Dr. James Andrew Whitaker
Assistant Professor
Bio
James Andrew Whitaker is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Southern Mississippi. He completed a PhD in anthropology from Tulane University and a postdoct with the CNRS in France. He has held research appointments as a visiting scholar at the University of Helsinki, University of Liberia, and University of Paris Nanterre and an honorary research fellow at the University of St Andrews.
He has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Guyana with Makushi people since 2012 and Akawaio people since 2021. He has also conducted fieldwork in Mississippi and West Africa with Americo-Liberian and Indigenous groups with historical connections to the 19th century Liberian colony called "Mississippi in Africa."
He is the author of The Shamanism of Eco-Tourism: History and Ontology among the Makushi in Guyana (Cambridge University Press, 2025), as well as edited volumes, book chapters, and journal articles.
- PHD - Tulane University of Louisiana (2016)
- MA - Tulane University of Louisiana (2013)
- BA - University of Mississippi (2010)
- BA - University of Mississippi (2007)
Anthropology of Climate Change
Anthropology of Shamanism, Sorcery, and Magic
Anthropology of Myth and Ritual
Ethnographic Field Methods
Introduction to Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology
Introduction to Anthropology
Religion and Healing
Seminar in Cultural Anthropology
- The Shamanism of Eco-Tourism: History and Ontology among the Makushi in Guyana, No, this is not part of a larger work; this is a monograph., 2025
- Indigenous Alliance Making: Histories of Agency in Colonial Lowland South America, This is a co-edited volume., 2025
- ,
- Royal Anthropological Institute
- Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America
- American Anthropological Association
- English (Native or Bilingual)
- Portuguese (Limited Working)
- Spanish (Limited Working)