Janine R. Wedel

Janine R. Wedel is an American anthropologist and university professor in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University and a senior research fellow of the New America Foundation. She is the author of several books and many articles on some key systemic processes of the day. She is the first anthropologist to win the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order.

Biography Wedel received a Bachelor of Arts in history, social sciences, and German from Bethel College in 1978, a Master of Arts in anthropology and East European studies from Indiana University Bloomington in 1980, and a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1985. She writes about governing, corruption, foreign aid, and influence elites through the lens of a social anthropologist. She is a university professor in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University and senior research fellow at the New America Foundation.

Wedel is co-founder and president of the Association for the Anthropology of Policy formerly known as the Interest Group for the Anthropology of Public Policy.

Areas of research International Commerce and Policy Anthropology of Public Policy Corruption Eastern Europe Foreign Aid Governance Privatization of Government Social Networks