Jok Madut Jok

Professor, Anthropology Department

Senior Research Associate, Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration

Courses

2024 Spring
- ANT/PHP/WGS 462/662 Culture and Reproductive Health and Medicine
- ANT 481/681 Ethnographic Techniques
2023 Fall
- ANT 357 Health, Healing, and Culture
- ANT 358 Peace, War and Security
2023 Spring
- ANT 358 Peace, War and Security
- ANT 121 Peoples and Cultures of the World
2022 Fall
- ANT 707 Culture in World Affairs
- ANT 121 Peoples and Cultures of the World
2022 Spring
- ANT/PHP 462/662 Culture and Reproductive Health and Medicine
- ANT 481/681 Ethnographic Techniques
- ANT 373 Magic and Religion

Highest degree earned

Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1996

Bio

Jok’s areas of specialization include security, governance, democracy and development in South Sudan and Sudan. He has also written extensively about gender, sexuality and reproductive health, humanitarian aid, ethnography of political violence, gender-based violence, and war and slavery and the politics of identity in South Sudan and Sudan.

He is the author of "Breaking Sudan: The Search for Peace" (Oneworld Publications, 2017), "Sudan: Race, Religion and Violence" (One World Publication, 2007), "War and Slavery in Sudan" (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), and "Militarization, Gender and Reproductive Health in South Sudan" (Edwin Mellen Press, 1998). He also co-authored "The Sudan Handbook" (co-edited with J. Willis, J. Ryle and S. Baldo, James Currey, 2011).

Before joining Maxwell he was visiting professor of anthropology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Linacre College. He also served in the government of South Sudan as undersecretary in the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, 2010-13. He is the founding director of the Sudd Institute, a public policy research center.

Areas of Expertise

Violence and public health, women’s reproductive health, Pastoralism, seasonal migration and cattle raiding in East Africa, medical anthropology, Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya, Uganda

Research Interests

Jok is a Medical Anthropologist whose research is on violence and a public health scourge. Some of the main research topics include conflict, civil wars, gender-based violence and male aggression.

Selected Publications

Books
- Jok, J. M., Breaking Sudan: The Search for Peace. One World Publications, 2017.
- Jok, J. M., The Sudan Handbook. Willis, J., Ryle, J. and Baldo, S. (eds.) James Currey, 2011.
- Jok, J. M., Sudan: Race, Religion, and Violence. One World Publications, 2007.
- Jok, J. M., War and Slavery in Sudan. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.
- Jok, J. M., Militarization, Gender and Reproductive Health in South Sudan. The Edwin Mellen Press, 1998.
Journal Articles
- Jok, J. M., "South Sudan needs an Honest Debate about its Future in the East African Community." The East African, 2020.
- Jok, J. M., "South Sudan and the Corruption-Violence Nexus." The East African, 2019.
- Jok, J. M., Sudan’s Popular Uprisings: Where South Sudan Stands. Sudd Institute Occasional Paper, 2019.
- Jok, J. M., South Sudan and the Collective Pain of Watching a Peace Agreement struggle for its Life. Sudd Institute Occasional Paper, 2019.
- Wild, H., Jok, J. M. and Patel, R., "The militarization of cattle raiding in South Sudan: how a traditional practice became a tool for political violence." Journal of International Humanitarian Action, 2018.
- Jok, J. M., Kenya’s Crack Down of South Sudanese. Sudd Institute Review, 2018.
- Jok, J. M., "Nationality and Citizenship in the “New Sudan”: A Legal or Moral Issue?." Middle East Law and Governance Interdisciplinary Journal, 2014.
Book Chapters
- Jok, J. M., "South Sudan’s Elusive peace: Between local drivers of violence and the actions of external actors." In South Sudan’s Post-Independence Dilemmas. Idris, A. (ed.) Routledge, 2018.
- Jok, J. M., "Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement and How the Nuba Mountains Were Left Out." In Conflict in the Nuba Mountains: From Genocide by Attrition to the Contemporary Crisis in Sudan. Totten, S., Grzyb, A. F. (eds.) Routledge, 2015.
- Jok, J. M., "The Evil of Insecurity, State Violence and Impunity in the Newly Independent South Sudan." In Encountering Evil: Anthropology and the Everyday in Africa. van Beek, W., Olsen, W. C. (eds.) Cambridge University Press, 2015.
- Jok, J. M., "Power Dynamics and the Politics of Fieldwork under Sudan’s Prolonged Conflicts." In Research Methods in Conflict Settings: A View from Below. Mazurana, D. (ed.) Cambridge University Press, 2013.
- Jok, J. M., "Negotiating Security: Gender, Violence, and the Rule of Law in Post-war South Sudan." In Gendered Insecurities, Health and Development in Africa. Stein, H., Hassan, A. F. (eds.) Routledge, 2012.
- Jok, J. M., "South Sudan: Building a Diverse Nation." In Sudan after Separation: New Approaches to a New Region. Weis, T. (ed.) Heinrich Böll Foundation, 2012.
- Jok, J. M., Murphy, A., "Militant Islam, Islamic Law, and National Disintegration in Sudan." In Companion to Religion and Violence. Blackwell Publishers, 2010.
Newspaper Article
- Jok, J. M., "Diversity, Unity and Nation-Building in South Sudan." United States Institute of Peace Special Report, 2011.
Technical Reports
- Jok, J. M., Inter-Governmental Agency on Development (IGAD): Lessons Learned from South Sudan Peace Process and the Civil Society Participation. Swisspeace, 2017.
- Jok, J. M., Brandstetter, R. and al-Jack, M., Civic Participation Assessment: A Democracy and Governance Programmatic Planning. US Agency for International Development, 2010.
- Jok, J. M., Ryle, J., Abduction and Slavery in Sudan: Abductee Database. , 2003.
- Lautze, S., Jok, J. M., The Impact of the Sudan Conflict on Displacement and Displaced Populations. , 2001.
- Duffield, M., Winter, P., Ryle, J., Jok, J. M., O'Reilly, F. and Keen, D., Sudan: The Unintended Effects of Aid. European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO), 2000.
White Paper
- Jok, J. M., Menkaus, K. and Mohamed, N., "East Africa: Regional Perspectives for the White Paper on Peacebuilding." In White Paper Series No. 2. , 2015.

Presentations and Events

Princeton University Center for the Study of Religion and the Woodrow Wilson School, "Sudan and the Fallacy of Nationhood: How Political Islam Threatens National Unity" (2009)

11th Annual International Health Conference, "Violent Political Conflicts as Impediments to the Fight Against Disease and the Achievement of Global Health" (2009)

University of Michigan Center for Afro-American and African Studies, "Gender-based Violence and the Reproductive Health Consequences for Sudanese Women" (2008)

Upstate Medical University and University of Syracuse, "How Many Wars do I have to Fight? Sudanese women’s struggles against gender-based violence, poverty and disease in the context of the Protracted Civil Conflict" (2007)

Brandeis University Department of Anthropology, "The Reproductive Health of Internally Displaced Women: South Sudan, Northern Uganda and the Politics of Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency" (2007)