News

University of Cambridge and Germany’s Max Planck Society to create new research centreThe Max Planck-Cambridge Centre for the Study of Ethics, Economy and Social Change, an innovative collaboration funded jointly by the University of Cambridge and the Max Planck Society, was formally established as of 1 July 2017. The Centre will be co-directed by …

Winner: Neria Aylward, Pembroke College Every year, the Division awards a prize of £200 to the most outstanding IIB dissertation. The prize is named in memory of Dr Sue Benson (1955-2005), an anthropologist who lectured, supervised and directed studies in Cambridge for 26 years and was an inspiration both personally and intellectually for generatio…

 Winner: Ida Svenonius, (Lucy Cavendish College)Six entries were received, all of them prepared to high standards. The quality and diversity of proposed dissertation projects are, as in previous years, very impressive. Thematically, they address various aspects of the arts, media, politics, religion and activism; with a focus this year to some exte…

Honour, Conflict and Coercion: the Anthropology of Violence (Sackler B)Andrew Sanchez, University of Cambridge, London Anthropology Day 2017Join us at the 2017, annual London Anthropology Day in the British Museum's Education Clore Centre on Thursday 29 June from 10am – 5.30pm.  The event is free and open to Year 12, 13 and FE Students, Careers Adv…

The new publication, The Social Life of Politics, by Dr Sian Lazar of Cambridge University, examines the intimate, personal, and family dimensions of two political activist groups: the Union of National Civil Servants (UPCN) and the Association of State Workers (ATE).Dr Sian Lazar: The Social Life of Politics: Ethics, Kinship, and Union Activism in…

Dr Felix Stein's study, 'Work, sleep, repeat', is published by Bloomsbury May 2017 Cambridge University, affiliated anthropologist, Dr Felix Stein, has had his study of the work of German management consultants, published. The book, entitled 'Work, sleep, repeat - the abstract labour of German management consultants', has been published by Bloomsbu…

 We're delighted to announce that Dr Perveez Mody will be taking up a new position of University Lecturer in September 2017.

Dr Mody was awarded her PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2001, and is the author of The Intimate State: Love-Marriage and the Law in Delhi (Routledge, 2008), which provided the first ethnographic account of love-marriag…

Dr Sian Lazar: Where Are The Unions? Workers and Social Movements in Latin America, the Middle East and EuropeThe first fully comprehensive comparison of the Latin American ‘turn to the left’, the Middle East and North African ‘Arab Spring’ and the Occupy and anti-austerity movements of Europe and North America, with a focus on the apparent lack of…

Professor Harri Englund has been awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship from October 2017. During the fellowship, Englund will carry out a new research project entitled ‘Liberal Translations: Slavery and Humanity in 19th-Century Central Africa’. Its focus will be on linguistic and political work in present-day Malawi during the ‘humanitaria…

The Division of Social Anthropology is pleased to participate in a new ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership at the University of Cambridge. A range of studentships are available across the social sciences at Cambridge; if you are interested in how society works and how it can handle global challenges, a DTP studentship will give you a world-class tra…

 We are pleased to announce this year’s winner of the Audrey Richards Prize, for the best performance in the Part I examination in Social Anthropology, is Ida Svenonius of Lucy Cavendish College.

 The Enawenê-nawê people of the Amazon rainforest make beautifully engineered fishing dams. Living alongside this indigenous community, Dr Chloe Nahum-Claudel observed how the act of trapping fish shapes their minds, bodies and relationships. The proximity of life and death brings human vulnerability sharply into focus.Hunting brings us close to ou…

 Applications are now open for the new MPhil in Health, Medicine and Society.The new MPhil is jointly run by the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, Division of Social Anthropology and Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. The course offers a uniquely interdisciplinary approach to teaching and research that combines a…

Criminal Capital: Violence, corruption and class in industrial IndiaDr Andrew SanchezCriminal Capital explores the relationship between neoliberalism, criminality and the reshaping of class in modern India. It discusses how the political vocabularies of urban industrial workers reflect the processes by which power is distributed across the region. …

 The University of Cambridge is hosting its first Postgraduate Open Day on Wednesday 2 November 2016.Attending the open day is an excellent way to explore the graduate courses and opportunities available at the University of Cambridge. Throughout the day there will be a variety of subject presentations, sample lectures and facility tours that will …