#  Samuel M. Anderson 

 

 



   ![SMAnderson-BioPhoto-BWsquare.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum4936/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/SMAnderson-BioPhoto-BWsquare_6.jpg?itok=95MnVFMx) 

 



 





 

Samuel M. Anderson holds a PhD in Culture and Performance from the University of California Los Angeles. His project, Celebrity, Violence, and the Mystic Arts, explores the shared aesthetics of spectacular public performances staged by militias, NGOs, healers and herbalists, initiatory societies, and political parties in postwar Sierra Leone. Traversing these various social spheres in the company of a former militia commander turned popular touring showman, this research describes a continuous process of mutual reformulation between celebrities and their spectators. Through such spectacles, Sierra Leoneans steer transitions into and out of various forms of violence, as crowds are called together for many ends: to judge, to heal, to educate, and–most importantly in the postwar context–to effect personal and social transformation. Anderson uses visual ethnography of diverse performances to reinterpret the relationships between violence and its aesthetic representation. His other research interests include postcolonial subcultures, urbanism, medical anthropology, and transnational Islam, and his work has been funded by the Social Science Research Council and the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation.

 

 

 





 

 

- ## Discipline
    
     [Performance Studies](/disciplines/theater-dance-media)
- ## Fellowship
    
     [Postdoctoral](/fellowship/postdoctoral)
- ## Fellowship Year
    
     [2014 - 2015](/fellowship-year/2014-2015)
- ## Role
    
     [Fellows](/role/fellow)