News

The latest open access issue of The Cambridge Journal of Anthropologyhas just been published! This special issue is entitled “The Hall of Mirrors: Spying, Surveillance and Ethnographic Method.” Please visit the Berghahn website for more information about the journal. This issue is a part of the Berghahn Open Anthro which you can subscribe to.The ed…

New article argues for urgent need to challenge regulatory inconsistencyThis article contains discussions about suicide. If you or someone you know is in crisis or needs support, please use this link to find an international helpline www.findahelpline.com.New analysis led by the University of Edinburgh, with colleagues from Cambridge and Bristol, d…

Dr Liana Chua (2021) argues that field staff deserve to be taken seriously as experts in community engagement in ‘Field Reflections’ – a new collection of accounts from 17 staff from NGOs who work on the ground in Indonesian Borneo to support conservation and development programmes in partnership with local and Indigenous communities. Dr Chua, who …

The Department of Social Anthropology is consistently recognised as one of the top social anthropology departments in the world. Our department has a track record of teaching and research excellence and is consistently placed among the world’s leading institutions for the study of Anthropology; we retained a top three ranking over the past decade i…

As Senegal’s capital transforms at pace, an exhibition explores everyday life and uncertainty in a centrally located informal settlement of Dakar undergoing resettlement. It was developed and curated by Dr Anna Wood in collaboration with Dakar-based photographers Djibril Dramé and Katia Golovko.Every time Dr Anna Wood returns to Dakar, the Senegale…

Anthropologist Caroline Bazambanza examines how Black women make sense of racial inequality in maternity care – and why their knowledge is too often ignored.Caroline Bazambanza completed her undergraduate degree in the same year that MBRRACE UK reported Black women in Britain were five times more likely than white women to die during childbirth or …

The latest open access issue of The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology has just been published! This special issue is entitled "Making Place with Plants: Intimacy, Mobility and Displacement."Please visit the Berghahn website for more information about the journal. This issue is a part of the Berghahn Open Anthro which you can subscribe to.The editor…

What happens when an autonomous Indigenous people are forced into cooperatives and state formation? The Amazonian Shuar didn't just adapt – they reinvented the system from within. Dr Natalia Buitron reveals their creative approach to power that could reshape how we think about change.The article "Dream State" can be freely read here, as part of the…

Keith Hart, who died 6 November 2025 in his Paris home, was a brilliant, complicated and inspiring academic and public intellectual with a longstanding connection to Cambridge Anthropology – as student, teacher and colleague. For Keith the primary task of anthropology was to unsettle certainties, open new horizons and catalyse democratic change. A…

Towards an Anthropology of Psychology: Ethnographic Studies of Psychological HealthcareEditors: Mikkel Kenni Bruun and Rebecca HuttenAnthropology and psychology share a long history of rivalry, collaboration, and mutual disregard. This volume reconsiders psychology as a field of anthropological enquiry. In doing so, it takes an ethnographic approac…

The Department is delighted to announce that Sally Montgomery was shortlisted for the UNSW Press Bragg Prize for Science Writing, a prize for the best short non-fiction piece on science written for a general audience in Australia.This piece was originally published as an article for the magazine Sapiens, which can be found here and as a shortlisted…

Professor of Social Anthropology brings a wealth of experience to his new role at Cambridge.Professor Matei Candea has succeeded Professor Sian Lazar as Head of the Department of Social Anthropology, with effect from 1 October 2025. Matei Candea is a professor of social anthropology at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow and Director of Studi…

AIM: ExploreThe Department of Social Anthropology is happy to confirm that it will be participating in this year’s AIM: Explore programme.AIM: Explore is a free support programme to help MPhil and PhD applicants prepare their application to the University of Cambridge. Support is provided via 2 one-hour online sessions with a current Cambridge PhD …

At this year’s Cambridge Festival, a unique workshop rooted in anthropologist Sasha Flatau’s fieldwork invited visitors to step into the world of childhood in the Colombian Amazon – seen through the eyes of the children who live there.Most days, the indigenous Cacua women prepare bread from manioc, a widely cultivated root vegetable. Children start…

Interview with Ashley ChinA haunted tour guide now deceased, a seemingly empty photograph identified as spiritually busy by a ‘seer’, and a death-themed theme park. These three images – taken in Singapore by recent MPhil graduate Ashley Chin – powerfully articulate the city-state’s rich connection to ghost stories and haunted space. Chin’s "striki…