Daniel Jordan Smith Title: Associate Director, Population Studies and Training Center; Associate Professor of Anthropology
Departmental Affiliation(s): Anthropology
Overview:
Professor Smith conducts research in medical anthropology, anthropological demography, and political anthropology in sub-Saharan Africa, with a specific focus on Nigeria. His research in medical and demographic anthropology includes work on HIV/AIDS, reproductive health and behavior, adolescent sexuality, marriage, kinship, and rural-urban migration. His work on political culture in Nigeria includes studies of patron-clientism, Pentecostal Christianity, vigilantism, and corruption.Biography:
Daniel Jordan Smith joined the Department of Anthropology at Brown University in July 2001. He received an AB in Sociology from Harvard University (1983), an MPH from Johns Hopkins University (1989), and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Emory University (1999). Smith conducts research in Nigeria focusing on a range of issues, including social change, political culture, kinship, and health. He won the 2008 Margaret Mead Award for his book, A Culture of Corruption: Everyday Deception and Popular Discontent in Nigeria (Princeton University Press, 2007). He has completed several research projects with grants awarded by NSF and NIH, with a major focus in the HIV epidemic in Nigeria. Smith is the recipient of the 2007-9 William C. McGloughlin Award for Teaching Excellence in the Social Sciences. Since 2006 he has been Associate Director of the Population Studies and Training Center. He currently serves as the Anthropology Undergraduate Advisor.Research Interests:
Broadly, Professor Smith's research focuses on understanding the intersection of social change and social reproduction, particularly as it unfolds in population processes and health-related behavior. Recently completed research projects have investigated the influence of migration on family organization and reproductive behavior as people live across rural-urban boundaries. Smith has also studied the effects of rural-urban migration on sexual behavior and HIV/AIDS risk among adolescents and unmarried young adults. He recently completed the Nigeria component of an NIH-supported, five-country comparative ethnographic study entitled "Love, Marriage and HIV." The research examined the changing expectations and pragmatics of modern marriage, documenting and analyzing the organization and opportunity structures of extramarital relationships, investigating how gender is configured in contemporary sexual and romantic relationships, and evaluating the effect of these patterns on the transmission of HIV. In addition to elucidating the cultural context of HIV transmission in the five countries, the study design represents a methodological renewal of anthropology's comparative orientation, employing a shared ethnographic methodology to investigate social, demographic, and health processes across five societies. Currently, Professor Smith is conducting a study examining the marital and reproductive life projects of people receiving antiretroviral therapy in Nigeria.
Smith's research on political culture focuses on understanding the intersection of social imagination, politics, and contemporary issues in Nigeria, including vigilantism, the growing popularity of Pentecostal Christianity, and corruption. His recent book, A Culture of Corruption: Everyday Deception and Popular Discontent in Nigeria, won of the 2008 Margaret Mead Award, presented jointly by the American Anthropological Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology. The book examines ordinary Nigerians' participation in corruption, even as they are, paradoxically, its main victims and its loudest critics.Degrees:
Ph.D. Emory U 1999; MPH Johns Hopkins University 1989; A.B. Harvard University 1983Awards:
William G. McLoughlin Award for Teaching Excellence in the Social Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, 2007-2009.
2008 Margaret Mead Award for the book A Culture of Corruption: Everyday Deception and Popular Discontent in Nigeria (Princeton University Press, 2007). Awarded jointly by the American Anthropological Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology to a younger scholar for a particular accomplishment that interprets anthropological data and principles in ways that make them meaningful to a broadly concerned public.
Pending Research Grants:
National Institutes of Health (1 R01 HD057792-01A2; $419,496; 7/01/2009-6/30/2014) for study entitled “Life Projects and Antiretroviral Therapy: The Social Impacts of Scale-up.” I am a co-investigator and would lead the Nigeria component of this proposed $3 million comparative ethnographic project. The application was ranked at the 10.1 percentile and we are awaiting word on funding.Completed Research Grants:
National Institutes of Health – Lifespan/Tufts/Brown Center for AIDS Research Developmental Award (P30 AI042853; $40,000; 10/01/2006 – 9/30/2008) entitled "Religious Organizations, HIV/AIDS and the Scale-up of Antiretroviral Therapy in Nigeria."
National Institutes of Health (1 R01 41724-01A1; $143,683; 08/11/2003 – 06/30/2007); study entitled "Love, Marriage and HIV: A Multi-Site Study of Gender and HIV Risk."
National Science Foundation (BCS-0075764; $137,139; 08/01/2000 – 07/31/2004); study entitled "Migration, Kinship Networks, and Reproduction in Nigeria."
National Institutes of Health (3 P30 HD28251-10S1; $199,977; 07/01/2000 – 06/30/2003); study entitled "Adolescents, HIV/AIDS, and Rural-Urban Migration in Nigeria."
Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (#6636; $18,400; 06/09/2000 – 06/30/2001); pilot study entitled "Migration, Kinship Networks, and Reproduction in Nigeria."Click here to view Professor Smith's CV and a complete list of publications.
