Professor; Department Chair
Anthropology Advisor
Anspach Hall 140
(989)774-3160
email: cochr1ll@cmich.edu
Education
- Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis, August 2007
- A.M., Washington University in St. Louis, May 2004
- B. S., James Madison University, May 1998
Areas of Teaching Expertise
- Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology
- African Cultures
- Anthropology of Religion
- Anthropology and Art
- Ethnographic Methods
Research Interests
- Ongoing research in Senegal concerning religious beliefs, visual arts, and environmental and economic concerns. Within those broad ideas, exploration of everyday practices of Sufism in artisanal communities, and faith-based motivations for community-scale economic development work.
Publications
- Cochrane, Laura L. 2020. Religious Networks and Small Businesses in Senegal. Economic Anthropology.
- Cochrane, Laura L. 2020. Addressing Drought through Religious Community in Mbakke Kajoor, Senegal. Africa 90(2): 339-356.
- Cochrane, Laura L. 2020. "Transforming the Environment: Two Daaras Addressing Environmental Degradation". Murid Islamic Community in America Magazine, vol, 2, p. 21-23.
- 2019. Adventure
as Education: John W. Bennett and Anthropology in the Early Twentieth
Century. Durham: Carolina Academic Press.
- 2017. "Collective and Community Work in Senegal: Resisting Colonial and Neoliberal Models of Economic Development." Oppression and Resistance: Structure, Agency, Transformation. Gil Richard Musolf, ed. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing, p. 117-135.
- 2017. Everday Faith in Sufi Senegal. London, New York: Routledge Press.
- 2016. Rebuilding Agriculture and the Environment in Senegal. Anthropology Now 8(1).
- 2015. Bamba Merci: The Intersections of Political and Spiritual Graffiti in Senegal. African Identities: Journal of Economics, Culture and Society 14(1): 3-18.
- 2015. Addressing Global Economic Inequalities in Local Ways in Senegal's Artisanal Workshops. Economic Anthropology 2:250-263.
- 2013. Weaving through Islam in Senegal. Durham: Carolina University Press.
- 2013. Land Degradation, Faith-Based Organizations, and Sustainability in Senegal. CAFE: Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment 35(2):112-125.
- 2012. Religious motivations for local economic development in Senegal. Africa Today. 58(4).
- 2011. Exchange Without Brokers: Weaver-Client Relationships in Senegal. Textile Economies: Power and Value from the Local to the Transnational, ed. Walter E. Little and Patricia A. McAnany, 3-20.
- 2011. The Growth of Artistic Nationalism in Senegal. Nations and Nationalism: Journal of the Association of Ethnicity and Nationalism. 17(2): 377-395.