Deborah Pellow
American anthropologist (1945–2025)
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Deborah Pellow (March 21, 1945 – May 29, 2025) was an American anthropologist. She was a professor and later, a professor emerita at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.[1] She was known for her work on urbanization and the anthropology of space and place in West Africa, particularly in Ghana.[2][3][4]
Deborah Pellow | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 21, 1945 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Died | May 29, 2025 (aged 80) Syracuse, New York, U.S. |
| Known for | Work on urbanization and proxemics in West Africa |
| Academic background | |
| Education | |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Anthropology |
| Institutions | Syracuse University |
Early life and education
Born in Los Angeles to Frieda Kaplan and David Pellow, she grew up in New York City and Philadelphia.[5] She attended the Akiba Academy in Center City, Philadelphia. Deborah Pellow received her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1967.[2] She obtained an MA (1968) and a PhD (1974) from Northwestern University, where she completed her dissertation on the topic, "Women in Accra: a study in options."[2]
Academic career
Pellow was a founding director of the Space and Place Initiative at the Global Affairs Institute at the Maxwell School. She also taught in the school's Master of Social Science course.[2] Her research was at the intersection of proxemics, ethnicity, micro-politics and conflict, feminist thought, women and gender.[2] From 2009 to 2011, she served as the president of the Society for Urban National and Transnational Anthropology, a wing of the American Anthropological Association.[2] She chaired the University Senate Library Committee and Chancellor Search Committee of Syracuse University. She was a Senior Research Associate at the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict & Collaboration. She also lived in northern Nigeria where she studied Hausa.[2] Later, she conducted fieldwork in China and Japan. [6][7]
Personal life and death
Deborah Pellow was first married to the American philosopher, Irving Thalberg Jr. (1930–1987), the son of 1920s and 1930s Hollywood producer Irving Thalberg and Academy Award-winning actress Norma Shearer.[8][9] After her husband's death, Pellow married in 1991, the American mystery writer, David Cole (1936–2015).[10] She served on the boards of The Friends of Chamber Music, and the non-profit, Francis House, a home for the terminally-ill.[6]
Pellow died in Syracuse on May 29, 2025, at the age of 80.[11][6][12] A memorial service for Deborah Pellow was held at the Hendricks Chapel on the campus of Syracuse University on September 12, 2025.[13][14][15]
Selected awards and honors
- Lifetime Achievement Award, Critical Urban Anthropology Association (CUAA) (2021)[16]
- William Wasserstrom Prize for the Teaching of Graduate Students (2019)[17]
- Faculty Advisor of the Year Award (2016)[17]
- Fulbright Senior Research Scholar, Institute of International Education (2005/06)[2]
- Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Grant – alternate (2005)[2]
- Appleby Mosher Fund, Maxwell School, Syracuse University (2002)[2]
- Appleby Mosher Fund, Maxwell School, Syracuse University (1995)[2]
- Fulbright IIE Teaching Fellowship, Osaka University and Ritsumeikan University, Japan (1991/92)[2]
Selected works
- Africa and Urban Anthropology: Theoretical and Methodological Contributions from Contemporary Fieldwork, Taylor & Francis (2023)[18]
- A New African Elite: Place in the Making a Bridge Generation, United Kingdom: Berghahn Books (2022)[3]
- Living Afar, Longing for Home: The Role of Place in the Creation of the Dagomba New Elite[4]
- Landlords and Lodgers: Socio-Spatial Organization in an Accra Zongo. Pbk. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (2008)[19]
- Setting Boundaries: The Anthropology of Spatial and Social Organization, editor and author. Westport CT: Bergin and Garvey (1996)[4]
- Ghana: Coping with Uncertainty, with Naomi Chazan Boulder: Westview Press (1986)[4]
- Women in Accra: Options for Autonomy Algonac, MI: Reference Publications, Inc. (1977)[4]