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Department of Social Anthropology

 
Read more at: MPhilSA, MPhilSAR and PhD Applications Deadline 30 April 2025

MPhilSA, MPhilSAR and PhD Applications Deadline 30 April 2025

The deadline for applications to our postgraduate courses is Wednesday 30th April 2025 To see the courses we offer, visit our Prospective Postgraduates webpage . The Postgraduate Admissions Office Directory has all the information on the course entry requirements and how to apply. If you have a query regarding the...


Read more at: AIM: PhD Application Support Programme

AIM: PhD Application Support Programme

AIM: PhD The Department of Social Anthropology is happy to confirm that it will be participating in this year’s AIM: PhD programme. AIM: PhD is an application support programme, designed to support PhD applicants with their application for doctoral study at the University of Cambridge. Over the course of six months...


Read more at: Professor Harri Englund awarded the Curl Essay Prize

Professor Harri Englund awarded the Curl Essay Prize

The Department are delighted to announce that Professor Harri Englund has been awarded the Curl Essay Prize of the Royal Anthropological Institute for the essay Why Is There No Slavery in the Anthropology of Freedom?


Read more at: New Publication - Freedoms of Speech: Anthropological Perspectives on Language, Ethics, and Power
Freedoms of Speech book front cover

New Publication - Freedoms of Speech: Anthropological Perspectives on Language, Ethics, and Power

Freedoms of Speech: Anthropological Perspectives on Language, Ethics, and Power Editors: Matei Candea, Taras Fedirko, Paolo Heywood and Fiona Wright Following a six-year ERC-funded research project on the comparative anthropology of free speech, Matei Candea, Taras Fedirko, Paolo Heywood and Fiona Wright have published a...


Read more at: Anthropology’s real-world value
Dr Naomi Richman, Junior Research Fellow in Anthropology, Trinity College

Anthropology’s real-world value

How one Cambridge researcher is reaching beyond academia to enhance societal understanding of witchcraft and possession. Dr Naomi Richman has always been interested in contemporary spirituality, particularly the global movements that seem to disrupt predictions of sweeping secularisation. “That's what led me to...


Read more at: Prestigious book prize for Cambridge Anthropologist

Prestigious book prize for Cambridge Anthropologist

Cambridge social anthropologist Dr Christina J. Woolner has won the 2024 International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance (ICTMD) Book Prize. Each year, the prize recognises an exceptional book of outstanding scholarship. Woolner – an affiliated researcher within the Department of Social Anthropology – was awarded...


Read more at: The Anthropology of Amazonia: Interview with Dr Natalia Buitron
Dr Natalia Buitron

The Anthropology of Amazonia: Interview with Dr Natalia Buitron

Dr Natalia Buitron has had a deep connection to the Amazon since childhood. Her PhD led her back to study the region and its indigenous people more closely. And the Amazon has shaped her research and teaching ever since, resulting in long-term fieldwork with the Shuar of Ecuadorian Amazonia. She has held the Jessica...


Read more at: Latest Open Access issue of The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology has been published!

Latest Open Access issue of The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology has been published!

The latest Open Access issue of The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology has published! This special issue is entitled "Policing Fakes." Please visit the Berghahn website for more information about the journal. This issue is a part of the Berghahn Open Anthro subscribe-to-open Collection! Editors: Liana Chua, University of...


Read more at: Standing on the precipice
Drawings from an ABC workshop

Standing on the precipice

Two ambitious researchers have pooled their collective expertise to develop a very local approach to the global climate emergency. ‘Precipice thinking’ is how social anthropologists Dr Kelly Fagan Robinson and Dr Hildegard Diemberger describe the critical phase reached in their shared research. For the past two years, they...


Read more at: Art, memory and repair: an exhibition at Cambridge's historic Leper Chapel
'Tokionoma Elementary School' by Sahoko Aki

Art, memory and repair: an exhibition at Cambridge's historic Leper Chapel

The Grade I listed Leper Chapel is possibly Cambridge's oldest building. Originally serving as a 12th-century sanctuary for those affected by leprosy, its dual nature as a place of both exclusion and worship resonated deeply with Dr Iza Kavedžija ’s recent exhibition on the themes of loss and repair. In place of loss...