Janine R. Wedel

George Mason University

Janine Wedel is university professor at George Mason University's School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs and a senior research fellow at New America Foundation.

Trained as an anthropologist, Wedel has been a professor at George Mason since 2005. She was previously a professor and university professor at George Mason's School of Public Policy. Wedel became a senior research fellow at New America Foundation in 2006. She has also held teaching positions at the Univeristy of Pittsburgh, George Washington University, Georgetown University, and the Catholic University of Lublin in Poland. In addition, she was an international trade analyst at the U.S. International Trade Commission from 1987 to 1994.

Wedel's books include Shadow Elite: The New Agents of Power and Influence, Collision and Collusion: The Strange Case of Western Aid to Eastern Europe, The Unplanned Society, and The Private Poland: An Anthropologist Looks at Everyday Life. She has written articles and opinion pieces for The New York Times, Financial Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Nation, The Los Angeles Times, Salon, and other publications.

A four-time Fulbright fellow, Wedel has also won awards from the National Science Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the United States Institute of Peace, the German Marshall Fund, the Eurasia Foundation, and the National Institute of Justice. She is the first anthropologist to win the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order.

Featured Work

CREDIT: Gusta Johnson

JAN 7, 2015 Podcast

Unaccountable: Janine Wedel on how Elite Power Brokers have Corrupted the U.S. System

Anthropologist Janine Wedel exposes America's "new corruption"--the unprecedented ways that many politicians, retired generals, academics, bankers, and physicians exploit their prestige and insider knowledge.