Skip over navigation

Keith Brown

Associate Professor (Research):
Watson Institute for International Studies
Phone: +1 401 863 9604
Keith_Brown@Brown.EDU

Keith Brown conducts qualitative research which aims to highlight the social and cultural dimensions of political and economic processes. His work centers on Macedonia and the Balkans, but increasingly explores international and transnational linkages that run through the region. Current topics of research include the evaluation of democracy promotion programs, identity politics in diasporic communities, and what the US military learned about culture from its experience in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Biography

Keith Brown is a sociocultural anthropologist specializing in the study of twentieth-century Macedonia. Professor Brown received his doctorate from the University of Chicago and taught at Bowdoin College and the University of Wales before joining the Watson Institute. He also spent 1999-2000 as a senior fellow at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington D.C, and 2005-6 as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute. His research into how different communities construct history in Macedonia, Greece, and Bulgaria led to his book The Past in Question: Modern Macedonia and the Uncertainties of Nation as well as a number of articles on the culture, history, and politics of Macedonia. He is also the editor of Transacting Transition: The Micropolitics of Democracy Assistance in the Former Yugoslavia which came out of ongoing research on the politics of U.S. democracy promotion programs. His other projects focus on identity politics in diasporic communities, and how the US military thinks about culture.

Interests

My current and ongoing research falls into three broad categories, which I refer to as the study, respectively, of political violence, democratization, and inter-cultural communication. In all three areas, my approach reflects my commitment to two central tenets of anthropology: to make rich empirical data speak to major issues, and to highlight the often under-appreciated role of culture in the contemporary world order. At the same time, the three strands of research illustrate my quest to contribute to the ongoing reinvention of anthropology, which increasingly deals with transnational flows and processes that demand multi-sited and multi-perspectival interrogation.

Awards

University of Connecticut Humanities Institute Residential Fellowship, 2005-6.

National Humanities Center Fellowship, 2004-5 (declined)

Evans-Pritchard Lectureship, Oxford University, 2004.

The Past in Question selected for Honorable Mention for the Barbara Jelavich Award given by the Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, 2004.

Affiliations

American Anthropological Association

American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies

Royal Anthropological Institute

Teaching

I teach courses in the fields of anthropology and international relations. My main ongoing responsibility is a keystone course in political anthropology for IR concentrators, emphasizing the theoretical and methodological contributions of anthropology to the field of IR. I have also taught economic and legal anthropology, and courses bringing anthropology to bear on humor and laughter, (modern) Europe, and the archive.

Funded Research

IREX Policy-Connect Grant for "From Idea to Impact: Studying Through a US Civil Society Program in Macedonia." September 2007-August 2008: $30,000. Principal Investigator.
NCEEER Grant for "Evaluating Intervention: Knowledge Production and Democracy Promotion in the Western Balkans." October 1006-October 2008: $38,000. Principal Investigator.
Award from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund for continuation work on project "Local Dimensions of Sustainable Democracy-Building in the Southern Balkans," May 2005-July 2008. $40,000.

Completed grants:
Brown University Salomon Award for collaborative project "Cultural awareness in military operations: The production of knowledge through doctrine, training, education and simulation." December 2005-December 2007: $30,000. (With Professors James Der Derian, Catherine Lutz, and Matthew Gutmann).
University of Connecticut Humanities Institute Residential Fellowship, August 2005-May 2006, for book project "Manifest Loyalties: The Routes of Modern Nationalism." $40,000.
Award from the Mott Foundation for continuation work on project "Local Dimensions of Sustainable Democracy-Building in the Southern Balkans," January 2005-December 2006. Principal Investigator: $50,000.
Scholarly Technology Group Faculty Grant, Brown University, for assistance with design and construction of website "Murder in Marseille." Fall 2004.
Joint award from the Mott Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund for project entitled "Local Dimensions of Sustainable Democracy-Building in the Southern Balkans" 2002-3. $100,000.
United States Institute of Peace grant for project entitled "Interethnicity in Macedonia": for research and writing, 2001-2003. $38,000.
United States Institute of Peace Senior Fellowship, 1999-2000. $42,000.
British Academy Conference Grant, to support foreign attendance at "Intersecting Times" conference in Swansea, 2000. $2,500.
British Academy Elisabeth Barker Fund Award for research in Macedonia, 2000. $1,500.
University of Wales Collaboration Fund grant for the establishment and activity of a Centre for South-East European Studies, 1999-2000 (with Y.Hamilakis, P. Finney, M. Kenna, M. Pluciennik). $27,000.
University of Wales Collaboration Fund grant for seminar series and symposium, Negotiating Boundaries, 1997-8 (with Y.Hamilakis, P. Finney, M. Kenna, M. Pluciennik). $10,000.
Woodrow Wilson Center East European Studies Research Scholarship, 1996. $9,000.

Web Links

Curriculum Vitae

Download Keith Brown's Curriculum Vitae in PDF Format