User:Zha Zha La/John L. Jackson Jr.

John L. Jackson Jr. is an American anthropologist, filmmaker, author, and university administrator. He is presently the Richard Perry University Professor and the Walter H. Annenberg Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication. Jackson examines how cinema and other non-traditional forms might be used in scholarly research. Jackson's research also looks at how modern urban religions are being used to promote health literacy and outcomes in marginalized and poor communities in Philadelphia and around the world.

He is a founder member of CAMRA and PIVPE, two Penn-based initiatives dedicated to the creation of visual and performative research initiatives as well as the development of rigorous evaluation criteria.

In his latest book, "Racial Paranoia: The Unintended Consequences of Political Correctness," Jackson outlines a new model of race relations that has emerged in the wake of the civil rights era: racial paranoia. Jackson is also the author of other books, including Harlemworld: Doing Race and Class in Contemporary Black America (2001); Real Black: Adventures in Racial Sincerity (2005); Thin Description: Ethnography and the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem (2013). Jackson has also directed produced fiction films, documentaries, and short films that explore questions of race, diaspora, migration, and media. His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and Harvard University.

In addition to his ethnographic work on Global Black Hebrewism, Jackson is currently completing a book on the philosophy of qualitative social science research. Additionally, he is working on a documentary film about conspiracy theories in urban America, and a short video exploring how African Americans use the Bible in their everyday lives.

Jackson earned his B.A. from Howard University, his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University, and served as a junior fellow at the Harvard University Society of Fellows before joining the Cultural Anthropology faculty at Duke University.

Personal life
Jackson is married to Deborah A. Thomas. Thomas is the R. Jean Brownlee Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. Jackson and Thomas have collaborated on film projects including the documentary Bad Friday: Rastafari After Coral Gardens, which looks at the history of state violence against Rastafarians in Jamaica. Before joining Penn, the couple taught at Duke University. Thomas and Jackson have two children and live in South Philadelphia. Jackson also co-leads the basketball teams for each of his two children.

Early Life and Education
Jackson was born in 1971. He began exploring research through media when he hosted a comic radio show called "The Jackson Attraction" during his junior and senior year of High school in Brooklyn, New York. This experience gave him his first glimpse into the power of media. This led him to dive deeper into media as an undergraduate at Howard University. In 1993, he graduated summa cum laude from Howard University with a B.A in communications (radio, TV, and film). While attending Howard, Jackson was supported by the University Merit Scholarship (1989-1993) and the Ronald E. McNair Scholarship (1992-1993). He next received a National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship to pursue graduate work at Columbia University, earning an M.A (1994), an M.Phil. (1998), and a Ph.D. (2000), with distinction, in anthropology. His dissertation was supported by the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship.

Career
Following his doctorate, Jackson spent two years as a Junior Fellow at the Harvard University Society of Fellows in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Then, from 2002 to 2006 taught cultural anthropology as an assistant professor at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. In 2006, he moved to the University of Pennsylvania, becoming the first Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) University Professor. He became Richard Perry University Professor of Communication and Anthropology and Professor of Africana Studies, and in 2014, Dean of University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice. In 2019, Jackson was named Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

Educator
2014-Present: Dean, School of Social Policy & Practice University of Pennsylvania

As Dean, Jackson is leveraging the knowledge of academics and students to address some of the country's most critical social justice challenges. He's on a quest to make graduate multidisciplinary education and research on social innovation, impact, and justice more affordable to outstanding young leaders. The School of Social Policy and Practice is enrolling a more diverse and academically accomplished student body under Jackson's direction, and the faculty's research initiatives have never been better. He formed relationships with the Graduate School of Education and the School of Nursing to lead the Penn Futures Project, which is improving the lives of Philadelphia's youth and their families. With a vast open online course that has allowed Penn teachers to reach students all over the world, he has been a champion of innovative teaching and learning.

2013-2014: Associate Dean of Administration, Annenberg School for Communication University of Pennsylvania

2012-2014: Senior Advisor to the Provost on Diversity, University of Pennsylvania

2007-2013: Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania

2009-Present: Richard Perry University Professor, University of Pennsylvania

2006-2009: Richard Perry University Associate Professor, Annenberg School for Communication, School of Arts & Sciences

2002-2006: Assistant Professor, Department of Cultural Anthropology Duke Universit y

1999-2002: Junior Fellow, Society of Fellows, Harvard University

Scholar
John L. Jackson Jr. has held many scholarly leadership and membership positions throughout his lifetime. He is a former member of the Nominations Committee for the American Anthropological Association(2011-2014). He served as the Program Chair for the 2009 American Anthropological Association Conference. He then went on to serve as the Committee Chair for the SAS Teaching Awards Selection Committee in the Spring of 2014. From 2014 to the present, Jackson has held many leadership and member position in organizations such as the National Association of Social Workers, Council on Social Work Education, Society for Social Work and Research, and many other anthropology-related organizations.

Research
His area of study focuses on how urban people theorize and employ racial and class inequalities in everyday interactions. Jackson's research also looks at how modern urban religions are being used to promote health literacy and outcomes in marginalized and poor communities in Philadelphia and around the world. Jackson’s research also explores how non-conventional methods may be applied in scholarly studies.

Harlemworld
Harlem is one of the most well-known areas in the world, serving as a historical emblem of both black cultural excellence and the tight class divide. This popular neighborhood, located in New York City, has become synonymous with 'blackness' in the United States. Jackson destroys this myth, dubbed 'Harlemworld.' Jackson discovers that both race and class identities are significantly less homogenous than even Harlem residents believe through interviews. The book demonstrates that Harlem is far more culturally and economically diverse than its stereotype suggests. Jackson reveals a variety of social networks and class stratifications, as well as how African Americans interpret and perform different class identities in their daily lives.

Real Black
In this Book, Jackson proposes a new model for thinking about "authentic" black culture issues: racial sincerity. Jackson asserts the identity that racial authenticity caricatures impose on people and locks them in stereotypes. He conveys that sincerity, on the other hand, examines authenticity as an analytical model that seeks to deny people's freedom of choice in the search for identities. The book is based on more than a decade of ethnographic studies around New York City, including stories from police officers, conspiracy theorists, and gospel choirs. Jackson's invented alter ego Athroman finds ethnographic significance, showing how race is defined and debated, imposed and confounded every single day.

Racial Paranoïa
In this book, Jackson distinguishes racist paranoia (fear and suspicion of the hidden form of racism) from racism (observable act of racism and prejudice). He argues that racism actually becomes more pronounced as morphology and explicit social discrimination subside. Jackson uses examples from current events and everyday interactions to show its serious impact on racial paranoid culture and  the lives of all Americans. He explains how it is cultivated, communicated, and strengthened, and how it complicates the goal of racial equality in the United States.

Thin Description
Thin Description: Ethnography and the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem (Harvard University Press, 2013) is based on the group of African Americans from varying backgrounds who sold their belongings and left the United States to relocate to Liberia in 1966. Thin Description recounts this group’s journey from the relocation and eventual move to the modern state of Israel, where the community has lived since 1969. Through this, Jackson attempts to understand the way in which African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem navigate questions about the links between race and spirituality. Additionally, he explores challenges in anthropology research, especially as it pertains to conducting research on groups already researching or searching for themselves and their identities.

Awards

 * 2012: SAS Teaching Award for Innovative Teaching for the way his courses explored the intersection of theory and practical components
 * 2008-2010: University of Pennsylvania Faculty Fellow, Penn Fellow (Inaugural Cohort)
 * 2009: President's Award, American Anthropological Association
 * 2002: American Educational Studies Association, Critics' Choice Award
 * 2002: Honorable Mention, John Hope Franklin Prize, American Studies Association
 * 2001: Publishers Weekly, Notable Non-Fiction Book

Books

 * Harlemworld: Doing Race and Class in Contemporary Black America (University of Chicago Press, 2001)
 * Real Black: Adventures in Racial Sincerity (University of Chicago Press, 2005)
 * Racial Paranoia: The Unintended Consequences of Political Correctness (Basic Civitas, 2008)
 * Thin Description: Ethnography and the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem (Harvard University Press, 2013)
 * Impolite Conversations: On Race, Politics, Sex, Money, and Religion with Cora Daniels (Atria at Simon & Schuster, 2014)
 * Televised Redemption: Black Religious Media and Racial Empowerment with Carolyn Rouse and Marla Frederick (NYU Press, 2016)

Films
This film is a collaboration between Jackson and his wife, Deborah A. Thomas. The film focuses on the Rastafarian community in western Jamaica, annually commemorating the 1963 Coral Garden "incident" shortly after independence, when the Jamaican government arrested, detained, and tortured hundreds of Rastafarians. Through the eyes of Jamaica's most famous community, it records the history of Jamaican violence and conveys how people can use their memories of past trauma to imagine new possibilities for a common future.
 * Bad Friday: Rastafari after Coral Gardens (Third World Newsreel, 2012), co-directed with Deborah A. Thomas
 * Making Sweet Tea: The Lives and Loves of Southern Black Gay Men, co-directed with Nora Gross and co-executive produced with E. Patrick Johnson