ZMO - Personen - Dr. Marloes Janson

Personen

Mitarbeiter/innen oder Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter/innen oder Assoziierte Wissenschaftler/innen oder Ehemalige Mitarbeiter/innen

Dr. Marloes Janson

Work Experience | Education | Other Academic Activities | Publications

Date of birth 17 December 1973

Work Experience

January 2009 – May 2009	DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst) Visiting Professor, Department of Anthropology of Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA Activities: · Developing and providing general and specialist education (Anthropology of Religion and Gender and Islam) · Supervising undergraduate and graduate students
January 2006 -	Researcher at ZMO, Zentrum Moderner Orient/Centre for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin (Germany) Research project title: Islam as Subculture. The Gambian Tabligh Jama‘at Studied as a Translocal Network for Youth in West Africa Despite its magnitude, academics have paid relatively little attention to the Tabligh Jama‘at, a transnational Islamic missionary movement, while its impact on sub-Saharan Africa has been almost completely ignored. In order to redress the balance, my research will focus on the Jama‘at in The Gambia, which appears to be a hive of Tabligh activity in West Africa. It is striking that Gambian youths, unlike those in South Asia where the movement originated, feel particularly attracted to its reformist ideology. The research explores how these young people, and particularly young females, have appropriated Tabligh ideology and adapted it to the local - often urban - context in which they operate. The aim of the research is to map negotiations between the indigenous culture propagated by more ‘mainstream’ Muslims (i.e., frequently the older generation) and urban Tablighis’ ideas originating in a South Asian setting but influenced by various West African reformist associations. Studying the Tabligh Jama‘at from a translocal perspective could provide a necessary alternative to essentialist Islamic concepts, such as the notion of a syncretic ‘African Islam’ or a ‘fundamentalist Islam’ as a monolithic force, whereby Islam is granted a timeless and supralocal existence. Activities: • Anthropological field research in The Gambia • Presentation of papers at national and international conferences, seminars and symposia • Publication of articles and a monograph
September 2003 - October 2005	Post-doc research fellow at ISIM, International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World, Leiden (the Netherlands) Project title: Appropriating Islam: Finoos (Islamic Bards) as Brokers between Global Islam and Local Culture in The Gambia (West Africa) The research focused on a group of West African Islamic bards, known as finoos, who specialize in Islamic oratory. The central research question was: How do finoos attempt to negotiate tensions in Islamic culture, especially in its new orthodox forms, and local practices? Finoos came to prominence as a result of an Islamic resurgence in The Gambia, a development that has also imposed serious constraints on them. The country’s Islamic revival has led several Qur’anic scholars to pursue a reformist strand of Islam. In their desire to purify Islam of local peculiarities they use mass media to transform the public sphere. By investigating how the different ideas and interpretations of Islam as held by finoos and reformist scholars coexist and interact, the research attempted to illustrate that Islamization is not a single monolithic movement but rather a diffuse process that takes place at different levels. Activities: • Anthropological field research in The Gambia and Senegal • Language study of Mandinka, a major language spoken in West Africa, and Arabic • Presentation of papers at national and international conferences, seminars and symposia • Research trip to the United States. Invited lecture and presentation of research data at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago • Publication of articles • Supervision of PhD and MA students
February 2003 - July 2003	Index editor, Brill Academic Publishers Leiden. Activities: • Compiling index for first volume of Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures on Methodologies, Paradigms and Sources
August 2002 - July 2003	Lecturer at the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Non-Western Sociology, University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands) Activities: • Development and supervision of two courses on Methodology of Anthropological Field Research • Supervision of course on Language, Culture, and the Media
September 1997 - March 2002	PhD student at Research School CNWS: School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies, Leiden University (the Netherlands) PhD defence: 10 October 2002 Supervisors: Prof. dr. P. Geschiere, Prof. dr. J. Oosten, and Dr. J. Jansen PhD thesis: The Best Hand is the Hand that Always Gives. Griottes and their Profession in Eastern Gambia The research focused on female bards, or griottes, who are a striking feature of West African culture. Their main activity in The Gambia is daaniroo. When they set out for daaniroo, they praise their patrons and are in return rewarded with money or goods. The dissertation showed daaniroo to be a highly controversial practice. Although occasionally considered a new development, it fits in with the bardic tradition. Some patrons disapprove of daaniroo, yet they depend on it as confirmation of their prestige. Reformist scholars regard daaniroo as conflicting with Islam, while the griottes themselves do their best to embed their activities in an Islamic discourse. By exploring the gendered practice of daaniroo, the dynamics of female ‘griotism’ were demonstrated. Activities: • Anthropological field research in The Gambia • Language study of Mandinka • Presentation of papers at national and international conferences, seminars and symposia • Development and supervision of three courses on Gender and Oral Literature at the Department of Anthropology and Sociology of Non-Western Societies, Leiden University • Research trip to School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) and Centre for West African Studies (Birmingham University) • Publication of articles and PhD thesis

Education

1997 - 2001	Postgraduate teaching programme of CNWS: Courses on gender, methodology of anthropological field research, use of audio-visual methods, linguistic tools for the study of oral texts, and theoretical perspectives on the study of ritual • Language course: written academic English • Computer courses: Word (2000) for Windows
1992 - 1997	Cultural Anthropology (MA degree cum laude), Leiden University
1986 - 1992	Louise de Coligny Grammar School, Leiden

Other Academic Activities

2009-2010	Co-organizer with Dr. Katharina Lange of the ZMO colloquium New perspectives on Gender and Globalization
2009	Reviewer of journal articles for Islamic Africa and Gender. Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft
2008	Co-organizer with Dr. Dietrich Reetz (ZMO, Berlin) of the workshop: Contemporary Modes of Global Muslim Missionary Activity: The Tablīghī Jamā'at Revisited at ZMO, 6-7 December, funded by the Thyssen Stiftung.
2008	Co-organizer with Benjamin Soares (African Studies Centre, Leiden) of invited panel at the American Anthropological Association (AAA) Annual Meeting in San Francisco on 'Reconsidering Islam and Muslim Youth Culture', 19–23 November
2008	Co-organizer with Dr. Dietrich Reetz (ZMO, Berlin) of the workshop 'Making Sense of Global Islam: On the Directions and Dynamics of Transnational Pietist and Missionary Movements of Islam' at ZMO, 11 July
2007	Teaching a course on Religion, Identity and Gender at the Summer School Perspectives of Feminism and Politics of Identity in Africa: Finding Common Ground at the Usmanu dan Fodiyo University Sokoto, Nigeria, 27 August-7 September 2007, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation
2007	Organization of panel at the ASA (African Studies Association) Annual Meeting in New York on Controversy and Contradiction: Reconfigurations of Gender and Intergenerational Relations in Muslim Africa, 18-21 October
2007	Discussant at the panel New Modes of Sociality in Muslim Africa at the Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies Conference in Leiden, 11-14 July
2007	Co-convening the Arbeitsgespräch with Dr. Benjamin Soares, African Studies Centre in Leiden, 26 March
2006	Reviewership of journal articles for Anthropological Quarterly and Afrika Spectrum
2006	Organization of workshop Piety, Responsibility, Subjectivity: Reconfigurations of the Moral Economy of Gender Relations in Contemporary Muslim Africa, ISIM, Leiden, 15 December (with Dorothea Schulz, Indiana University, as co-convenor). The papers presented during the workshop will be published in a special issue of the Journal for Islamic Studies.
2005	Member of opposition committee during the PhD defence of Dinie Bouwman with a thesis on Qur’anic education in Mali, Leiden, 28 September
2005	Discussant in a panel on Muslim Youth in Europe at the ISIM workshop The Making of Muslim Youths: Youth Cultures and Politics in Muslim Societies and Communities, Leiden, 19 February
2004-2005	Supervision of MA students conducting ethnographic field research in The Gambia
2004	Chair of the panel Cosmology, Religion and Communication in the Public Square at the African Studies Association Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana
2003-2005	Participation in the ISIM research programme Contemporary Islamic Identity and Public Life of Prof. Abdulkader Tayob
2003-2005	Editorial Board Member of FACTA: Social-Science Magazine published by SISWO and Van Gorcum, the Netherlands
2003 - present	Supervision of PhD student working on Senegalese performers and MA student working on the use of the English language in The Gambia. Both students are affiliated with Ghent University, Belgium.
2002 - 2005	Language course Modern Standard Arabic
2002	Co-organization of ‘Fifth International Conference on Mande Studies’, National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, 17-21 June
2001 - 2004	Participation in research project ‘Women’s Voices from West Africa’ under the leadership of Dr. A.G. Sidikou-Morton (Princeton University) and Dr. T.A. Hale (Pennsylvania State University), funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
1998 - 2003	Editorial Board Member of LOVA: Netherlands Association of Gender and Anthropology
1997-2002	Participation in the CNWS research cluster Intercultural Study of Literature and Society of Prof. Jarich Oosten
1997-present	Membership of MANSA: Mande Studies Association
1996-2002	Participation in the CNWS research cluster Culture and Development in Africa: Political-Economic Changes and the Dynamics of African Cultures of Prof. Peter Geschiere

Publications

Books
Janson, Marloes. Forthcoming. Young, Modern and Muslim: The Tabligh
Jama'at in The Gambia (working title).

Janson, Marloes. 2002. The Best Hand is the Hand that Always Gives. Griottes and their Profession in Eastern Gambia. PhD thesis. Leiden: CNWS Publications.

Jansen, Jan, Marloes Janson and Rainer Polak (eds.) 2003. Experts in Mandé. Training, strategieën en performances. Leiden: Nederlandse Vereniging van Afrika Studies.

Geysbeek, Timothy, Jobba Kamara and Marloes Janson. 1998. De kroniek van de Kamara. Een verhaal uit Guinee (verteld door Vase Kamara). Rijswijk: Bibliotheca Africana, Elmar.

Journal articles

. 2008. 'Renegotiating Gender: Changing Moral Practice in the Tabligh Jama'at in The Gambia', special issue of the Journal for Islamic Studies 28 on Piety, Responsibility, Subjectivity: Changing Moral Economies of Gender Relations in Contemporary Muslim
Africa, co-edited by Marloes Janson and Dorothea Schulz: 9–36.

. 2007. “Pleasing God and Pleasing the Patrons: Portrait of a Female Finoo in The Gambia,” Canadian Journal of African Studies 41 (1): 38-65.

. 2007. “Appropriating Islam: The Tensions between ‘Traditionalists’ and ‘Modernists’ in The Gambia,” Islam et sociétés au sud du Sahara, nouvelle série, 1: 61-79.

. 2006. '"We are the sauce on top of the rice." A Case Study on the Finoo Negotiation of Muslim Identity in The Gambia', Mande Studies 8: 183–205.

. 2006. “‘We are all the same, because we are all worshipping God.’ The Controversial Case of a Female Saint in The Gambia,” Africa 76 (4): 502-525.

. 2006. “The Prophet’s Path: Tablighi Jamaat in The Gambia,” ISIM Review 17: 44-45.

. 2005. “Roaming about for God’s Sake: The Upsurge of the Tabligh Jama‘at in The Gambia,” Journal of Religion in Africa 35 (4): 450-481.

. 2004. “Gai Sakiliba: portrait d’une jalimusoo de Gambie.” In: Brunhilde Biebuyck and Boniface Mongo-Mboussa (eds.), Griot réel, griot rêvé. Africultures 61: 74-85.

. 2002. “On the Boundaries of Muslim Gender Ideology,” ISIM Newsletter 11: 28.

. 2002. “Praising as a Gendered Activity: How Jalimusoolu and Jalikeolu exercise their Profession in Eastern Gambia,” Mande Studies 4: 65-82.

Dorothea Schulz and Marloes Janson. 2008. 'Introduction: Piety, Responsibility, Subjectivity – Changing Moral Economies of Gender Relations in Contemporary Muslim Africa', special issue of the Journal for Islamic Studies 28 on 'Reconfiguring Gender Relations in Muslim Africa', co-edited by Marloes Janson and Dorothea Schulz: 2–8.

Book chapters

. Forthcoming. “Guidelines on Becoming a Perfect Woman. The Interplay between Gender Ideology and Praxis in the Tabligh Jama‘at in The Gambia.” In: Margot Badran (ed.), Gender and Islam in Africa (provisional title). Leiden: Brill.

. Forthcoming. ‘Words in Context: The Performances of Griottes in The Gambia’. In: Thomas Hale and Aissata Sidikou (eds.), Women’s Songs from West Africa (provisional title). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

. Forthcoming. ‘Renegotiating Gender: Changing Moral Practice in the Tabligh Jama‘at in The Gambia’. In: Lateef Pade Badru and Brigid Sackey (eds.), Islam in Black Africa: Changing Gender Relations and Reform.

. Forthcoming. ‘“We don’t despair, since we know that Islam is the truth”: New Expressions of Religiosity in Young Adherents of the Tabligh Jama‘at in The Gambia’. In: Marie Nathalie LeBlanc and Muriel Gomez-Perez (eds.), L’Afrique d’une génération à l’autre. Paris: Karthala.

. Forthcoming in 2010. ‘The Battle of the Ages. Contests for Religious Authority in The Gambia’. In: Linda Herrera and Asef Bayat (eds.), Being Young and Muslim: New Cultural Politics in the Global North and South. New York: Oxford University Press: 129–156.

. 2009. ‘Mixing Local and Muslim Traditions: The Finoo Profession in The Gambia’. In: Sabine Luning, Erik de Maaker and Jan Jansen (eds.), Traditions on the Move: Essays in Honour of Jarich Oosten. Amsterdam: Rozenberg Publications: 97–110.

. 2009. 'Searching for God. Young Gambians' Conversion to the Tabligh Jama'at'. In: Mamadou Diouf and Mara Leichtman (eds.), New perspectives on Islam in Senegal: Conversion, Migration, Wealth, Power and Femininity. New York: Palgrave Macmillan: 139-166.

. 2006. “Gift, aalmoes of loon? ‘Griottes’ en lofprijzing op de markt van Basse Santa Su (Oost-Gambia).” In: Jan Jansen (ed.), Sub-Sahara Afrika. Perspectieven en plaatsbepalingen. Amsterdam: Aksant: 97-120.

. 2005. “‘Griottes’ uit Gambia als lofzangeressen: de praktijk van de lofprijzing.” In: Jan Jansen (ed.), Sub-Sahara Afrika. Perspectieven en plaatsbepalingen. Leiden: Departement Culturele Antropologie en Ontwikkelingssociologie: 86-109.

. 2004. “The Narration of the Sunjata Epic as a Gendered Activity.” In: Jan Jansen and Henk M.J. Maier (eds.), Epic Adventures. Heroic Narrative in the Oral Performance Traditions of Four Continents. Münster: Lit Verlag: 81-88.

. 2003. “Griottes in actie: lof als genre en performance in Gambia.” In: Jan Jansen, Marloes Janson and Rainer Polak (eds.), Experts in Mandé. Training, strategieën en performances. Leiden: Nederlandse Vereniging van Afrika Studies: 25-44.

. 2003. “De beste hand is de hand die geeft: griottes en hun professie in Oost-Gambia,” LOVA 24 (2): 60-72.

Janson, Marloes and Rachel Spronk. 2005. “Ambiguous Encounters: Gender in the Context of Modernity in the Gambia and Kenya.” In: Anke van der kwaak, Rachel Spronk and Karin Willemse (eds.), From Modern Myths to Global Encounters. Belonging and the Dynamics of Change in Postcolonial Africa. Liber Discipilorum in honour of Peter Geschiere. Leiden: CNWS Publications.

Various

Nyang, Sulayman S. and Marloes Janson. 2009. ‘Gambia’. In: Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 283–286.

. 2007 “Representations: Legends, Epics, and Performance.” In: Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures Volume 5. Leiden: Brill: 450-452.

. http://www.bureauafrique.nl/autresdepartements/english/youthcultures/marloesjanson. Interview about the ZMO research project for Radio Netherlands Worldwide (with Arabic translation).

. 2005. “In de voetsporen van de Profeet,” http://www.kennislink.nl/web/show?id=143112.

. 2002. Book review of K. Pfeiffer’s “Sprache und Musik in Mandinka-Erzählungen.” Journal of Language and Public Culture 2: http://www2.fmg.uva.nl/lpca/jlpca/vol2/janson.html

. 1997. The ‘Heroines’ of the Manding Culture: Report of a Master’s Research into the Position and Roles of Mandinka Griottes in Eastern Gambia. Leiden Research Reports on The Gambia No. 12: The Institute of Cultural and Social Studies.

Working Papers Presented At International Conferences And Workshops

. 2009. ‘The Battle of the Ages and the Sexes: The Case of the Tablighi Jama‘at in The Gambia’, paper presented at the Third European Conference on African Studies, Leipzig, Germany 4-7 June

. 2009. ‘Localizing Global Islam: The Case of the Tabligh Jama‘at in The Gambia’, Invited lecture at the BIGSAS interdisciplinary post-graduate Oberseminar titled Borders, Boundaries, and Limits – Their Crossing and Transgression, University of Bayreuth, 25 June.

. 2009. ‘Suffering from a “Tablighi Burnout:” Gambian Youths’ Oscillation between Muslim and Secular Youth Culture’, paper presented at the workshop Islam and Muslim Youth in Africa, the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought (ISITA) and the Program of African Studies at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, 24 April.

. 2009. ‘Male Wives and Female Husbands: Reconfiguring Gender within the Tablighi Jama‘at in The Gambia’, 8th Annual Saler Lecture in Religious Studies (invited lecture), Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, 22 April.

. 2008. "'Muslims are sleeping and we have to wake them up': The Role of Tablīghī Youth in The Gambia," paper presented at the workshop Contemporary Modes of Global Muslim Missionary Activity: The Tablīghī Jamā'at Revisited, ZMO, 6-7 December

. 2008. "Young, Modern, and Muslim in The Gambia: Tabligh Jama'at and Urban Youth Culture," ," paper presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, 19-23 November.

. 2007. “Missionary Women, Nurturing Men: Reconfigurations of Gender Relations in The Gambia,” paper presented at the African Studies Association Annual Meeting, New York, 18-21 October.

. 2006. “Masculine Women, Feminine Men: Changes in Gender-Specific Spheres of Moral Practice in the Tabligh Jama‘at in The Gambia,” paper presented at the ISIM workshop Piety, Responsibility, Subjectivity: Reconfigurations of the Moral Economy of Gender Relations in Contemporary Muslim Africa, Leiden, the Netherlands, 15 December.

. 2006. “Searching for God. Young Gambians’ Conversion to the Tabligh Jama‘at,” paper presented at the African Studies Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California, 16-19 November.

. 2006. “‘We don’t despair, since we know that Islam is the truth.’ New Expressions of Religiosity in Young Adherents of the Tabligh Jama‘at in The Gambia,” paper presented at the African Studies Centre, Codesria, The International Institute for Asian Studies and International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World conference Youth and the Global South, Dakar, Senegal, 13-15 October.

. 2006. “Resisting the ‘Old’. Youth’s Negotiation of Religious Authority in the Tabligh Jama‘at in The Gambia,” paper presented at the Institute of Social Studies and ISIM workshop The Making of Muslim Youths: New Cultural Politics in the Global South and North, The Hague, the Netherlands, 6-7 October.

. 2006. “Following the Prophet’s Footsteps. A Case Study of Young People’s Involvement in the Tabligh Jama‘at in The Gambia,” paper presented at the ZMO conference Translocality: An Approach to Globalising Phenomena?, Berlin, Germany, 27-28 September.

. 2006. “Searching for ‘True Islam.’ Youthful Activity in the Tabligh Jama‘at in The Gambia,” paper presented at the German Association of Africanists conference Knowledge and the Sciences in Africa, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 24-27 July.

. 2005. “Becoming a ‘True Muslim’: Young People’s Conversion to the Tabligh Jama‘at in The Gambia,” paper presented at the ZMO conference Conversion, Modernity and the Individual with Particular Reference to Islam in Africa and Asia, Berlin, 25-26 November.

. 2005. “Women’s Participation in the Tabligh Jama‘at in The Gambia,” presentation at the ZMO Working Group Meeting Transnational Pietist Movements; Women Actors and Agents in Normative Islamic Religiosity and New Currents of Popular Islamic Praxis, Berlin, 4-5 November.

. 2005. “Roaming about for God’s Sake: Female Activists in the Tabligh Jama‘at in The Gambia,” paper presented at the European Conference on African Studies, London, 29 June-3 July.

. 2005. “Searching for ‘True Islam’: Youthful Involvement in the Tabligh Jama‘at in The Gambia,” paper presented at the Society for the Anthropology of Religion Meeting, Vancouver, Canada, 8-11 April.

. 2004. “Islam and the Public Sphere in The Gambia,” paper presented at the African Studies Association Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, 11-14 November.

. 2004. “Appropriating Islam: The Tensions between ‘Traditionalists’ and ‘Modernists’ in The Gambia,” invited lecture at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, 1 November.

. 2004. “The Alliance between Islamic Radicalism and Secularism in The Gambia,” paper presented at the Second African Association for the Study of Religion Conference, Legon, Ghana, 5-8 February.

. 2003. “Words in Context: The Performances of Griottes in The Gambia,” paper presented at the conference Women’s Songs from West Africa, Princeton, New Jersey, 2-4 May.

. 2002. “Profiting from 'Otherness': A Study of Griot-Patron Relationships among the Mandinka (The Gambia),” paper presented at the Daniel de Coppet Memorial Symposium The Comparative Anthropological Analysis of Incorporating the Stranger, Leiden, 11-13 December.

. 2002. “Research in Transit: The Link between Two Neglected Groups of Female Bards, Jalimusoolu and Finamusoolu,” paper presented at the Fifth International Conference on Mande Studies, Leiden, 17-21 June.

. 2000. “Griottes, Songs, and Rewards: An Analysis of the Profession of the Heroines in Mandinka Society,” paper presented at the African Studies Association Meeting, Nashville, Tennessee, 16-19 November.

. 1999. “Asking for Gifts, Begging for Alms: An Analysis of Social and Religious Gift-Relationships among the Mandinka from The Gambia,” paper presented at the CNWS seminar “Gift giving, Reciprocity, Exchange,” Leiden, 4-5 November.

. 1999. “‘Everybody is a beggar, because everybody begs Allah’: An Islamic Legitimization of the Profession of Griottes from The Gambia,” paper presented at the seminar Transformation Processes and Islam in Africa, Leiden, 15 October.

. 1998. “The ‘Heroines’ of Mande: The Tasks and Gender Identity of Jelimusoolu in Eastern Gambia,” paper presented at the Fourth International Conference on Mande Studies, Serrekunda, The Gambia, 12-19 June.