Department of Anthropology

Marcus Watson

Associate Professor of Anthropology and African-American and Diaspora Studies
Adjunct Global & Area Studies
Ph.D., M.A., Cornell University
B.A., State University of New York, Brockport
Office: Anthro 114

Marcus Watson is an anthropologist interested in communications and its impact on daily living in Africa. His first project examined body language and other communications between aid workers and villagers in South Africa. Now he has turned his interest to the influx of digital devices into rural Ghana. In addition to teaching African Studies here in Global & Area Studies, Watson is also a faculty member in African-American and Diaspora Studies at UW.

Publications

Referred Journal Articles

Marcus D. Watson and Gilbert Ambaba. 2015. “Hidden Violence of
Postcolonial Africa: A Communicative Ecology View of Ghana's Upper East Region”
Ghana Studies

Marcus D. Watson and Evans A. Atuick. 2015. “The call kind of calls you away”: Cell
Phones and Alienation among Bulsa of Ghana’s Upper East Region.” African Studies Review
58:1.

Marcus D. Watson. 2014. “Half-Connecting: Development’s Self-Defeating Logic?”
Transforming Anthropology 22:2.

Marcus D. Watson. 2014. “Apartheid in their Hearts”? How the South African Critique of
Individualism is Probably Right.” The Howard Journal of Communications 25:2.

Marcus D. Watson. 2013. “The Colonial Gesture of Development: The Interpersonal as a
Promising Site for Rethinking Aid to Africa” Africa Today 59:3.

Marcus D. Watson. 2012. “Are Sustainable Relationships a Key to Sustainable
Developments? A View from Rural South Africa.” IRCAB Journal of Social and
Management Science 2:2.

Regular Courses

AADS 1000 Introduction to African American Studies
INST/AADS 2240 Introduction to African Studies
AADS/HIST 3670 African Diaspora
AADS 3130 Global Impact of African Culture
INST/AADS 4050 Africa, Development, Culture
INST/AADS 4060 NGOs, Development, Culture