Research Projects
Driven by a desire to illuminate the contemporary world, offer new insights into the past, and set new agendas in anthropological theory, our projects are a testament to the range and vibrancy of the research interests in Social Anthropology. Explore this area of the site to discover the very latest research that’s coming out of Cambridge!
Environmental Change Group
The Environmental Change Group exists within the Division of Social Anthropology as a forum to assist researchers at all levels in their engagement with questions of environmental change from an anthropological standpoint. The Group also aims to encourage and mentor students researching or contemplating projects relating to environmental change. This may include—but is not limited [...]
The Environmental Change Group exists within the Division of Social Anthropology as a forum to assist researchers at all levels in their engagement with questions of environmental change from an anthropological standpoint. The Group also aims to encourage and mentor students researching or contemplating projects relating to environmental change. This may include—but is not limited [...]
The Social Life of Achievement and Competitiveness in Vietnam and Indonesia
Grant Holder: Dr Susan Bayly (PI); Dr Nicholas Long (Co-I) Funder: ESRC, Grant RES-000-22-4632 This project will investigate the changing ways in which Indonesian and Vietnamese individuals of divergent backgrounds and experience have understood the idea of ‘achievement’ over the course of their lives. What conceptualisations of achievement have been historically significant in both Vietnam and [...]
Grant Holder: Dr Susan Bayly (PI); Dr Nicholas Long (Co-I) Funder: ESRC, Grant RES-000-22-4632 This project will investigate the changing ways in which Indonesian and Vietnamese individuals of divergent backgrounds and experience have understood the idea of ‘achievement’ over the course of their lives. What conceptualisations of achievement have been historically significant in both Vietnam and [...]
CRIC – Cultural Heritage and the Reconstruction of Identities after Conflict, 2008-2012
A 4-year international comparative project funded by the European Union to investigate the destruction of cultural heritage during armed conflict and its role in post-conflict reconstruction, at five European locations (France, Spain, Germany, Bosnia and Cyprus). See http://www.cric.arch.cam.ac.uk/index.php.
A 4-year international comparative project funded by the European Union to investigate the destruction of cultural heritage during armed conflict and its role in post-conflict reconstruction, at five European locations (France, Spain, Germany, Bosnia and Cyprus). See http://www.cric.arch.cam.ac.uk/index.php.
Plugstreet Project
An ongoing project of excavation and heritage valorisation of a segment of the Great War battlefield in the area of Ploegsteert/Plugstreet (Messines Ridge, Belgium) involving an international team of archaeologists and others and members of the local community. The project is run on a non-profit volunteer basis and is largely self-funded; it is led by [...]
An ongoing project of excavation and heritage valorisation of a segment of the Great War battlefield in the area of Ploegsteert/Plugstreet (Messines Ridge, Belgium) involving an international team of archaeologists and others and members of the local community. The project is run on a non-profit volunteer basis and is largely self-funded; it is led by [...]
Revisiting Marakwet
In April 2002, the remote district of Marakwet in the Rift Valley Province of northern Kenya and its adherence to the practice of female circumcision suddenly broke on to the world stage with dramatic consequences. A local NGO funded by donations from the USA brought court cases against the parents of 16 Marakwet girls to [...]
In April 2002, the remote district of Marakwet in the Rift Valley Province of northern Kenya and its adherence to the practice of female circumcision suddenly broke on to the world stage with dramatic consequences. A local NGO funded by donations from the USA brought court cases against the parents of 16 Marakwet girls to [...]
Modern Lives
The Modern Lives study is premised on the importance of local, personal perspectives in understanding the meaning and nature of sexuality, intimacy and desire in Africa and their entanglements with the cultural processes we usually term as globalisation. The research forms an innovative re-conceptualisation of the relationship between sexuality, culture and social change in anthropology [...]
The Modern Lives study is premised on the importance of local, personal perspectives in understanding the meaning and nature of sexuality, intimacy and desire in Africa and their entanglements with the cultural processes we usually term as globalisation. The research forms an innovative re-conceptualisation of the relationship between sexuality, culture and social change in anthropology [...]
Climate Histories: Communicating Cultural Knolwedge of Environmental Change
A 12-month Network funded by the AHRC through the Arts and Humanities Approaches to Researching Environmental Change Networks competition This Network speaks to the theme of Histories of Environmental Change by asking how people around the world perceive, narrate, and frame changes in their environment and climate. How can such accounts be gathered methodologically and what [...]
A 12-month Network funded by the AHRC through the Arts and Humanities Approaches to Researching Environmental Change Networks competition This Network speaks to the theme of Histories of Environmental Change by asking how people around the world perceive, narrate, and frame changes in their environment and climate. How can such accounts be gathered methodologically and what [...]
The World Oral Literature Project
The World Oral Literature Project is an urgent global initiative to document and make accessible endangered oral literatures before they disappear without record. The project has been established to support local communities and committed fieldworkers engaged in the collection and preservation of all forms of oral literature by providing funding for original research, alongside training [...]
The World Oral Literature Project is an urgent global initiative to document and make accessible endangered oral literatures before they disappear without record. The project has been established to support local communities and committed fieldworkers engaged in the collection and preservation of all forms of oral literature by providing funding for original research, alongside training [...]
The Digital Himalaya Project
The Digital Himalaya Project is developing digital collection, storage and distribution strategies for multimedia anthropological information from the Himalayan region. Based at the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, the project was established in December 2000 by Professor Alan Macfarlane and Dr Mark Turin.
The Digital Himalaya Project is developing digital collection, storage and distribution strategies for multimedia anthropological information from the Himalayan region. Based at the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, the project was established in December 2000 by Professor Alan Macfarlane and Dr Mark Turin.
The Social Life of Achievement
Convened by: Dr Nick Long & Prof Henrietta Moore Funders: The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Background As ever more countries around the word seek to increase their competitiveness in a neoliberal ‘knowledge economy’, notions of economic, academic, and personal ‘achievement’ are becoming increasingly important in public policy and social life. Moreover, policy interventions often [...]
Convened by: Dr Nick Long & Prof Henrietta Moore Funders: The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Background As ever more countries around the word seek to increase their competitiveness in a neoliberal ‘knowledge economy’, notions of economic, academic, and personal ‘achievement’ are becoming increasingly important in public policy and social life. Moreover, policy interventions often [...]