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Department of Social Anthropology

 
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...


Read more at: Writing the life of Stuart Hall 
Stuart Hall speaking at a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament demonstration, in Trafalgar Square in 1958.

Writing the life of Stuart Hall 

“What is it about the life and work of Stuart Hall that ‘calls’ on us to think biographically?” Professor David Scott asked in this year’s W.H.R. Rivers Memorial Lecture. In one sense, the answer is obvious. Stuart Hall led an exemplary life. His intellectual achievements and range were formidable: the founding editorship...


Read more at: Mixed-Race Thought Collective: In search of a new way of thinking

Mixed-Race Thought Collective: In search of a new way of thinking

A new collective of mixed-race scholars confront their own experiences of race and identity to examine what being mixed race really means. What happens to people that do not fit within conventional social groups? How might this experience of not fitting in shape a person’s thoughts, ideas and actions? Can this friction...