Janine Wedel

Janine R. Wedel is a University Professor at George Mason University's Schar School of Policy and Government. She holds a PhD in Anthropology from University of California, Berkeley. Her research examines governing, corruption, foreign aid, and influence elites through anthropological frameworks. She pioneered applying anthropological methods to political science domains and is the first anthropologist to win the Grawemeyer World Order Award.

She founded the Association for the Anthropology of Policy and has received fellowships from NSF, MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, and others. Her publications include Unaccountable (2014), Shadow Elite (2009), and Collision and Collusion (2001).

Her work analyzes corruption in finance, security, and policymaking, with expertise in Central/Eastern Europe and US governance systems.