JOSEPH HILL Curriculum Vitae Department of Anthropology University of Alberta 13-15 Tory Building Edmonton, AB T6G 2H4, Canada Office: 780 492 5889, Fax: 780 492 5273 joseph.hill@ualberta.ca https://sites.google.com/a/ualberta.ca/joseph-hill/ https://ualberta.academia.edu/josephhill EDUCATION 2007 Ph.D., Sociocultural Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Dissertation Title: Divine Knowledge and Islamic Authority: Religious Specialization among Disciples of Baay Ñas. 1999 B.A., Honors Humanities and Sociocultural Anthropology. Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS West Africa, Middle East and North Africa; Islam and Sufism; Gender, women, and religious authority; Verbal, vocal, and social performance; Politics of language and semiotics; Religion and ritual; Transnationalism, globalization, and cosmopolitanism ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS 2012-present University of Alberta. Assistant Professor of Anthropology. 2008-2012 American University in Cairo. Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology. 2007-2008 University of Rochester, Frederick Douglass Institute for African & African- American Studies. Postdoctoral Fellow. HONORS AND AWARDS 2014 Support for the Advancement of Scholarship Grant (University of Alberta) for ethnographic research in Senegal 2004 Social Science Research Council, International Dissertation Research Fellowship 2004 Fulbright-Hays, Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship 2003 Yale Center for International and Area Studies, Dissertation Research Fellowship 2003 Yale Program in Agrarian Studies, Fellowship for Arabic study in Ma`ta Mulana, Mauritania 2002 Foreign Language and Area Studies, Summer Fellowship for Arabic study in Fez, Morocco
1999 University Honors (awarded to 1% of graduates), Brigham Young University 1999 Magna Cum Laude (top 5% of class), Brigham Young University 1999 Speaker at Honors Graduation Ceremony, Brigham Young University 1995-1999 Full University Academic Scholarship, Brigham Young University 1998 Office of Research and Creative Activities (Brigham Young University) grant for undergraduate project in Senegal 1998 Brigham Young University Study-Abroad research grant for undergraduate project in Senegal ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS (PEER-REVIEWED) Under review A Mystical Cosmopolitanism: Sufi Hip-Hop and the Aesthetics of Islam in Dakar. Submitted to Culture and Religion. Under review Wrapping Authority: Women Sufi Leaders in the Fayda Tijaniyya Islamic Movement in Senegal. Under review Toutes les femmes sont des guides : L autorité soufie et la féminité chez les adhérents du mouvement Fayḍa Tijāniyya au Sénégal. In Cédric Jourde, Abdel Wedoud Ould Cheikh and Jean Schmitz, eds., Le Sahel musulman entre soufisme et salafisme: les défis de la subalternité et du transnationalisme. Paris: Karthala. Under review Women Who Are Men: Shaykha Maryam Niasse and the Qurᵓān in Dakar. In Zulfikar Hirji, ed., Approaches to the Qur an in Sub-Saharan Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Forthcoming Charismatic Discipleship: A Sufi Woman and the Divine Mission of Development in Senegal. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute. Forthcoming God s Name Is Not a Game: Performative Apologetics in Sufi Dhikr Performance in Senegal. Journal for Islamic Studies. 2016 Baay Is the Spiritual Leader of the Rappers : Performing Islamic Reasoning in Senegalese Sufi Hip-Hop. Contemporary Islam 10 (2). 2016 Entrepreneurial Discipleship: Cooking Up Women s Sufi Leadership in Dakar. In Cultural Entrepreneurship in Africa, edited by Ute Röschenthaler and Dorothea E. Schulz, 58 80. London: Routledge. 2014 Picturing Islamic Authority: Gender Metaphors and Sufi Leadership in Senegal. Islamic Africa 5 (2): 275 315. 2014 Britta Frede and Joseph Hill. Introduction: En-Gendering Islamic Authority in West Africa. Islamic Africa 5 (2): 131 165. 2014 Britta Frede and Joseph Hill, eds. En-gendering Islamic Authority in West Africa. Special issue of Islamic Africa 5 (2). 2013 Hill, Joseph. 2013. Sovereign Islam in a Secular State: Hidden Knowledge and Sufi Governance among Taalibe Baay. In Tolerance, Democracy, and Sufis in Senegal, edited by Mamadou Diouf, 99 124. New York: Columbia University Press. 2012 The Cosmopolitan Sahara: Building a Global Islamic Village in Mauritania. City & Page 2/6
Society 24.1: 62 83. 2011 Languages of Islam: Hybrid Genres of Taalibe Baay Oratory in Senegal. Islamic Africa 2.1: 67-104. 2010 All Women Are Guides : Sufi Leadership and Womanhood among Taalibe Baay in Senegal. Journal of Religion in Africa 40.4: 375-412. ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS (EDITOR-REVIEWED) 2013 Niasse, Mariama Ibrahim. Edited by John L. Esposito. Oxford Islamic Studies Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/opr/t343/e0087. 2006 Sufi Specialists and Globalizing Charisma: Religious Knowledge and Authority among Disciples of Baay Ñas. In Local Practices, Global Controversies: Islam in Sub-Saharan African Contexts, edited by Kamari Maxine Clarke, 69 99. New Haven: MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale. DISSERTATION 2007 Divine Knowledge and Islamic Authority: Religious Specialization among Disciples of Baay Ñas. Doctoral Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Yale University. ACADEMIC WORKS IN PROGRESS Women Who Are Men: The Emergence of Women s Leadership in a Sufi Movement in Senegal. Book manuscript. NON-ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS 2010 Ground Zero Mosque : Sensible People Fearing Islam. Salon, August 2. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/08/02/ground_zero_us_them. ACADEMIC TALKS Invited Talks 2014 The Ascetic and the Mother of the Knowers : Reversing Gender Roles in Islamic Leadership in Senegal. Paper presented at the Islamic Studies Lecture Series, University of Toronto. 2007 Mystical Specialists and Bureaucratic Specialists: Nationalizing Sufism in Senegal. Presented at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology Colloquium Series, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Invited Workshops and Symposia 2015 Sufi Hip Hop and Transcendental Apologetics in Senegal: Beyond Discursive Tradition. Paper presented at the symposium Sufism in Africa: Adapting to Changing Realities, University of Florida, Gainsville, FL. 2013 God s Name Is Not a Game: Debating Sufi Dhikr Performance in Senegal. Paper presented at the workshop Performance of Belonging, Difference and Exclusion in the Muslim Africa, Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala. 2011 Women Who Are Men: Shaykha Maryam Ñas and the Qurᵓān in Dakar. Paper presented Page 3/6
at the conference Approaches to the Qur an in Sub-Saharan Africa, York University and the Institute for Ismaeli Studies, Toronto. 2008 Terms of Engagement: Mediating Multiple Knowledge Regimes through Taalibe Baay Sufi Oratory. Paper presented at the conference Constituting Bodies of Islamic Knowledge, Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. 2008 Sovereign Religion in a Secular State: Sufi Sovereignty and Hidden Knowledge among Taalibe Baay in Senegal. Paper presented at the conference Tolerance, Democracy, and Sufis in Senegal, Columbia University, New York. Conference Talks (Peer-reviewed Abstract) 2016 Hip-Hop and the Mystical Aesthetic: Senegalese Rappers in the Sufi Poetic Tradition. Paper presented at the conference It Ain t Where You re From, It s Where You re At : International Hip Hop Studies Conference, University of Cambridge. 2016 Sufi Hip-Hop and the Aesthetics of Islamic Authority in Dakar. Paper presented at the conference Dakar 2016: Innovation, transformation and sustainable futures in Africa, Dakar, Senegal. 2015 Sufi Hip-Hop and the Aesthetics of Islamic Authority in Dakar. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Denver, CO. 2014 Sufi Hop Hop Artists Performing Islamic Reasoning in Senegal. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C. 2013 Venture Discipleship: NGO-izing Sufi Religious Associations in Dakar. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Chicago. 2012 Ambiguous Agency: Mystical Experiences and Authority among Women Sufi Leaders in Senegal. Presented at the African Studies Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia. 2011 Two Sufi Women in Dakar: Cooking up the Business of Spiritual Leadership. Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Montreal. 2010 Veiling Authority: Femininity, Mysticism, and Hiddenness Among Sufi Women Leaders in Senegal. Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans. 2009 The Cosmopolitan Sahara: Building a Global Islamic Village in Mauritania. Paper presented in an invited session at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia. 2008 The Cosmopolitan Desert: Place-making in a Global Saharan Village. Paper presented at the African Studies Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco. 2008 Terms of Engagement: Mediating Multiple Knowledge Regimes in Sufi Oratory through Codeswitching. Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago. 2007 The Politics of Religious Disengagement: Islam, Hidden Knowledge, and the Secular State in Senegal. Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C. 2007 Mystical Specialists, Institutional Specialists, and the Construction of an Urban Sufi Movement in Senegal. Presented at African Studies Association Annual Meeting, New Page 4/6
York, New York. 2007 Cosmopolitan Subjects and Divine Sovereignty: Learning Discipleship in West African Islamic Schools. Presented at the Canadian Anthropological Society (CASCA) and American Ethnological Society (AES) Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada. 2005 Sufi Specialists: Embodying Divine Knowledge and Authority in Senegal. Presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C. Campus Talks 2015 Rapping Islam: Hip Hop Artists Representing Sufism in Senegal. Paper presented at FolkwaysAlive speaker series, University of Alberta, Edmonton. 2013 Women s Voices in Sacred Space: Accommodating Women Sufi Singers in Senegal. Paper presented at the symposium I am a Bird from Heaven s Garden: Music, Sound, and Architecture in the Muslim World, University of Alberta, Edmonton. 2008 Terms of Engagement: Mediating Multiple Knowledge Regimes in Sufi Oratory through Codeswitching. Paper presented at Sociology/Anthropology Seminar Series, American University in Cairo, Egypt. 2008 Sovereign Religion in a Secular State: Hidden Knowledge and Sufi Authority in Senegal. Presented at Works in Progress Seminar, Frederick Douglass Institute for African & African-American Studies, University of Rochester. 2007 Sovereign Religion in a Secular State: Learning Sufi Discipleship in Senegal. Presented at the Ethnography and Social Theory Colloquium, Department of Anthropology, Yale University. 2005 Hidden Knowledge: Reflections on Fieldwork in a Transnational Sufi Community. Presented at the Ethnography and Social Theory Colloquium, Yale University Department of Anthropology, New Haven, Connecticut. 2002 Sufi Orders and Popular Culture in Senegal. Presented at the Islam in the Modern Day Colloquium, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. TEACHING EXPERIENCE 2012-present University of Alberta Islam, Gender, and Authority Anthropology of Sub-Saharan Africa Islam, Performance, and New Media Anthropology of Gender Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology Religion, Politics, and Secularism 2008-2012 American University in Cairo Language in Culture Language, Meaning, and Politics Contemporary Anthropological Theory Ethnographic Fieldwork Methods Page 5/6
The Social Construction of Difference: Race, Class, and Ethnicity Religion, Ideology, and Society Peoples and Cultures of Africa Islam, Politics, and Society in a Global Era Introduction to Cultural Anthropology Arab Society Anthropology of Food 2007-2008 University of Rochester Sovereignty and the Postcolonial State in Africa Religion and Power in Africa 2007 Yale University, Instructor Food and Culture RESEARCH EXPERIENCE 2014 Ethnographic research on Sufi hip hop artists and other vocal performers in Dakar, Senegal. 2009, 2010 Ethnographic research on Sufi women in Senegal (Dakar and Kaolack) 2001, 2003-2005 Ethnographic dissertation research on Sufism in Senegal and Mauritania 2004 present Founded and direct Medina Baay Research Association, Kaolack, Senegal (see http://medinabaay.org). 1998 Ethnographic research on griot performing artists, Dakar, Senegal. LANGUAGES SPOKEN AND WRITTEN English, French, Wolof, Arabic (literary and Egyptian colloquial) Page 6/6