We Come from: Infancy in West Africa Expeditions, Winterth ed. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, 2004, p. 13-21.
Gottlieb, Alma. Blood mysteries: Beyond menstruation as pollution - afterword Ethnology, vol. 41, no. 4, 2002, p. 381-390.