Mark Allen Peterson
Research Interests
Ethnography of communication, mass media, anthropology of news and journalism, new information technologies, nationalism, transnationalism and globalization, semiotics, drama and spectacle. Areas: Egypt, India, United States.
Books
2022. International Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Global Issues. Fifth edition. With Stanley W. Toops, Walt Vanderbush and Naaborle Sackeyfio. Routledge.
2017. International Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Global Issues. Fourth edition. With Sheldon Anderson and Stanley W. Toops. Westview.
2014. International Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Global Issues. Third edition. With Sheldon Anderson, Jeanne A.K. Hey, Charles Stevens and Stanley W. Toops. Westview.
2012. International Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Global Issues. Second edition. With Sheldon Anderson, Jeanne A.K. Hey, Charles Stevens and Stanley W. Toops. Westview.
2011. Connected in Cairo: Growing up Cosmopolitan in the Modern Middle East. Indiana University Press.
2007. International Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Global Issues. With Sheldon Anderson, Jeanne A.K. Hey, Charles Stevens and Stanley W. Toops. Westview.
2003. Anthropology and Mass Communication: Media and Myth in the New Millennium. Berghahn Books.
Articles
2015. Speaking of news: Press, democracy, and metapragmatics in a changing India. American Ethnologist 42(4): 673–687.
2014. Katibs and computers: Innovation and ideology in the Urdu newspaper revival. Contemporary South Asia 22(2): 130-142.
2013. “Connecting Media: Understanding Indexical Practice” Tsantsa 18: 86-95.
2011. ‘Toward an Ethnography of Contingency in the Egyptian Uprisings” Anthropologies 9
2011. “Egypt’s media Ecology in a Time of Revolution” Arab Media and Society 13. Reprinted in Eurasian Review: News and Analysis Nov. 10.
2010. “Agents of Hybridity: Class, Culture Brokers, and the Entrepreneurial Imagination in Cosmopolitan Cairo.” Research in Economic Anthropology 30: 225-256.
2010. “Imsukuhum Kulhum! Modernity and Morality in Egyptian Children’s Consumption.” Journal of Consumer Culture 10(2): 233-253.
2010. “Journalism as Trope” Anthropology News 51(4): 8-9.
2009. “What Is the Point of Media Anthropology?” Social Anthropology 17(3): 337-340, 342-344.
2007. “Making Global News: ‘Freedom of Speech’ and ‘Muslim Rage’ in U.S. Journalism” Contemporary Islam: Dynamics of Muslim Life 1(3): 247-264.
2006. “Technologies of Connecting and the Teaching of Anthropology.” Teaching Anthropology 12(2): 24-27.
2005. “The Jinn and the Computer: Consumption and Identity in Arabic Children’s Magazines.” Childhood12(2): 177 – 200.
2004. “Accessing Egypt: Making Myths and Producing Web Sites in Cyber-Cairo.” New Reviews in Hypermedia and Multimedia 10(2): 199-219. With Ivan Panovic (second author).
2003. “Language ideology and the politics of performance.” Teaching Anthropology 9(2): 20-22, 37-38.
2002. “Choosing the wasteland: The social construction of self as viewer in the U.S.” M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 5(6)
2001. “Situations and interpretations: Explorations in interpretive practice.” (With William O. Beeman, first author) Introduction to special issue of Anthropological Quarterly 74(4): 159-162.
2001. “Getting to the story: Unwriteable discourse and interpretive practice in American journalism.” Anthropological Quarterly 74(4): 201-211.
2000. “For as long as I can remember, anthropology has been reinventing itself. An interview with Donald Powell Cole.” Nomadic Peoples (4) 2: 7-20.
1999. “Computer khatbas: Databases and marital entrepreneurship in modern Cairo.” With Shereen Ali Abu Hashish (first author). Anthropology Today 15(6): 7-11.
1998. “The rhetoric of epidemic in India: News coverage of AIDS.” Alif: The Journal of Comparative Poetics. 18: 237-268.
1991. “Aliens, ape-men and whacky savages: Anthropologists in the tabloids.” Anthropology Today 7(5): 4-7.
1991. “Defining worlds: The semantics of development.” Brown Forum on Third World Affairs 1(1) December.
Book Chapters
2023 “Media Anthropology and the Digital Challenge” In The Routledge Companion to Media Anthropology. Elisabetta Costa, Patricia Lange, Nell Haynes, and Joynna Sinanan, eds. Pp. 17-32. Routledge.
2022. “Media, Sovereignty, and Cybersecurity” In International Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Global Issues. Stanley W. Toops, Mark Allen Peterson, Walt Vanderbush and Naaborle Sackeyfio, eds. Fifth edition. Pp. . Routledge.
2017c “Mediated Experience in the Egyptian Revolution” In Digital Middle East: State and Society in the Information Age. Mohamed Zayani, ed. Pp. 85-108. Oxford University Press.
2017b “Media, Markets and Political Economy: Examining and Analyzing Power.” Routledge Handbook of Language and Media. Colleen Cotter and Daniel Perrin, eds. Pp. 151-163. Routledge.
2017a “The Syrian Civil War and the Rise of the Islamic State” In International Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Global Issues. 4th edition. Sheldon Anderson, Mark Allen Peterson and Stanley W. Toops. Pp. 401-409. Westview.
2015. “New Media and Electronic Networks in the Middle East” In Companion to the Anthropology of the Middle East. Soraya Altorki, ed. Pp. 509-525. Wiley-Blackwell.
2015. Re-Envisioning Tahrir: The Changing Meanings of Tahrir Square in Egypt’s Ongoing Revolution. In Revolutionary Egypt
Connecting Domestic and International Struggles. Reem Abou-El-Fadl, ed. Pp. 64-82. Routledge.
2015. In Search of Antistructure: The Meaning of Tahrir Square in Egypt’s Ongoing Social Drama. In Breaking Boundaries: Varieties of Liminality. Agnes Horvath, Bjørn Thomassen, and Harald Wydra, eds. Pp. 164-182. Berghahn Books.
2015. Katibs and Computers: Innovation and Ideology in the Urdu Newspaper Revival. In Innovation as Social Change in South Asia: Transforming Hierarchies. Minna Säävälä and Sirpa Tenhunen, eds. Routledge.
2014. Egypt’s Media Ecology in a Time of Revolution. In El-Saadawi, Sarah, ed. Three Years Since the Spring: A Collection of Essays on the State of Arab Media. Pp. 81-95. Cairo: Kamal Adham Center for Television and Digital Journalism.
2012. “Ethnography as Theory and Method in the Study of Political Communication” (with Debra Spitulnik Vidali, first author). Sage Handbook of Political Communication. Holli A. Semetko and Margaret Scammell, eds. Pp. 264-275. Sage Publications, Ltd.
2010. “‘But It Is My Habit to Take the Times’: Metaculture and Practice in the Reading of Indian Newspapers.” Theorizing Media and Practice. Birgit Brauchler and John Postill, eds. Berghahn.
2009. “Getting the News in New Delhi.” The Anthropology of News and Journalism. Elizabeth Bird, ed. Pp. 267-288. Indiana University Press.
2007. “From Jinn to Genies: Intertextuality, Media, and the Rise of Global Folklore.” In Folklore/Cinema: Popular Film as Vernacular Culture. Mikel J. Koven and Sharon Sherman, ed. Pp. 93-112. Utah State University Press.
2005. “Performing Media: Toward an Ethnography of Intertextuality.” In Media Anthropology, Mihai Coman and Eric Rothenbuhler, eds. Pp. 129-138. London and Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Books.
2003. “American warriors speaking American: The metapragmatics of performance in the nation state.” In At War With Words. Mirjana N. Dedaic and Daniel N. Nelson, eds. Pp. 421-448. Walter de Gruyter.
2002. “Aliens, Ape-Men and Whacky Savages: The Anthropologist in the Tabloids.” In The Best of Anthropology Today. Jonathan Benthall, ed. London and New York: Routledge.
2001. “Unlocking the power of the internet in postsecondary education.” In Information Technology in Egypt: Challenges and Impact. Pp. 14-36. Mahmoud Farag, ed. The American University in Cairo. With Samy Akabawy (second author), Brent Carper (first author), John Hill (fifth author) and Dan Tschirgi (fourth author).
2000. “Nahwa il ‘Umiya: Discursive dissonance in women’s literacy classes.” In Research and Education in Egypt: A Millennial Assessment. Pp. 272-293. Mahmoud Farag, ed. The American University in Cairo. With Moyra Dale (first author)
1999. “Communication and cultural identity: Language policy and ‘human development’ in India and the United States.” In Human Development for the 21st Century. Pp. 230-242. Mahmoud Farag, ed. The American University in Cairo.
1998. “Languages of globalization: Modernity and authority.” In Globalization: Blessing or Curse? Mahmoud Farag, ed. Pp. 119-127. The American University in Cairo.
Reviews and Reports
2019 Anthropology of News. The International Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies. Edited by Tim. P. Vos and Folker Hanusch. John Wiley & Sons.
2018 News. In The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Edited by Hilary Callan. John Wiley & Sons.
2018 Reception. In The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Edited by Hilary Callan. John Wiley & Sons.
2015 Review of “Words of Witness,” a film by Mai Iskander. Anthropology Review Database http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/cgi/showme.cgi?keycode=5264
2015. Review of Muslim Rap, Halal Soaps, and Revolutionary Theater: Artistic Developments in the Muslim World by Karin van Nieuwkerk, ed. American Ethnologist 42(1): 189–190.
2015. Review of Arab Spring: Uprisings, Powers, Interventions. Social Anthropology 23(1): 98-99.
2015. “Consumption in the Middle East” Article for The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Consumption and Consumer Studies. Cook, Daniel Thomas and J. Michael Ryan, eds. Wiley-Blackwell.
2014 Review of Tahrir: Liberation Square. A film by Savona Stefano. Anthropology of Contemporary Middle East and Central Eurasia 2(1): 126-127.
2012 Review of Goodbye Mubarak. A film by Katia Jarjoura. Anthropology Review Database.
2012. Review of Making Our Media: Global Initiatives Toward a Democratic Public Sphere, Volume One: Creating New Communication Spaces. Rodríguez, Clemencia, Dorothy Kidd and Laura Stein, eds. (Creskill, NJ: Hampton Pres,. 2010) and Making Our Media: Global Initiatives Toward a Democratic Public Sphere, Volume Two: National and Global Movements for Democratic Communication Stein, Laura, Dorothy Kidd and Clemencia Rodríguez, eds.(Creskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2009). Mediekultur 28(52): 185-188.
2011. Review of Shaktima No Veh. A film by Jayasinhji Jhala (2006).Anthropology Review Database.
2011. Review of Mardi Gras: Made in China. A film by David Redmon (2008). Anthropology Review Database.
2011. Giving Florida’s Students a Third World Education. Palm Beach Post, Oct. 24. Op-ed.
2010. Review of Gone to Pat. Directed by Mainik Bhaumak. (2005). Anthropology Review Database.
2010. Review of Changing Consumer Cultures of Modern Egypt: Cairo’s Urban Reshaping. Mona Abaza (Brill, 2006). Journal of Consumer Culture 10(1): 161-164.
2009 Review of The Word Weavers: Newshounds and Wordsmiths. Jean Aitchison (Cambridge University Press, 2007). Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 19(2): 336-337.
2008. Review of Shimmering Screens: Making Media in an Aboriginal Community. Jennifer Deger (University of Minnesota Press, 2006). Anthropology Review Database.
2008. Review of Locating Home: India’s Hyderabadi’s Abroad Karen Isaksen Leonard (Stanford University Press, 2007). American Anthropologist 110(4): 526-527
2008. “The Anthropology of News and Journalism: A Bibliography” European Association of Social Anthropologists Media Anthropology Network web site.
2008. Camel Fodder on Facebook. CyberOrient, July 15. Now hosted on Digital Islam.
2008. The Short and Long of It. tabsir.net, July 16.
2007. Review of Markets of Dispossession: NGOs, Economic Development, and the State in Cairo. Julia Elyachar (Duke University Press, 2005). Anthropology Review Database.
2006c Review of Media and Tribal Development. Jagannath Pati (2004, Concept). American Anthropologist 108(3): 519-520.
2006b Review of Dramas of Nationhood: The Politics of Television in Egypt. Lila Abu-Lughod (2004, University of California Press). Visual Anthropology 21(1/2): 183-185.
2006. “Sampling Frame for a Study of Egyptian Government Elites.” Report for Ipsos-Public Affairs Consulting Group (Client: Microsoft).
2005. “Bourdieu, Pierre.” In The Encyclopedia of Anthropology, James Birx, ed. Pp. 395-397. Sage Books.
2005d “Paralanguage.” In The Encyclopedia of Anthropology, James Birx, ed. Pp. 1826-1827. Sage Books.
2005c “Saussure, Ferdinand de.” In The Encyclopedia of Anthropology, James Birx, ed. Pp. 2055-2056. Sage Books.
2005b “Simulacra.” In The Encyclopedia of Anthropology, James Birx, ed. Pp. 2088-2089. Sage Books.
2005. “Why Media Anthropology?” Discussion of a working paper by Francisco Osorio (Universidad de Chile) entitled ‘Why Is Interest in Mass Media Anthropology Growing?’. 8th European Association of Social Anthropologists Media Anthropology Network e-seminar Nov. 8-15, 2005.
2005. “Anthropology of the Mass Media pre-1985: A Bibliography” European Association of Social Anthropologists Media Anthropology Network web site.
2004. “The role of the software industry in Egypt.” Report for Ipsos-Public Affairs Consulting Group (Client: Microsoft).
2004. Review of Speech Play and Verbal Art. Joel Sherzer (2002, University of Texas Press) American Ethnologist 31(2)
2004. Review of Religion and Folk Cosmology by El-Sayed El-Aswad (2002, Praeger). Journal of American Folklore 117(464): 231-232.
2004. Review of Consuming Youth: Vampires, Cyborgs and the Culture of Consumption. Rob Latham. Journal of American Folklore 117(464): 215-216.
2003. “Context and content in New Orleans.” Anthropology Today 19(1): 21.
2002 “Love, terror and nostalgia in Washington.” Anthropology Today 18(1): 23-24.
2001. “Making It Public: Anthropology and the Media. Review of the AAA 99th Annual Conference, San Francisco, 15-19 November 2000.” Anthropology Today, 17(1): 25-26.
2001. Review of Dialogue Analysis and the Mass Media, edited by Bernd Naumann (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1999) Discourse and Society 12(2)
2001. Review of Worlds in Common: Television Discourse in a Changing Europe by Kay Richardson and Ulrike H. Meinhof (London and New York: Routledge 1999). Discourse and Society 12(2)
2000. Review of Just Words: Law, Language and Power by John Conley and William O’Barr (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998) Discourse and Society 11(3)
2000. Review of Ideology in the Language of Judges by Susan U. Philips (Oxford University Press, 1998). Discourse and Society 11(3)
1993. Review of Language and Symbolic Power by Pierre Bourdieu (Oxford: Polity, 1991) Discourse and Society 4(4): 484-485.
1993. “Anthropology and the fourth estate. Report on the Royal Anthropological Institute’s 150th Anniversary Symposium.” Anthropology Today 9(4): 20-21.
Lectures, Seminars, Colloquia and Conference Papers
2022 “Games, Gamification & Simulation in Learning Design.” 2022 Lilly Conference, Miami University, November 18.
2022 “Gamification in Online Courses: Theory and Practice” with Bonnie Erwin, Michael Stram, and Jia Tom Luo. 2022 Lilly Conference, Miami University, Nov. 18.
2022. “A Place for Us to Stand”: The Struggle for Third Gender Rights in India. 2022 QT-Con. Miami University. Nov. 15.
2019. “Street art and agency in an era of protest in Egypt: Western news media reporting on graffit.” Professional Divides VII: Anthropologists and (Media) Practitioners in Conversation about the Arts and Public Action. American Anthropological Association, 24 November.
2019 “Seven Things You Should Know About Bollywood” Luncheon Talk. Cincinnati Delta Psi. 21 September.
2019 “Digital Dilemmas: Re-imagining News Media in Millennial India” 30 April. Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany.
2018 Cool Japan in the Middle East. 14 June. Nanzen University, Nagoya, Japan.
2018 From Responsibility to Empowerment: Changing Political and Media Cultures in Millennial India. Mar. 23. Platinum Jubilee Lecture, Utkal University, Bhubaneshwar, India.
2018 “Digital Dilemmas: Rethinking Politics in Millennial India.” Mar. 16. Keynote Address for the International Symposium on “Digital Politics in Millennial India” held at the Indrapratha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi, and sponsored by IIIT-D, the European Research Council and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich.
2018 “Why Media Anthropology?” Mar. 13. Center for Communication, Media and Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi, India.
2018 “Digital Disruptions: The Promises and Perils of the Informatic Revolution in India.” Mar. 12. Centre for the Study of Social Systems, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
2018 “What Does Anthropology Mean to Media Studies?” Media Studies Faculty Proseminar. Christ University, Bangalore, India.
2018 “Politics, Protest and Media in the Digital Age: Global Lessons from the Egyptian Revolution.” Jan. 10. Graduate Seminar in International Studies, Christ University, Bangalore.
2018 “How (Not) to Report a Global Story.” Jan. 9. Media Studies Postgraduate Seminar Series, Christ University, Bangalore.
2018 “What Is the Anthropology of Media?” Jan. 7. Sociology Postgraduate Seminar Series, Christ University, Bangalore.
2018 “Silence, Censorship and Journalism.” Jan. 6. Undergraduate Media Studies symposium, Christ University, Bangalore, India.
2017 “Fake News, Objectivity and Epistemic Stance.” Presentation Dec. 1. American Anthropological Association meetings, Washington, DC.
2017. “Professional Divides V: Journalists and Anthropologists in Conversation about the News Reporting, Politics and Belief Systems.” Chair and Roundtable moderator, American Anthropological Association meetings, Washington, DC.
2016 “‘Infotainment Is Not a Dirty Word’: Evidence, Authority and Audience in Indian TV News” Nov. 18. Paper given at the American Anthropological Association meetings, Minneapolis, MN.
2016 “Professional Divides IV: Journalists and Anthropologists in Conversation About Language, Gender and Representation.” Discussant at the American Anthropological Association meetings, Minneapolis, MN.
2016 “The Muhammad Cartoon Controversy” Apr. 18. Institute for Learning in Retirement. Oxford, OH.
2016 “Mediated Experience in the Egyptian Revolution” New Media, Everyday Life and Social Change: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives. Roskilde University, Mar. 3.
2015 “Ethnography of Journalism: New Directions from the Global South” Nov. 22. Discussant at the American Anthropological Association meetings, Denver, CO.
2015 “Mediating Muslims: Ideology and Hegemony in Bollywood Blockbusters.” Nov. 20. Paper given at the American Anthropological Association meetings, Denver, CO.
2015 “Cartoon Violence: The Making of a Global Controversy.” Keynote Address at “Ten Years After the Muhammad Cartoons: Perspectives, Reflections and Challenges.” Sept. 28. Department of Cultural and Global Studies. Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.
2015. “Teaching Students to Learn How to Write,” Oxford Writing Festival, Miami University, April 17.
2015. “Money in the Middle East: How Economy Shapes Politics.” Panel Discussion. International Business Insight, Miami University Farmer School of Business. April 1.
- “Can the Subaltern Learn?” Penny Lecture Series, Mar. 9, Miami University.
2015 “Toward an Anthropology of New Media.” Annual Anthropology Keynote Address. University of Cincinnati Taft Research Center. January
2014. “Professional Divides III: Journalists and Anthropologists in Conversations About Language, News Practice and Social Impacts” Dec. 4, 2014. Panel participant at the American Anthropological Association meetings, Washington, DC.
2014. “Producing Violence: Interactional and Intersubjective Dimensions of Aggression, Injury and Harm. Dec. 5. Discussant at the American Anthropological Association meetings, Washington, DC.
2014. “Writing Tips on Video Clips” (with Dr. Julia Guichard, and Jaden Peterson). National Day on Writing Writing at Miami Symposium. Miami University. 20 Oct.
2014. “The Arab Spring: Overview, History, and Connections.” Panel on “Middle Eastern Protest Movements and the Heritage of Civil Rights” at the “50 Years After Freedom Summer: Understanding the Past, Building the Future” Conference and Reunion, Miami University, 11-14 Oct.
2014. “Being Connected: Class and Cosmopolitanism in Egypt.” Digital Media Working Group. Center for International and Regional Studies, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar. Doha, Qatar, Sept. 27-28.
2013 “Professional Divides II: Journalists and Anthropologists in Conversations About Language, News Practice and Social Impacts” Nov. 21, 2013. Panel participant at the American Anthropological Association meetings, Chicago.
2013. “Whatever Happened to the Egyptian Revolution?” Keynote address. Model Arab League. Miami University. Feb. 223.
2012. “From Education to Empowerment: Press, Democracy and Metapraxis In a Changing India.” Nov. 15, 2012. Paper given at the American Anthropological Association meetings, San Francisco.
2012. “Professional Divides: Journalists and Anthropologists in Conversations About Language, News Practice and Social Impacts” Nov. 17, 2012. Panel participant at the American Anthropological Association meetings, San Francisco.
2012. “In Search of Anti-Structure: The Meanings of Tahrir in Egypt’s Ongoing Revolution.” Paper given at the conference “The Egyptian Revolution, One Year On: Causes, Characteristics and Fortunes.” 18-19 May 2012. Department of Politics and International Relations, Oxford University.
2012. “News Parody and Social Media: The Rise of Egypt’s Fifth Estate” Paper given at the panel “All the News? Reporting and Media 2.0” at the International Studies Association meetings in San Diego, CA April 2, 2012.
2011. “Egyptian Youth in Urban and Virtual Spaces” Keynote address, Anthropology Colloquium Series, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, Oct. 21.
2011. “Egypt’s experimental moment: contingent thoughts on media and social change.” e-contribution to European Association of Social Anthropologists Media Anthropology Network workshop and research project on “Critical Perspectives on Media and Social Change.” School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. 27 May.
2011. “Indexicality, iconicity and language ideology in the Urdu news revival” European Association of Social Anthropologists Media Anthropology Network e-seminar Jan. 7-21.
2010 “From insider to outsider: Professionalization and distance in ethnography and journalism.” American Anthropological Association annual meetings, New Orleans, Nov. 19.
2010. “Theoretically Sophisticated Ethnography: A Commentary on Blommaert and Huang.” Discussion of a working paper by Jan Blommaert (Tilburg University) and April Huang (University of Jyväskylä) entitled “Historical Bodies and Historical Space.” 1st UK Linguistic Ethnography Forum e-seminar Feb. 24-Mar 5, 2010.
2009. “Indexicality, Iconicity and Language Ideology in the Urdu News revival” American Anthropological Association annual meetings, Philadelphia, Dec. 9.
2009. Chair, co-discussant. “People, Places and Politics of Asia in the 21st Century.” Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, Miami University, 16 Oct.
2008. “Indigenous Media: Empowerment, Problems and Contradictions” Special lecture at “Rethinking Paradigms in Anthropology: National Symposium on Tribes,” Delhi University, New Delhi, Dec. 26.
2008. “Freelance Journalism in India and the U.S.” Times School of Media Studies. New Delhi. Dec 22.
2008. “The Anthropology of Films” Presentation to the Ethnography Working Group, Delhi University, New Delhi, Dec. 18.
2008. “Dialogical Anthropology” Presentation to the Ethnography Working Group, Delhi University, New Delhi, India, Nov. 6.
2006. “Reporting a Global Story: Practices of Reification in North American Newsmaking.” American Anthropological Association annual meetings, San Jose, Nov. 18.
2006. Discussant for “Language Matters in the Media: Representations of Identity, Diversity and Expertise” American Anthropological Association annual meetings, San Jose, Nov. 16.
2006. “Teaching the Middle East from an Interdisciplinary Perspective.” International Studies Association, San Diego, Mar. 25.
2006. “Invisible Travelers: Jinn and Genies on the Silk Road,” lecture given as part of the ILR Silk Road Lecture Series, “Silk Road ExplorAsian: Pathway of Cultures” Miami University Art Museum, Mar. 20.
2006. “All Stories are Local: Rethinking the Muhammed Cartoon Controversy.” Keynote address. Model Arab League. Miami University. Feb. 23.
2005. “Pokemon’s Sin: Moral Choices in Global Cairo” American Anthropological Association meetings, Washington, DC, December.
2005. “The Islamization of Pokemon.” Central States Anthropological Society meetings, Oxford, OH, March.
2005 “Technologies of Connecting and the Teaching of Anthropology.” Central States Anthropological Society meetings, Oxford, OH, March.
2004. “Is Male to ‘Ahwa as Female is to Latté? Coffee Houses and Gendered Cosmopolitanism in Cairo.” Paper accepted for American Anthropological Association meetings, San Francisco, CA, Nov. Meeting canceled.
2004. Panelist for “Racial Legacies and Learning XII: How to Talk About Race – The Arab American and Muslim Experience after September 11” Oct. 21. Harry T. Wilks Conference Center, Miami University Hamilton.
2004. “Media and Popular Perceptions of the United States in the Middle East.” Part of panel discussion “The Conflict In Iraq: A Community Discussion.” Miami University Hamilton Campus, April 29.
2004. “The World and the Media after 9/11: Lessons from Egypt.” Keynote address at the Model Arab League, Miami University, February 26.
2004. “My First Famous Book: A Tale of Existential Despair.” Address given at the Miami University New Author’s Reception, Jan. 22.
2003. “Freedom Fighters and Sinful Seths: Moral Economies and Economic Moralities in India’s Press.” American Anthropological Association, Chicago, Nov. 22.
2002. “Language Ideology and the Politics of Performance.” American Anthropological Association, New Orleans, Nov. 20.
2002. “Media, Morality and the Myth of Bin Laden: Voices From Egypt.” Gettysburg College, Sept. 11.
2002. “Getting the News in New Delhi: Newspaper Literacies in the Indian Mediascape.” Georgetown University’s Communication, Culture and Technology Program Lecture Series, April 29.
2002. “Institutionalizing Synergy: Empowering the Learning Community Through Information and Communication Technologies.” Paper presented at the Eighth American University in Cairo Research Conference, April (with Samy Akabawy, Brent Carper, John Hill and Dan Tschirgi).
2002. “What’s Going on Here? Workshop for Graduates Students on Theory and Method in the Social Sciences.” American University in Cairo, March.
2001. “Imsukhum Kulhum: Kids, Commodities and Transnational Imaginations in Cairo.” Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Washington, DC. November-December.
2001. “How Area Specialists Can Help Each Other and Our Friends in the Current Emergency.” Panelist. The American Anthropological Association, Middle East Section. Washington, DC. November-December.
2001. “Anthropolitical Linguistics and Language Policy: Public Debates and Our Possible Roles.” Discussant. The American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Washington, DC. November-December.
2001. “Unlocking the Power of the Internet for Postsecondary Learning in a Global Environment.” Paper given at the Global Business and Technology Association’s conference on “Facilitating Change in the Global Environment” at Yeditepe University in Istanbul, Turkey, July. (with Brent Carper, Samy Akabawy, John Hill and Dan Tschirgi)
2001. “Localizing New Media: The Next Phase of Research.” Paper given at the workshop on “New Directions in Middle East Media and Communications Technology Research” Georgetown University Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, April.
2001. “Web Sites in the Classroom: Four Case Studies” (with Shearin Abdel Moneim). Paper presented at the AUC workshop on “Advancing the Role of Technology in Education: In Class and Beyond.” American University in Cairo, April.
2001. “Unlocking the Power of the Internet in Postsecondary Education.” Paper presented at the Seventh American University in Cairo Research Conference, April. (with Samy Akabawy, Brent Carper, John Hill and Dan Tschirgi)
2000. “Mediated Marketing: The Global and the Multilocal in Transnational Advertising.” American Anthropological Association annual meetings, San Francisco, CA. November.
2000. “Why Anthropologists Aren’t Experts” Anthropology’s Public Face: Encounters with the Media. Co-chair and discussant. Invited double session of the National Association of Practicing Anthropologists. American Anthropological Association annual meetings, San Francisco, CA. November
2000. “After the thesis: Preparing for the PhD.” Graduate Student Association PhD Workshop. American University in Cairo. May.
2000. “Nahwa il ‘Umiya: Discursive dissonance in women’s literacy classes.” Paper presented at the Sixth American University in Cairo Research Conference. March. (with Moyra Dale)
1999. “Getting to the story: Off-the-record discourse as interpretive practice.” Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association annual meetings, Chicago, DC. November
1999. “Whatever happened to media anthropology?” Workshop presented at the Media Anthropology Summer School, University of Hamburg. September.
1999. “Imagined audiences, imagined media.” Workshop presented at the Media Anthropology Summer School, University of Hamburg. September.
1999. “Communication and cultural identity: Language policies in global cultures.” Paper presented at the Sixth American University in Cairo Research Conference. March.
1998. “McDonald’s and the languages of globalization.” Paper presented at the Fifth American University in Cairo Research Conference. March.
1998. “Developing persons: Thoughts on development as a cultural system.” Paper presented at the Hitotsubashi University and American University in Cairo joint International Workshop on Development and Culture in Asian Societies. Cairo, Egypt. November.
1998. “Global journalism and local newsmaking.” Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association annual meetings, Washington, DC. December
1998. Panelist. “Toward an Anthropolitical Linguistics.” Special session of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology at the American Anthropological Association annual meetings, Washington, DC. December.
1995. “Between report and story: Looking at news like a linguist.” Guest lecture. American University. August.
1993. “Getting our names in the papers: What does anthropology have to offer the mass media?” Paper presented at “Profile, Image and Audience: Anthropology in the Media,” invited session at the American Anthropological Association annual meetings, Washington, DC. November.
1993. “Truth and modernity in Indian and American journalism,” Indian Institute of Mass Communications, Jawaharlal Nehru University, November.
1993. “Language and style in journalism: India and America,” Creative Writing Academy, New Delhi, October.
1992. “The human science.” Brown Learning Community. Funded by a NASA grant for scientific outreach to high school students.
1992. “Ideas of Culture.” Session I of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology Docent Workshop, “Anthropology as a Perspective.” Jan. 9, 1992. Bristol, RI.
1991. “The secular saint: An anthropologist looks at the Santa Claus myth.” Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Bristol, RI. December.
1991. “Media and mass culture in India: The case of the Ramayana.” Public lecture. Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Bristol, RI. May.
1991. “Cautionary veils: Constructing gender and Islam in The New York Times,” Pembroke Center for the Teaching and Study of Women, Brown University, May.
1990. “Off whose record? Analyzing the unwritable in American journalism,” Annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, New Orleans. December.
1990 “The acting self: Toward a social semiotics of performance,” New Directions in Anthropology, Brown University, February.
1989. “Aliens, ape-men and whacky savages: The anthropologist in the popular press,” Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, Bristol, RI. December.
1989. “Performing journalism: Going native as applied anthropology,” Center for Anthropology and Journalism, Washington, DC, February.
1988. Spreadsheet applications in anthropology and archaeology,” Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, November.
Classes Taught
Anthropology and Film (AUC)
Cultural Anthropology (AUC)
Culture and Human Behavior (Brown)
Ethnographic Fieldwork (AUC) Graduate course
Fieldwork Methods (AUC, Gettysburg)
Globalization and (Post)Modernity (AUC) Graduate course
Intercultural Relations (Miami)
International Intellectual Property Issues (Miami)
Introduction to Anthropology (George Mason, Gettysburg)
Introduction to International Studies (Miami)
Language and Culture (Miami)
Language In Culture (AUC)
Linguistics for Teachers (Goucher)
Media Anthropology (University of Hamburg) Graduate course
Media, Culture and Society in the Islamic World (AUC)
Media, Minorities and Language (Georgetown) Graduate course
Peoples and Cultures of the Contemporary U.S. (AUC)
Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East (Gettysburg, Miami)
Peoples and Cultures of South Asia (AUC)
Peoples of the World (Miami)
Perspectives on Culture (Miami)
Pokemon: Local & Global Cultures (Miami)
Political Anthropology (AUC)
Practice Theory (AUC)
Problems in/of the Middle East (Miami)
Psychological Anthropology: Culture, Self and Society (AUC, Gettysburg)
Social Thought (AUC) Graduate course
Sound and Symbol: Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology (Brown)
Symbols and Commodities (Georgetown) Graduate course
Travelers, Migrants and Refugees (Miami)
World Media (Miami)
Professional Experience
2017-Present. Professor, Department of Anthropology; Professor, International Studies Program, Global & Intercultural Studies Department. Miami University. Oxford, OH.
2013-2017. Chair and Professor, Department of Anthropology; Professor, International Studies Program. Miami University. Oxford, OH.
2011-2012. Professor of Anthropology and International Studies. Miami University. Oxford, OH.
2007-2011. Associate Professor of Anthropology and International Studies. Miami University. Oxford, OH.
2009-2010. Acting Chair, Department of Anthropology.
2003-2007. Assistant Professor of Anthropology and International Studies. Miami University. Oxford, OH.
2002-2003. Visiting Assistant Professor, Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, PA.
2002-2003. Adjunct Associate Professor, Georgetown University, Washington, DC.
1997-2002. Assistant Professor, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt.
1998. Visiting Lecturer. University of Hamburg Summer School in Media Anthropology.
1996-1997. Adjunct Assistant Professor. George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.
1996. Adjunct Assistant Professor. Goucher College, Towson, MD
1994-1997. Managing Editor, The Stars and Stripes (US Edition), Washington DC.
1990-1991. Public relations officer. The Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology. Bristol, R.I.
Education
1996. Brown University, Providence, R.I. Ph.D., Anthropology
Dissertation: Writing the Indian Story: Press, Politics and Symbolic Power in India
1989. The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. M.A., Anthropology.
Thesis: The Social Negotiation of Performance in Denver’s Theater Community.
1984. The University of California, Los Angeles. Los Angeles, CA. B.A., Study of Religion.
CONNECTED in CAIRO 
Hi there,
I’m a Danish journalist, based in Cairo, who just signed in to receive your blog-posts.
I’m working on a story about the Salafi-movement and the forming of political parties and has read your post “Salafis move into mainstream politics in Egypt” with interest.
I have some questions for you – is it possible that I could call you?
Best regards,
Eva Plesner, Egypt cell: 010 503 16 10, e-mail: info@grifstories.dk
Dear Mr Peterson
I’m a French journalist, translator and publishing consultant/editor. I’ve been living in Ecuador and written about Latin America (among other things) for the last 15 years, but have also developed a strong interest in the Middle-East since the 1990s (I was an editor at La Decouverte in Paris, which has a strong catalogue on North Africa, the Middle-East and Islamic studies) and, more recently, on South Asia (I began to learn Hindi/Urdu and spent 2 months in India in 2010, and will probably do it again later this year).
I was in Cairo last summer (my third time in Egypt since the 1990s) and bought your remarkable last book at the AUC bookstore. I read it in 2 or 3 days, tremendously interesting
Personally, I’m very much interested in those issues of globalization, culture, consumption, class, cosmopolitanism and local identity in emerging countries in a comparative perspective (when I was in Delhi, I bought books such as Christiane Brosius, “Indian’s Middle Class. New Forms of Urban Leisure, Consumption and Property”, and Minna Saavala, “Middle Class Moralities. Everyday Struggle Over Belonging and Prestige in India”, but still had no time to read them thoroughly), happy that they are beginning to be tackled by serious sociologists and anthropologists – I mean not only from the frivolous and empirically dubious field of “cultural studies” – and especially sensitive to the heuristic value of resemblances/differences between Latin America and Asia, for example. I wish we could talk about this another time and might have some proposal of interview for you in a French political and cultural review. In the meantime, I have a more immediate proposal.
I work closely with the chief editor of the Latin American journal Nueva Sociedad (www.nuso.org). It’s a broad oecumenical journal of the left (based in Buenos Aires and published and financed by the German social-democratic Friedrich Ebert Foundation), somehow halfway between more political publications such as Dissent or New Left Review and academic journals such as Latin American Research Review. Most articles are by academics writing on regional (but not exclusively) issues. It’s the only political/cultural/”academic but not specialized” journal that has a real continental diffusion and readership (the readers are basically a mix of social scientists, NGO executives and political activists) and is very well respected in the region.
They want to publish about next summer a special dossier about “globalización desde abajo” (don’t know exactly how to translate it: grassroots globalization?). Most articles will be of course about Latin America (they are still looking for someone who could write about Bollywood in Peru, an emerging informal phenomenon there –all imported through piracy, of course–, with “filmi” fan clubs and Indian dance local amateurs festivals in Lima, for example, but somehow not yet under the radar of academia,) but when I mentioned your book to Mr Pablo Stefanoni, the chief editor, he was enthusiastic about asking you for a contribution (we would translate it in Spanish of course).
If you’re interested, the idea would be more or less the following: a 25,000/30,000 article for a non specialized educated readership based on your Egyptian research, but if possible with some elements of transnational comparison, with South Asia for example, based on your fieldwork and the literature you know, and some general conclusions about the dynamics of class, the global and the multilocal in emerging countries if you feel like it. (By the way, if you know among your colleagues in the field in the U.S. of some interesting and stimulating work on the same kind of issues in Latin American countries, tell us.)
Tell me if you’re interested, in which case Mr. Pablo Stefanoni would write you directly with more specifications.
Yours,
Marc Saint-Upéry
Lugo N24-309 y Vizcaya
Quito
ECUADOR
Tel: 00 593 2 2230266
I’m certainly interested but I would need more details and time to think about it (we’re in the middle of final exams here right now)
Dear Dr. Peterson,
Thank you for linking to Fikra Forum in your recent post titled “Is there a ‘Deep State’ in Egypt?” We have read some of your blog posts and we think you have insightful commentary. Would you be interested in participating in Fikra Forum? Please feel free to us at http://www.fikraforum.org or contact me at fikraforum@gmail.com.
We appreciate your time and consideration.
All the best,
Lauren
Fikra Forum
I read all your blogs , and i enjoyed all your Remerkale work , I am very interested to know how you became interested in the egyption revaluation? . Thank you. Sohair rashdan
I lived in Egypt 1998-2002 and taught at the American University in Cairo. When the uprisings broke out, my Facebook pages and e-mail were filled with accounts by friends and former students who were very involved. I think anyone who has lived and worked in, and written about, Egypt must find the revolutionary changes taking place fascinating, And I am hopeful about the long run. People forget that it took the American colonies more than 10 years to finalize a workable constitution, and that even after that violence frequently marred elections, and there were rebellions (Shay’s rebellion, the Whiskey rebellion) that might have turned into Civil Wars.
Hi, What is the correct citation for your blog entry ‘Creating A Revolutionary Culture On-Line’ ? Thanks – Karima Khalil
Peterson, Mark Allen. 2011. Creating a Revolutionary Culture On Line. Connectedincairo.com, May 30 https://connectedincairo.com/2011/05/30/creating-a-revolutionary-culture-on-line/ [accessed July 15, 2013].
Hope that helps
Thank you
Dear Dr.Peterson,
Hi, my name is Lamia Fakhry, head of qualitative research at at AMRB company for market research. I knew about you through one of your students who highly praises your work and science. We are currently conducting a research for a certain car company and they are quite interested in getting to know more about the Egyptian market, consumer behaviour, current trends among the society, consumer culture and how they reflect upon the purchase habits and other topics related to that as well. So I was wondering if you could be so kind as to honor us with a one on one interview with you tomorrow (preferably) or on Thursday If more convenient, to make use of your valuable knowledge and experience within that matter.
Should you agree to meet us, could you kindly send me your contact number so that we can arrange for such interview?
Thanks in advance.