Professor Leis studies sociocultural anthropology, social and political organization, interethnic relations, enculturation and cultural change. Regionally, his work focuses on Africa. Ongoing project topics include: West and Southern African ethnology, pluralism; associations life cycle, economic development; cross-cultural study of adolescence.
My research interests focus on: the anthropology of identity and the identity of anthropology. The former has been pursued in field research, especially in Africa (Nigeria, Cameroun, and Zimbabwe), in village and urban contexts. The latter has been largely a matter of personal participation and teaching within the context of the discipline of anthropology. In Nigeria I was concerned, and continue to be, with how ethnic identity among the Ijo developed in an isolated, relatively culturally homogeneous, self-sufficient society that became severely impinged upon by a multi-ethnic nation and global economic prerequisites of oil exports. In Cameroun the setting shifts to a plural community within a plural state, and the emphasis is on formulating and retaining an identity as a minority ethnic group. Zimbabwe offers still another variation on a theme: a state containing one dominant ethnic group, the Shona, but with numerous migrants from adjoining states. Here my interest is on how participation in voluntary associations and other non-governmental organizations contribute to the formation of a national identity. My interest in the identity of anthropology has focused on the delineation of crises in the discipline's history that reflect shifts in theoretical orientation, in addition to prompting them.
2005-04
OVPR, Brown Department Research Funds ($2,000), for research assistance on the study of identity
1998
N.S.F. Ethnographic Research Training Award, P.I. (5 years, $50,000), for training graduate students in the use of qualitative and quantitative methods of ethnographic study
1993-94
Fulbright Senior Scholar; a study of ethnic conflict and nationalism in Zimbabwe
1988
Brown University, Summer Research Grant for preparing new course materials
1988
Brown University, Odyssey Grant for preparing new course materials
1982-83
Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Grant-in-Aid for additional support of the adolescent study grant
1981-83
National Institutes of Mental Health, post-doctoral fellowship, Peabody Museum, Harvard University; study of adolescence cross-culturally, including 12 months of research on the Ijo in the Niger Delta, Nigeria
1979-80
Brown University, Faculty Incentive Grant for preparing course materials
1969-76
Program Director, N.I.M.H. Training Grant for training graduate students in the research area of interethnic relations
1969-70
N.I.M.H. Special Research Fellowship, for study and writing research data in the Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics
1965-66
National Science Foundation Fellowship, for the study of ethnic factors in a plural chiefdom in the Republic of Cameroon
1957-59
Ford Foundation Foreign Area Training Fellowship, for the study of cultural change in the Niger Delta, Nigeria
Becoming Nigerian in Ijo Society. Co-author with M. Hollos. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Ethnic Conflict, History, and State Formation in Africa. In, Population, Ethnicity, and Nation-Building, edited by Calvin Goldscheider, pp. 77-90. Boulder: Westview Press.
Pluralism. In, The Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology, edited by David Levinson and Melvin Ember, Vol 3, pp. 940-943. Lakeville, CT: American Reference Publishing.
History, Social Structure and Migration in the Niger DeltaIn, The Multi-Disciplinary Approach to African History, Nkparom C. Ejituwu, ed., pp. 185-194.
Remodeling Concepts of the Self: An Ijo Example. With M. Hollos. Ethos 29,3:371-387.
Cultural Identity in the Multi-cultural Niger Delta. In, Ways of the Rivers: Arts and Environment in the Niger Delta. Martha Anderson and Philip Peek, eds. UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, pp. 15-21.
