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.
Ph.D., Cultural Anthropology, Indiana University, 2005
M.A., Cultural Anthropology, Indiana University, 1999
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.
Room BBH 138
Northeastern Illinois University
5500 North St. Louis Avenue
Chicago, IL 60625
United States
Monday: 2:30-5:00 p.m. (On campus in Room BBH 138 or via Zoom)
Tuesday: 1:00-3:30 p.m. (Via Zoom)
Zoom link:
https://neiu-edu.zoom.us/j/7552420277?pwd=c0NLQTNDMFF5VW9PUFB0c0pTb1VOQT09
