J. Lorand Matory is an American academic and Lawrence Richardson Professor of Cultural Anthropology and African and African American Studies at

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

. Matory grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

. He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from

the University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, near the shore of Lake Michigan about fr ...

in 1991, and currently he is Chair of the African and

African American Studies Black studies or Africana studies (with nationally specific terms, such as African American studies and Black Canadian studies), is an interdisciplinary academic field that primarily focuses on the study of the history, culture, and politics of ...

department at

. He is the author of ''Sex and the Empire That Is No More: Gender and the Politics of Metaphor in Oyo Yoruba Religion'' (Minneapolis,

University of Minnesota Press The University of Minnesota Press is a university press that is part of the University of Minnesota. It had annual revenues of just over $8 million in fiscal year 2018. Founded in 1925, the University of Minnesota Press is best known for its book ...

1994; Second, Revised Edition, New York and London: Berghahn Books, 2005); and ''Black Atlantic Religion: Tradition, Transnationalism and Matriarchy in the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé'' (Princeton; Princeton University Press, 2005). Matory supports

disinvestment from Israel Disinvestment from Israel is a campaign that aims to use disinvestment to pressure the government of Israel to put "an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories captured during the 1967 military campaign." The disinvestment camp ...

. At one point, he criticized

Larry Summers Lawrence Henry Summers (born November 30, 1954) is an American economist who served as United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001 and as the director of the National Economic Council from 2009 to 2010. He also served as presiden ...

, then President of

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, who called efforts by Matory and others to divest from Israel "

anti-Semitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

in effect, if not intent." According to Matory, "the knee jerk accusation that targeted criticism of Israel singles out Israel is as absurd as stating that the anti-apartheid movement was singling out South Africa."Summers Says British Boycott of Israeli Academics Is Intentionally 'Anti-Semitic'
/ref> In the summer of 2005 Matory was one of the leaders of a group calling for a faculty

vote of no-confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fit ...

in University President

. Although Matory had tenure at Harvard, he complained about issues regarding his compensation and diversity at the faculty, and when he received the offer to come to Duke in 2008, Harvard made a counter-offer that Matory considered inadequate before he accepted Duke's offer and left in the fall to take up his new position.

References

Harvard College alumni University of Chicago alumni Living people Duke University faculty Year of birth missing (living people) ASA Best Book Prize winners American Africanists American cultural anthropologists 21st-century American anthropologists 20th-century American anthropologists {{US-academic-bio-stub