Anthropology Beyond the Academy with Dr Mikkel Kenni Bruun (University of Cambridge

Anthropology Beyond the Academy with Dr Mikkel Kenni Bruun (University of Cambridge)Ethnographic research in complex institutions: speaking up in the NHS and the contribution of an anthropological voice

This informal seminar explores the National Health Service (NHS) as an ethnographic field site and looks at some of the merits and difficulties of carrying out fieldwork in and around this complex institution. Drawing on previous fieldwork experience with NHS services as well as an ongoing ethnographic study of how staff ‘speak up’ (or not) in NHS organisations, this talk invites critical reflections on what an anthropological voice can bring to research conducted within public health settings and to the study of complex institutions more generally.

 

Kenni completed his PhD in the Department of Social Anthropology in 2019, which focused on the rise of new psychotherapies in the NHS and practitioners’ experiences of working within particular ‘evidence-based’ frameworks of psychological healthcare. Kenni is a Research Associate at The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute (THIS Institute) at Cambridge University and co-editor of Rhythm and Vigilance (BUP 2025) and Towards an Anthropology of Psychology (Berghahn 2025).

 

Please note the revised time and location for this seminar: 15:30 to 17:00 in Phoenix room 2.