Janet Roitman

Who is Janet Roitman?

Janet Roitman is an American anthropologist. She holds a joint position as an Associate Professor in the Anthropology Department and in the Graduate Program for International Affairs at the New School for Social Research in New York. She is a research fellow with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, a member of the Institut Marcel-Mauss in Paris, and an instructor at the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques de Paris. Roitman was also a member of the Editorial Committee of the academic journal Public Culture.

Roitman is known for her research based on fieldwork in Central Africa focusing on "unregulated commerce" along the borders of Cameroon, Nigeria, the Central African Republic, and Chad. Her book Fiscal Disobedience inquires into emergent forms of economic regulation in the region of the Chad Basin. More generally, her research covers topics of political economy, the anthropology of value, and emergent forms of the political.

Roitman received her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. Before working at the New School, she served as an instructor at the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques de Paris. She was likewise a research fellow with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and a member of the Institut Marcel-Mauss in Paris.