News

Anthropology retains third place in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024 We are delighted to remain one of the best universities for the study of anthropology in the world, as ranked by leading higher education data specialist, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). Anthropology at Cambridge was ranked third overall in this global league table in …

The latest Open Access issue of The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology has published! This special issue is entitled "Number Politics After Datafication."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 CambridgeNa…

Cambridge University Libraries now makes available all the journals published by Berghahn in its “Open Anthro” collection.Cambridge anthropologists can now read double the journals formerly available and Cambridge now supports the conversion to full open access of articles published in these journals.Launched in 2020, Berghahn Open Anthro is a subs…

AI and Scholarship: A ManifestoDr Ella McPherson, Department of Sociology and Prof Matei Candea. Department of Social Anthropology have written a manifesto and principles to provide a framework that supports scholars and students in figuring out if, rather than how, generative AI contributes to their scholarship.Full article here

Postgraduates in Social Anthropology are invited to enter this year’s Postgraduate Photographic Celebration to have their work displayed in the Department and on the Department’s website and to have the chance to win a Heffers book voucher (First Prize £75, Second Prize £50 and Third Prize £25).   Photos will be judged on quality and content, with …

Beyond Description: Anthropologies of ExplanationEditors: Paolo Heywood and Matei CandeaBeyond Description brings anthropologists and other social scientists together to examine the problem of explanation. What is "an explanation?" What can it add? What makes it authoritative, clarifying, or misleading? Whom does it serve and how is it produced? Th…

The winner of the Sue Benson Prize for 2023 was Eleanor Burnett-Stuart (Christs College), for her dissertation Situating humans in the landscape in the Scottish rewilding movement. The two runners up were Inika Murkumbi with her dissertation Hearing and seeing things in urban, educated India and Cora Morris, whose dissertation Radical Jewish subjec…

Anna Wood has started working in the Department as Knowledge Exchange and Funding Facilitator.  The aim of this new role is to support the research life and work in the Department in all things related to knowledge exchange, impact, public engagement, and funding.  Here Anna introduces herself. I recently completed my PhD in the Department, on new…

Refiguring Conservation in/for ‘the Anthropocene’: the Global Lives of the Orangutan (GLO), a European Research Council-funded project led by Dr Liana Chua, has concluded after nearly six stimulating years (2018-23). GLO explored the social, political, aesthetic, and affective dimensions of orangutan conservation against the backdrop of the Anthrop…

Professor Susan Bayly has been honoured with the publication of a collection of essays edited by former students and colleagues from the Department.  Entitled An Anthropology of Intellectual Exchange: Interactions, Transactions and Ethics in Asia and Beyond, the book was developed to mark Professor Bayly’s retirement. As well as recognising her lan…

Second year Politics and Social Anthropology track student, Ambrose Leung, has been awarded the annual Audrey Richards prize for 2023.  The Department of Social Anthropology awards this prize for the best performance in the Part I examination in Social Anthropology (Paper SAN1).Audrey Richards CBE FBA (1899-1984) was one of the most important socia…

As a Department that studies how people live: what they make, do, think and the organisation of their relationships, societies and cultures, Photography and Film is a core part of that research.For social anthropologists, this imagery is not just part of the story, but a source of insight into who people are.  The University have posted the winner …

New Publication - The Cambridge Handbook For The Anthropology of EthicsEdited by Professor James Laidlaw, (University of Cambridge)The 'ethical turn' in anthropology has been one of the most vibrant fields in the discipline in the past quarter-century. It has fostered new dialogue between anthropology and philosophy, psychology, and theology and se…

We advise prospective students to apply early for postgraduate courses, and if you want to be considered for University scholarships, by the deadline of 5 December.   The good news is that there is an abundance of further advice on applying and on how to find both Cambridge funding and external funding for studies on the postgraduate study website …

The Department of Social Anthropology is delighted to announce the winners in this year’s Postgraduate Photography Celebration.There was a very high standard and number of entrants this year, reflecting the popularity of this celebration.  Since its start in 2013, the celebration provides an opportunity for postgraduate students to showcase their f…