Overview
William M. O'Barr, Ph.D. Northwestern 1969, is currently writing books about advertising and masculinity and about the history of legal anthropology. His extensive publications focus primarily on legal anthropology and include such concerns as law and politics in rural Africa, communication in trial courtrooms in America, and access to justice. His research sites have included rural villages in East Africa, trial courtrooms in the United States and Canada, and many of the organizations that are collectively referred to as "Madison Avenue." His publications include Tradition and Identity in Changing Africa (1973); Linguistics Evidence (1982); Language and Power (1984); Rules versus Relationships: The Ethnography of Legal Discourse (with John M. Conley; 1990); Fortune and Folly: The Wealth and Power of Institutional Investing (also with Conley; 1992), and Culture and the Ad: Exploring Otherness in the World of Advertising (1994); and Just Words: Language, Law and Power (The University of Chicago Press, 1998).
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Professor Emeritus of Cultural Anthropology
·
2018 - Present
Cultural Anthropology,
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Recent Publications
Native Americans in Advertising
Chapter · April 2013 CiteADText: An Interdisciplinary Curriculum for Advertising in Society, Culture, and History
Internet Publication · 2012 Link to item CiteADText: An Online Curriculum in Advertising and Society
Chapter · 2012 CiteRecent Grants
Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Metrics and Democratization: the Role of Monitoring Technologies in Democratic Governance Reform in El Salvador
Inst. Training Prgm or CMEPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2008 - 2011Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Comparative Study of the Nature of Sovereignty in the Global Age
Inst. Training Prgm or CMEPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2010 - 2011Doctoral Dissertation Research: Legal Rights and Ethnic/Racial Identity in Northeastern Brazil
FellowshipPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2000 - 2000View All Grants
Education, Training & Certifications
Northwestern University ·
1970
Ph.D.
Northwestern University ·
1966
M.A.
Emory University ·
1964
B.A.