John Comaroff

John Comaroff headshot

Research Professor

750 N. Lake Shore Drive
4th Floor
Chicago, IL 60611

Joint appointment

Harold W. Swift Distinguished Service Professor in Anthropology and the College, University of Chicago

Education

Ph.D., Anthropology, University of London

Research focus

Legal and political anthropology with a current focus on the tensions between the governance of the new South Africa and the rising incidence of informal justice and cultural policing.

Projects

Popular Justice, Communal Violence, and Alternative Policing in the New South Africa (2004-2008): Latest finding: Jan 22, 2008, with Jean Comaroff; South Africa is currently beset by so-called “vigilantism,” a term that covers a range of different kinds of “alternative” policing, retributive violence, and popular justice,…

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Publications

Picturing a Colonial Past: The African Photographs of Isaac Schapera: University of Chicago Press
La Violència y La Llei A La Postcolònia/Violence and the Law in the Postcolony: A Reflection on North-South Complicities: Barcelona: Centre of Contemporary Culture
“Experiments in Enforcement: Popular Justice in the New South Africa”: Russell Sage Foundation

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Presentations

African Jurisprudence and the Limits of Liberalism: Sep 2007
Nations With/out Borders: Neoliberalism and the Problem of Belonging: Jun 2007
Rethinking Identity in Africa: Jun 2007

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Professional Service & Recognition

Awarded the Anders Retzius Gold Medal from the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography, presented by the King of Sweden, April 2007
Member, Editorial Group, Journal of Anthropological Research
Member, Editorial Group, Annual Review of Law and Social Science
Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Hagar: International Social Science Review
Member, International Review Committee, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany
Member, College of Reviewers, Canada Research Chairs Program, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada