Education:

Ph.D., Brown University

Expertise:

Sociocultural Anthropology.
Political conflict; violence; gender, migration; transnationalism and diasporas; refugees and displacement; humanitarian action; development; ethnohistory; maritime archaeology and CRM; epistemology and methodology in the social sciences.
Regional foci: Lusophone Africa, Liberia, African diasporas.

Background:

Dr. Lubkemann is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and of International Affairs at George Washington University, where he began teaching in 2002.

Dr. Lubkemann is a sociocultural anthropologist whose work focuses primarily on social and political change in nations that have experienced protracted conflict and violence; on migrants, refugees, and diasporas; on international development and humanitarian action; and on cultural heritage and maritime archaeology.

Dr. Lubkemann has done extensive fieldwork in Mozambique, in South Africa, and with African refugees and diasporas in Europe and the U.S. His ongoing research includes a project initiated in 2004, with research grants from the United States Institute for Peace and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, that examines the political and socio-economic influence of displacement diasporas in their war-torn countries of origin through a specific study of the Liberian case. Since 2006, he has also been engaged in a major project in Angola, supported by the MacArthur Foundation, which examines the effects of "trans-generational displacement" on gendered relations, urbanization, and informal governance systems. In 2007, he initiated a new policy research project with USIP funding that examines customary legal practices in post-conflict Liberia. His work also critically examines the structure and effects of international humanitarian action and explores the potential of diasporas as a "third humanitarian space."

Selected Publications:

• 2010 Isser, D., S. Lubkemann, and S. N'Tow. Looking for Justice: Liberian Experiences with and Perceptions of Local Justice Options. Washington, DC: U.S. Institute of Peace Press.
• Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation, 2nd Edition. Roy Richard Grinker, Stephen C. Lubkemann, and Christopher B. Steiner, eds. (Wiley-Blackwell, May 2010)
• Culture in Chaos: An Anthropology of the Social Condition in War, (University of Chicago Press, 2008)

Courses Taught:

Anth 3501 Development Anthropology
Anth 3708 Cultures of Africa
Anth 6102 Proseminar: Sociocultural Anthropology
Anth 6391 Anthropology of Contemporary Issues: Displacement and Diasporas