Tracy Luedke
Tracy
J.
Luedke
Professor; Coordinator, Global Studies Program
Anthropology
College of Arts and Sciences
(773) 442-5621
t-luedke@neiu.edu
Expertise
Cultural Anthropology, African Studies, Global Studies
Courses Taught
ANTH 212 - Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
ANTH/AFAM 224 - Contemporary African Culture
ANTH 290 - Graduating Anthropology
ANTH 307 - Anthropology of Gender, Sexuality, and the Body
ANTH 317 - Medical Anthropology
ANTH/AFAM 320 - Religion in Africa
ANTH 375 - Anthropology of Globalization
ANTH 377 - Anthropology of Television
ZHON 360 - Honors Seminar in Research and Creative Processes
GS 201 - Introduction to Global Studies I
AFAM 303 - Global Collaborations-Ghana
Research Interests
Religion, healing, southern Africa, globalization, immigration, transportation My research concerns the Christianized healing practices of the prophets of central Mozambique, a network of people possessed by biblical spirits who work to heal individual bodies afflicted with illness as well as social bodies recovering from the effects of warfare and dislocation. I recently collaborated on an edited volume about healing in southeastern Africa. The book addresses the important relationship between African healing practices and borders of various sorts, which healers both transgress and reify in the course of their work. I am also interested in material culture, especially the ways objects, buildings, and other materialities figure in healing practices.
Education

Ph.D., Cultural Anthropology, Indiana University, 2005

M.A., Cultural Anthropology, Indiana University, 1999

 

Selected Publications

Luedke, Tracy. 2014. “Health, Illness, and Healing in African Society.” In Africa, 4th Edition, edited by Patrick O’Meara, John Hanson, and Maria Grosz-Ngate. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Luedke, Tracy. 2011. “Intimacy and Alterity: Prophetic Selves and Spirit Others in Central Mozambique.” Journal of Religion in Africa  41(2):154-179.

Luedke, Tracy. 2007. “Spirit and Matter: The Materiality of Mozambican Prophet Healing.” Journal of Southern African Studies 33(4): 715-31. Special Issue: Histories of Healing, edited by Lyn Schumaker, Diana Jeater, and Tracy Luedke.

Luedke, Tracy J. 2006. “Presidents, Bishops, and Mothers: The Construction of Authority in Mozambican Healing.” In Borders and Healers: Brokering Therapeutic Resources in Southeast Africa, edited by Tracy J. Luedke and Harry G. West. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

West, Harry G. and Tracy J. Luedke. 2006. “Healing Divides: Therapeutic Border Work in Southeast Africa.” In Borders and Healers: Brokering Therapeutic Resources in Southeast Africa, edited by Tracy J. Luedke and Harry G. West. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

t-luedke@neiu.edu

BBH 138
5500 North St. Louis Avenue
Chicago, IL 60625
United States

(773) 442-5621
Office Hours
Summer Office Hours TBA
Main Campus