Geoffrey R Owens, Ph.D.
Geoffrey Owens is a Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology in the Department of Sociology/Anthropology. He was also Lead Editor of Semiotics: The Yearbook of the Semiotic Society of America from 2017 to 2021. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His areas of specialization include Tanzania, East Africa Swahili culture, History and Anthropology, political economy, oral traditions, suburbanization and semiotics.
Education History
Ph.D.
University of Wisconsin
2004
Anthropology
Dissertation Title: On the Edge of a City: An Historical Ethnography of Urban Identity in the Northwest Suburbs of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, under the supervision of Professor Sharon Hutchinson.
B.A.
University of Rochester
Anthropology, With Distinction & Highest Honors
A.A.
Dutchess Community College
Liberal Arts, Honors
Teaching
Comparative non-Western Cultures
Peoples & Cultures of Native North America
Peoples & Cultures of Africa
Peoples & Cultures of South Asia
Peoples & Cultures of the United States
Political Anthropology
Anthropology of Religion
African Oral Traditions
Ethnographic Fieldwork
Anthropological Theory
Service
Editorial Review Board, The American Journal of Semiotics 2020-
Editorial Review Board, Semiotics: Yearbook of the Semiotic Society of America 2015- 2017
Editorial Board, Southern Semiotics Review 2014-
City of Oakwood Beautification Committee 2014-2021
OTM Social Science Review Panel for Ohio Board of Regents 2012-
University Service:
Current: Co-chair, Faculty Governance Committee 2019-
Current: AAUP Chapter Vice President 2016-
AAUP Chapter Liaison 2015-2016
Undergraduate Academic Policies Committee 2015-
Acalog Implementation Committee 2015-2017
Prerequisite Check Committee 2015-2017
Parking Committee 2013-2014
General Education Area II Faculty Coordinator 2011-2012
Budget Priority Committee 2010-2011
Faculty Senate 2010
Full Graduate Faculty Member 2009-
College of Liberal Arts Service
AAFS Committee 2014-2018
Department Chair Evaluation Committee 2013
Faculty Development Committee 2012-2013
Co-Chair, Undergraduate Symposium Committee 2009-2010
Committee on COLA Conversion to Semesters 2009-2012
Undergraduate Symposium Committee 2008-2010
COLA Senate 2007-2009
Faculty Affairs Committee 2008-2010
Faculty Mentor 2008-2009
Department of Sociology and Anthropology Service:
Chair, Ad hoc committee on bylaws revision 2013-2017
Chair, Promotion and Tenure Committee 2011-2013; 2014-2015; 2016-2017
Chair, Assistant Professor Search Committee 2011-2012; 2014-2015
Co-chair, Committee on Conversion to Semesters 2009-2010
Anthropology Instructor Search Committee 2011
Chair, Sociology Instructor Search Committee 2008
Sociology Search Committee 2007, 2008 and 2009
Faculty Development Committee 2012-
Promotion and Tenure Committee 2009-
Anthropology Curriculum Committee 2006-
Student Affairs Committee 2007-2009
Website Committee 2011-2012
Student Anthropology Club Advisor 2008-2012
Publications
2021 “Semiotics and the Suburbs: A Phenomenological Analysis of Urban Frontier Settlements.” The American Journal of Semiotics 37 (1-2) (R).
2020 (with Donna West) Semiotics 2019: New Frontiers in Semiotics. Charlottesville, NC: Philosophy Documentation Center.
2019 (with Elvira Katic) "Preface: Resilience in an Age of Relation" in Geoffrey Owens and Elvira Katic, eds. Semiotics 2018: Reslilence in an Age of Relation. Charlottesville, NC: Philosophy Documentation Center.2018 (with Jamin Pelky) “Preface: The Play of Musement” in Geoffrey Owens, Jamin Pelky and Sari Park, eds. Semiotics 2017: The Play of Musement. Charlottesville, NC: Philosophy Documentation Center.
2018 “Metaphor or Metonym: The Relationship between Biological and Cultural Evolution” in Geoffrey Owens, Jamin Pelky and Sari Park, eds. Semiotics 2017: The Play of Musement. Charlottesville, NC: Philosophy Documentation Center (R).
2017 “The Ever-Moving Signposts of Indigenousness.” Semiotics 2016: The Archaeology of Concepts. Charlottesville, NC: Philosophy Documentation Center (R).
2016 “Working One’s Life Away: Precarity, Personhood and the Dissolution of Identity in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.” Semiotics 2015: Virtual Identities. Charlottesville, NC: Philosophy Documentation Center. (R).
2016 “‘We are Not Farmers’: Dilemmas and Prospects of Suburban Cultivators in Contemporary Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.” Journal of Modern African Studies 54 (3): 443-467 (R).
2016 “Recovering the Logic in Semiotics in Reflexive Anthropology” Southern Semiotics Review 7 (1):33-43 http://www.southernsemioticreview.net/recovering-the-logic-in-semiotics-...(R).
2014 “From Collective Villages to Private Ownership: Ujamaa, Tamaa, and the Postsocialist Transformation of Peri-Urban Dar es Salaam 1970-1990” Journal of Anthropological Research 70 (2): 207-231, Summer. (R).
2014 “Recovering the Logic in Semiotics in Reflexive Anthropology” ” in Jamin Pelky and Leonard G. Sbrocchi, eds. Semiotics 2013: Yearbook of the Semiotic Society of America. Ottawa: Legas Publishing, pp. 57-66 (R).
2012 “The Kamba War: Foundation Narratives, Ethnogenesis, and the Invention of the Zaramo in Precolonial East Africa.” Ethnohistory 59 (2):353-385, Spring (R).
2010 “Postcolonial Migration: Virtual Culture, Urban Farming, and New Peri-Urban Growth in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 1975-2000.” Africa 80 (2):249-274, May (R).
2007 “Exploring the Articulation of Sovereignty and Governmentality: The Chwaka Road and the Bombardment of Zanzibar, 1895-1896.” Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 8 (2), Fall (R).
2006 “The Shomvi: A Precursor to Global Ethnoscapes and Indigenization in Precolonial East Africa.” Ethnohistory 53 (4):715-751, Fall (R).
2005 “The Secret History of TANU: Rumor, Historiography and Muslim Unrest in Contemporary Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.” History and Anthropology 16 (4):441-463, December (R).
2003 “What! Me a Spy?: Intrigue and Reflexivity in Zanzibar.” Ethnography 4 (1):122-144, March (R).
Professional Affiliations/Memberships
SSA (Semiotic Society of America)
ASA (African Studies Association).
AAA (American Anthropological Association).
Awards/Recognition
2010 Wenner-Gren Foundation Post-Ph.D. Research Grant
1998-99 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Grant
1995-1996 University of Wisconsin Graduate School Travel Grant
1992 Fulbright-Hays Swahili Group Project Abroad