This graduate student is available to deliver lectures to your K-12 classroom at no charge. All requests MUST be booked through the Middle East Center Speaker's Bureau.
Jane Lief Abell is a Ph.D candidate in cultural anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania and holds a BA in Sociology/Anthropology and Islamic Studies from Swarthmore College. She conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Philadelphia for her dissertation, which considers how race shapes the lives of and relations among Black and Arab American Muslims in the city. This project grew out of her interests in race and racialization processes in the U.S. and Middle East and prior research on Arab and Muslim American history.
2013 - Present PhD Candidate, Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania
Committee: John L. Jackson, Jr. (chair), Marc Lamont Hill, Kathleen D. Hall
2011 BA, Sociology/Anthropology & Islamic Studies, Swarthmore College (high honors)
2009 Arabic Language Certificate, Higher Language Institute, Damascus University
Anthropology of Islam
Anthropology of the Middle East
Anthropology of Race
Arab American Studies
Islam in the United States
Urban Anthropology
Visual & Media Ethnography
Media & Pop Culture
2020 Instructor of Record, Moore College of Art & Design
Spring 2020: Outside the Western Frame (Anth 200)
2019 - 2020 Teaching Assistant/Grader, Temple University
Fall 2020: Media & Pop Culture w. Marc Lamont Hill
Fall 2020: Kids in Crisis w/ Marc Lamont Hill
Fall 2019: Media & Pop Culture w. Marc Lamont Hill
2014 - 2018 Teaching Assistant, University of Pennsylvania
Fall 2018: History of God (Rels 132) w. Steven Weitzman
Spr. 2016: Medical Anthropology (Anth 238) w. Beth Hallowell
Fall 2015: Feminist Ethnography (Anth 334/634) w. Deborah Thomas
Spr. 2015: Modern World & Its Cultural Background (Anth 004) w. Greg Urban
Fall 2014: Globalization & Its Historical Significance (Anth 012) w. Brian Spooner,
Mauro Guillén, and Lee Cassanelli
2017 Teaching Assistant, Johns Hopkins University
Summer 2017: Storytelling Bootcamp in Museum Studies w. Victoria Prizzia
Forthcoming. w/ Marc Lamont Hill & Noura Aladjuani, “Blackface & Race Consciousness in Arab Popular Culture: An Analysis of Myriam Fares’ Goumi.”
2016a. “Reclaiming Identity, Online: An Interview with Evelyn Alsultany, University of Michigan.” American Anthropologist 118, no. 1: 161-165.
2016b. “Curating Ambivalence: An Interview with Erica Lehrer, Concordia University.” American Anthropologist 117, no. 3: 587-598.
2015. Review of Leisurely Islam. Allegra Lab, last updated January 13, 2015: http://allegralaboratory.net/review-leisurely-islam/.
Affiliated PhD Scholar, Penn Institute for Urban Research
American Anthropological Association
American Anthropological Association, Middle East Section
Middle East Studies Association
Society for Cultural Anthropology
Society for the Anthropology of North America
Society for the Anthropology of Religion
Society for Visual Anthropology