Assistant Professor of Applied Anthropology
E-mail: Rob_McKee@gial.edu

Rob McKee

 

University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
1995, Ph.D. Anthropology
Dissertation title: “Meje-Mangbetu (northeastern Zaire) death compensations as intergroup rites of passage: a structural, cultural, and linguistic study”

1985, M.A. Anthropology
 
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
1975, A.B. Social Relations

 

 

Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics, Dallas, Texas
Dallas, TX 2010 - Present

Assistant Professor
2010-Present
Courses Taught
LD4370 Cultural Anthropology
LD5340 Ethnographic Research Methods

SIL International, Dallas, TX 1976 - Present

  • 1980–2006 Member of SIL’s Eastern Congo Group (and its predecessors)
  • 1980 Sociolinguistic survey with SIL in Togo, April-August 1980
  • 1980–83 and 1985–89 Linguist-translator with SIL in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Mangbetu language project, including work in phonology, orthography development, grammar, New Testament translation (selections booklets), literacy, and anthropology, for about six years
  • 1988 Staff for SIL’s Africa Orientation Course, January-March 1988
  • 1996–ca. 2002 Africa Area anthropology consultant for SIL, including a consulting job for the International Mission Board’s Amhara team in Ethiopia in 1999
  • 2000–02 & 2008–10: International anthropology consultant for SIL
  • Instructor, Grammar I, Dallas, spring 1976
  • Instructor, Field Methods, Washington, summer 1985
  • Anthropology lectures for SIL’s Kenya Safari (eastern Africa orientation course), 1995 and 1998 sessions
  • Matrilineal systems workshop for SIL’s Mozambique Branch, May 1999
  • Teaching staff for the Luke Partnership translator training at Arua, Uganda, and Isiro, DR Congo, 2003 and 2004 workshops

University of Rochester

  • T.A., Human Nature: The Anthropological Perspective—fall 1984
  • Instructor, Introduction to Anthropology—summer 1985

Houghton College, Houghton, New York

  • Guest lecturer, introductory course in cultural anthropology (spring 1991, 1992; also assisted with course design)

Shalom University, Bunia, DR Congo

  • Guest faculty, introductory course in social and cultural anthropology (October-November 2008)
Fieldwork
 
Teaching
 
Articles

 

2010.
2009.
2007.
2007.
Concerning Meegye and Mangbetu’s bilabial trills. In Doris L. Payne and Mechthild Reh (eds.), Advances in Nilo-Saharan Linguistics: Proceedings of the 8th Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, University of Hamburg, August 22–25, 2001,181–189. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
2000.
‘My mother gave birth to me, she didn’t divulge my name’: A Meegye-Mangbetu representation of patrilineal, matrilateral, and affinal relations in the Tabhuazolya tale. Notes on Anthropology 4(1):31–43 [SIL].
2000.
“Samenesses”: A key to positive relationships and effective commu­nication. Ethno-info 46:2–5, March [SIL].
1991.
The interpretation of consonants with semi-vowel release in Meje (Zaire) stems. In Rottland, Franz, and Lucia N. Omondi (eds.), Proceedings of the Third Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, Kisumu, Kenya, August 4-9, 1986, 181–195. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.
1991.
‘Here’, ‘there’, ‘yonder’ and beyond with Meje aspect. In Rottland, Franz, and Lucia N. Omondi (eds.), Proceedings of the Third Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, Kisumu, Kenya, August 4-9, 1986, 165–180. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.
Papers Presented

 

2007.Data illustrating case in Mangbetu? Paper read at the 10th Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, FIAP Jean Monnet, Paris, France, 22–24 August 2007.
2006.Transcending postcolonial stereotypes through filmed dilemma tales?: in which the subtitles do let film subjects ‘speak for themselves’. Paper read at the intercongress of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa, 03–07 December 2006.
2005.Mangbetu tales of Leopard and Azapane: trickster as resistance hero. Paper read at the International Conference on Storytelling and Cultural Identity, Terceira, Azores, Portugal, 27–29 June 2005.
1998.Genesis prologue myth and Judeo-Christian knowledge. Paper read at the 14th Inter­national Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, U.S.A., 26 July–01 August 1998.
1985.Cannibalism as ideological prop: the Mangbetu case. Paper read at the annual meeting of the Northeastern Anthropological Association, Lake Placid, New York, U.S.A., ca. March 1985
Unpublished Papers

 

2002Film-maker ventriloquism (or, ‘The voice of Oz’) in ethnographic film: when subtitles do not let the natives speak for themselves. Manuscript, 2002.
2002Mangbetu orthography statement, first revision. Manuscript, SIL–Eastern Congo Group, 19 December 2002.
Publications assisted

 

1987.Abuotubodio, Abule, and Nzila Ongasa. Amehya Nemangbetu: Premier livre de lecture mangbetu (pour lettrés). With Robert McKee. Egbita, Zaire: Projet de traduction biblique en dialectes Mangbetu.

 
  • International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences
  • Pan African Anthropological Association (former member)
  • American Anthropological Association (former member)
  • French—reading, moderate speaking, minimal writing
  • German—minimal reading
  • Lingala (DR Congo)—minimal reading and speaking
  • Mangbetu (DR Congo, Meegye dialect)—analytical, moderate reading, minimal speaking
  • Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Death ritual and compensations
  • Mangbetu linguistics
  • Myth and tale analysis
  • Storytelling for peace-building
  • Use of subtitles in ethnographic film