Dr. John Friedman

About me

John Friedman is Associate Professor in Socio-Cultural Anthropology and Development. He served as Director of UCR’s Going Glocal program, and is Head of UCR’s Social Impact Lab.

Dr. Friedman completed his M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, and his Bachelor degree in Liberal Arts (Social Sciences) at the University of Michigan / Ann Arbor.  Before training as an anthropologist, he worked in the international development sector.

Dr. Friedman teaches courses in introductory anthropology, political anthropology, development studies, and global citizenship. He maintains a geographical interest in Africa, with a focus on Namibia and South Africa. His main areas of research and supervision include: political anthropology; anthropology of the state; anthropology of development; colonialism and apartheid; public anthropology; and global citizenship education.

In addition to his anthropology teaching and research, Dr. Friedman contributes regularly to social impact projects in the areas of international eye health, refugee assistance, malaria prevention, youth development, and social entrepreneurship.

Academic Qualifications

• 2004: Ph.D. in Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK
• 1999: M.Phil. in Social Anthropology and Development, University of Cambridge, UK
• 1990: B.G.S. in Liberal Arts (Social Science), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

Selected publications

Books and edited volumes

• Friedman, John T. and F. Mueller-Friedman (eds.) (forthcoming). Debating Development: Controversies in the Theory and Practice of International Development, Harlow, London and New York: Pearson-Prentice Hall.
• Friedman, John T. and Van Wolputte, Steven (eds.) (2015). Namibia at 25, special issue, Journal of Namibian Studies, Volume 18.
• Friedman, John T. and V. Haverkate, B. Oomen, E. Park & M. Sklad (eds.) (2015). Going Glocal in Higher Education: The Theory, Teaching, and Measurement of Global Citizenship, Middelburg, NL: De Drvkkery.
• Friedman, John T. (2014, 2011).  Imagining the Post-Apartheid State: An Ethnographic Account of Namibia, New York and Oxford: Berghahn Publishers.

Articles

• Friedman, John T. and F. Müller-Friedman (2023). ‘Modernism on the Margins: A Genealogy of Namibia’s (Post-)Apartheid Spaces’, Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, Vol. 41, No. 4: 735-751.
• Friedman, John T. and B. Oomen, E. Park & M. Sklad (2016). ‘Going Glocal: A Qualitative Analysis of Global Citizenship at a Dutch Liberal Arts and Sciences College’, Higher Education, Vol. 72, No. 3: 323-340.
• Friedman, John T. and Van Wolputte, Steven (2015). ‘Twenty-five Years On: Retrospect and Prospect’, Journal of Namibian Studies, Vol. 18: 7-20.
• Friedman, John T. (2014). Review of ‘Anthropology and Development: Culture, Morality and Politics in a Globalised World, by E. Crewe and R. Axelby’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Society (N.S.), Vol. 20: 783-784.
• Friedman, John T. (2009). ‘Context and Contestation in the Development Process: Lessons from Kaokoland (Namibia)’, European Journal of Development Research, Vol. 21, No. 3: 325-343.
• Friedman, John T. (2007). ‘Cultivating Ambiguity in (Post-)Colonial Namibia: Reflections on “History” and Conflict in Kaokoland’, Cambridge Anthropology, Vol. 27, No. 2: 57-76.
• Friedman, John T. (2006). ‘Beyond the Post-Structural Impasse in the Anthropology of Development’, Dialectical Anthropology, Vol. 30, No. 3/4: 201-225.
• Friedman, John T. (2006). ‘On the Post-Structuralist Critique of Development: A View from North-west Namibia’, Development Southern Africa, Vol. 23, No. 5: 587-603.
• Friedman, John T. (2005). ‘Making Politics, Making History: Chiefship and the Post-Apartheid State in Namibia’ Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 31, No. 1: 23-51.
• Friedman, John T. (2003). ‘Review of “States of Imagination: Ethnographic Explorations of the Postcolonial State”, edited by T. B. Hansen and F. Stepputat’, Cambridge Anthropology, Vol. 23, No. 3: 101-103.

Book chapters

• Friedman, John T. (2013). ‘Namibia’, in S. Danver (ed.), Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures and Contemporary Issues, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
• Friedman, John T. (2013). ‘Himba’, in S. Danver (ed.), Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures and Contemporary Issues, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
• Friedman, John T. and Fatima Mueller-Friedman (2013). ‘San’, in S. Danver (ed.), Native Peoples of the World: An Encyclopedia of Groups, Cultures and Contemporary Issues, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
• Friedman, John T. (2012). ‘On Text and Con-text: Toward an Anthropology in Development’, in T. Yarrow and S. Venkatesen (eds.), Differentiating Development: Beyond an Anthropology of Critique, New York and Oxford: Berghahn Publishers.
• Friedman, John T. (2012). ‘Herero-German War’, in A. Stanton, E. Ramsamy, P. Seybolt and C. Elliot (eds.), Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa: An Encyclopedia, London: Sage.
• Friedman, John T. (2011). ‘Imperialist Anthropology Examined’, in A. Waskey and F. Nadis (eds.), World History Encyclopedia, Era 9: Promises and Paradoxes, 1945-Present, Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.
• Friedman, John T. (2011). ‘Anthropologists and the War on Terror’, in A. Waskey and F. Nadis (eds.), World History Encyclopedia, Era 9: Promises and Paradoxes, 1945-Present, Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.
• Friedman, John T. (2008). ‘Modernization: Overview’, in P. Stearns (ed.), Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World: 1750 to the Present, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Friedman, John T. (2000). ‘Mapping the Epupa Debate: Discourse and Representation in a Namibian Development Project’, in G. Miescher and D. Henrichsen (eds.), New Notes on Kaoko: The Northern Kunene Region (Namibia) in Texts and Photographs, Basel: Basler Afrika Bibliographien.