Jeff Jackson

Biography | Research | Publications | CV

ResearchGate

Jeffrey T. Jackson

Chair, Department of Sociology and Anthropology & Professor of Sociology
Ph.D, University of Texas
Race & Ethnicity, Development, Globalization
Lamar Hall 509  |  662-915-5230
jacksonj@olemiss.edu

Office Hours
By appointment

Courses
Soc 101 Introductory Sociology
Soc 353 Sociology of Development
Soc 359 Sociology of Globalization
Soc 413 Race & Ethnicity (cross-listed as AAS 413)
Soc 613 Studies in Race & Ethnicity
Soc 621 Professional Development I
Soc 622 Professional Development II
Soc 623 Collaborative Research Seminar

 

Biography

I was born and grew up in Wisconsin but currently consider Mississippi my home. I attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, earning my B.S. degree in sociology in 1988. After graduation, I lived in Cuernavaca, Mexico for a year where I worked as an intern for the Center for Global Education (Augsburg College). It was there that I developed a greater interest in teaching and in conducting research on the relationship between the United States (and other wealthy nations) and the developing world. I earned my M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Texas at Austin where I was a Mellon Fellow in Latin American Sociology and spent a year conducting fieldwork on the international development profession in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. I moved to Oxford, MS and became an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Mississippi in 1999. I was promoted to associate professor in 2004. I teach courses on race and ethnicity, globalization, and international development. I have been involved in various efforts aimed at broadening the understanding of racial issues on the UM campus, including the 40th and 50th Meredith commemorations and the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on History & Context. I am a founding member of the UM Critical Race Studies Group, and co-chair of the UM Slavery Research Group.

Research

My research focuses on historical/comparative methods and the processes of globalization in the developing world. In particular, I am interested in the role that international development organizations–both official (such as the World Bank, USAID, and the UNDP) and non-governmental (such as CARE, Save the Children and other development NGOs)–play in the globalization process. My first book explores how these agencies actively promote various globalization agendas in the country of Honduras. As a result of my fieldwork there, I have become increasingly interested in the political dynamics of globalization. In particular, I am curious about global governance and the emergence of a world state (i.e. “global government” or what some have termed a “transnational state.”) My current projects include theorizing the sociology of the “global south,” and the historical examination of racial inequalities in Mississippi, particularly as they relate to slavery and the legacies of slavery.

Selected Publications

Books & Monographs

The Globalizers: Development Workers in Action

Johns Hopkins University Press
2005