Dr Jessica Johnson BA (Hons), MPhil, PhD (Cantab)

Dr Jessica Johnson

Department of African Studies and Anthropology
Associate Professor in Social Anthropology and African Studies

Contact details

Email
j.johnson.5@bham.ac.uk

I am a social anthropologist specialising in Southern Africa, with a particular focus on the anthropology of gender and law in Malawi.

Qualifications

  • BA (Hons), Archaeology and Anthropology (Cambridge)
  • MPhil, Social Anthropological Research (Cambridge)
  • PhD, Social Anthropology (Cambridge)
  • PGCHE, Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (Birmingham)

Biography

I completed my PhD in 2013 at the University of Cambridge, where I also studied for my BA and MPhil. I worked for three years as a Research Fellow at Peterhouse College, Cambridge, before joining DASA as a Lecturer in 2016. In 2018, I completed the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCHE) and became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. I was Head of Department 2021-2024.

Teaching

  • Kinship, Gender and Sexuality (optional module for second- and third- year undergraduates)
  • Contemporary Gender Issues in Africa (optional postgraduate module)
  • Social Life of the Economy (optional module for second- and third-year undergraduates)
  • Thinking Anthropologically (core module for first-year undergraduates)
  • Studying Societies: Social Anthropology (core module for first-year undergraduates)
  • Around the World with Anthropology (core module for first-year undergraduates)
  • Anthropologists at Work (core module for first-year undergraduates)
  • Research Skills and Methods in African Studies (core module for postgraduate students)

Postgraduate supervision

I welcome enquiries from students interested in gender relations, feminist anthropology, development, and legal anthropology.

Find out more - our PhD African Studies  page has information about doctoral research at the University 麻豆精选.

Research

I have conducted more than two years鈥� fieldwork in Malawi, 2009-10, 2015, 2022 and 2023. My first project concerned gender relations and marital dispute resolution in a matrilineal context. My more recent research is collaborative and focuses on the biography of a rural Malawian woman who I have known since 2009.聽

Other activities

  • Editor of the Journal of Southern African Studies, 2018-2021; member of the Editorial Board, 2017-present
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, 2018-present
  • External Examiner for PGT programmes in Anthropology at Brunel, University of London, 2025-2028

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Johnson, J 2018, . The International African Library, 1st edn, Cambridge University Press.

Johnson, J & Karekwaivanane, G (eds) 2018, . Cambridge Centre of African Studies Series, Ohio University Press. <>

Article

Johnson, J 2018, '', Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 786-803.

Johnson, J 2017, '', Review of African Political Economy, vol. 44, no. 152, pp. 237-251.

Johnson, J 2012, '', Africa, vol. 82, no. 4, pp. 632-53.

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Johnson, J & Karekwaivanane, G 2018, . in J Johnson & GH Karekwaivanane (eds), Pursuing Justice in Africa: Competing Imaginaries and Contested Practices. Cambridge Centre of African Studies Series, Ohio University Press, pp. 1-30. <>

Chapter

Johnson, J & Groves, Z 2025, . in Malawi: Enduring Concerns and New Directions. 1 edn, Southern African Studies, Routledge.

Johnson, J 2019, . in RR Grinker, S Lubkemann, C Steiner & E Gon莽alves (eds), A Companion to the Anthropology of Africa. Blackwell Companions to Anthropology, Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 81-96.

Johnson, J 2018, . in M Candea (ed.), Schools and Styles of Anthropological Theory. 1 edn, Taylor & Francis, pp. 195-208. <>

Johnson, J 2017, . in M-C Foblets, M Graziadei & A Dundes Renteln (eds), Personal Autonomy in Plural Societies: A Principle and Its Paradoxes. Law and Anthropology, Routledge.

Editorial

Johnson, J 2020, '', Journal of Southern African Studies, vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 195-207. <>

Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary

Johnson, J 2018, . in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History.

Johnson, J 2016, . in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology.