Anthropologist Rebecca Cassidy brings a rich and diverse body of research—from racetracks to orchards—to her new role at Cambridge.

Professor Rebecca Cassidy’s CV is like no other. Her academic career has united her love of anthropology with a serendipitous blend of research interests, from horseracing and the gambling industry to apples and orchards. She returns to Cambridge this autumn as the new William Wyse Professor, some 30 years after first studying anthropology at the University as an undergraduate.

Professor Cassidy discovered anthropology during her second year at Cambridge, and the subject quickly became a passion. When her PhD fieldwork in Albania was curtailed by the outbreak of conflict, she returned to Cambridge from the University of Edinburgh, and in an unexpected turn, took a job as a security guard.

“After working long night shifts, a group of us would travel to Newmarket to watch the racehorses on the gallops, before placing our bets at a betting shop in Cherry Hinton,” she recalls. “I became fascinated by the world of horseracing and, with the support of my long-suffering supervisors, got a job riding racehorses, and abandoned my plans to go to Albania. I worked on racing yards, studs, and at Tattersalls auctioneers.”

This chance discovery became the shifted focus of her PhD. On graduating, she secured a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship to conduct fieldwork at the famous Keeneland racetrack and studs in Kentucky.

This led to her subsequent research at Goldsmiths, University of London, on gambling and the public role of anthropology. Later, as principal investigator on a European Research Council Starting Grant, she pioneered anthropological approaches to gambling regulation. Her expertise in the field led to a Special Advisor role for the House of Commons Select Committee on the Social and Economic Impact of the Gambling Industry.

In 2020, Professor Cassidy returned to earlier interests in animals and plants, beginning new research supported by a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship focused on domestication, fertility, plant kinship and commodification through the lens of apple cultivation and horticultural experimentation, from Kent to Kazakhstan.

Her future work will continue to explore multispecies relations and intergenerational continuity and to investigate new ideas about the fundamental principles of life.

Now back at Cambridge, she is excited to rejoin the academic community that sparked her career: “I am thrilled to be returning to Cambridge, where I first discovered and fell in love with anthropology. It is an incredible opportunity to think with brilliant colleagues and students, and I could not be more delighted. I look forward to getting to know the whole community and to working with you all," she shared.

Professor Rebecca Cassidy will join the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, on 1 October 2025 as the new William Wyse Professor. The William Wyse Chair of Social Anthropology is one of the Department's endowed Professorships, and has been occupied by a long line of distinguished contributors to our field.