
James N. Lambert '39 Professor of Anthropology
Education
M.A. University of Michigan (1979)
Ph.D. University of Michigan, Anthropology (1986)
Areas of Expertise
- Afghanistan
- Islam
- Political violence
- Documentary film & visual culture
- Humanitarianism & post-conflict societies
- Near East and South Asia
Courses
ANTH 208 / ASIA 208 / GBST 208 SEM
The U.S. and Afghanistan: A Post-Mortem (not offered 2024/25)ANTH 210 / ARAB 210 / GBST 210 / HIST 210 / REL 240 LEC
The Challenge of ISIS (not offered 2024/25)ANTH 222 / REL 273 SEM
Heroes, Saints and Celebrity (not offered 2024/25)ANTH 232 SEM
Town and Gown: Investigating the Relationship of College and Community (not offered 2024/25)ANTH 270 SEM
Object and Place/Memory and Nation (not offered 2024/25)ANTH 299 / REL 274 SEM
Ritual, Power and Transgression (not offered 2024/25)ANTH 335 SEM
In Between: The Ritual Construction of Identity and Difference (not offered 2024/25)ANTH 347 / ASIA 347 SEM
Tribe and State on the Afghan-Pakistan Border (not offered 2024/25)ANTH 360 SEM
Lessons Learned from Afghanistan on Governance and Development (not offered 2024/25)Scholarship/Creative Work
SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS & DOCUMENTARIES
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Caravan of Martyrs: Sacrifice and Suicide Bombing in Afghanistan. University of California Press, 2017
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Counterinsurgency as a Cultural System. Reprinted in Paul A. Erickson and Liam D. Murphy (editors), Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory (4th Edition), 2013
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New Lessons from the Swat Pathans: State Building in Afghanistan, 1995-2010. In Benjamin Hopkins & Magnus Marsden (editors), Beyond Swat: History, Society and Economy along the Afghanistan-Pakistan Frontier, 2012.
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Kabul Transit. Bullfrog Films, 2006.
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Afghanistan, Ethnography, and the New World Order. Reprinted in Antonius C.G.M. Robben and Jeffrey A. Sluka (editors), Ethnogaphic Fieldwork: An Anthropological Reader, 2007.
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Print Islam: Media and Religious Revolution in Afghanistan. Reprinted in June Nash (editor), Social Movements: An Anthropological Reader, 2005.
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Awards, Fellowships & Grants
2012-2013 Fulbright Fellowship, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
2004-2005 Open Society Institute Fellowship
2003-2004 Carnegie Scholar, Carnegie Corporation of New York
1999 Williams Class of 1945 World Fellowship
1998-1999 National Endowment for the Humanities Resident Fellowship, School of
American Research, Santa Fe
Professional Affiliations
Board of Trustees, American University in Afghanistan