Geoffrey R Owens, Ph.D.
Geoffrey Owens is a Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology in the Department of Sociology/Anthropology. He is currently associate editor of The American Journal of Semiotics, and 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
Associate Editor, The American Journal of Semiotics
Editorial Review Board, The American Journal of Semiotics 2020-2024
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
2024, In Press, “Semiology and Collective Consciousness: de Saussure and the Durkheimian Paradigm Shift in Social Sciences” Farouk Seif, ed. Semiotics 2023. Charlottesville, NC: Philosophy Documentation Center
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
