What can you do with a Social Anthropology degree?
Our students graduate with analytical and critical skills, intellectual versatility, multicultural sensitivity and an international outlook.
Anthropologists ask questions about human society and human nature, and compare them across different cultures and experiences. They strive for a depth of cultural understanding that can help assess complex human needs. This makes our graduates particularly attractive to potential employers.
Many graduates undertake further study. Many others build successful careers across wide-ranging sectors, including:
- research, both academic and policy
- national and international NGOs and development agencies
- teaching
- national or local government
- charity sector
- media and journalism
- law
- management consultancy
- public relations, communications and marketing
- museums and curating
- health management
Career stories
We asked a broad range of graduates from our department to talk about their careers, and how social anthropology informs their work.
Dr David Ginsborg
Freelancer
PhD Social Anthropology, 2021
MRes Social Anthropology, 2015
BA Archaeology and Anthropology, 2014
I began my undergraduate studies in 2011, and obtained my PhD in 2021. I went on to work as a researcher and consultant at Gemic Berlin, a strategy firm advising leading global brands and government entities across the world with insights rooted in culture. I am now working as a freelancer.
Anthropologically-minded consulting is a growing industry, and my Social Anthropology background positioned me uniquely well for the job.
I have taught Social Anthropology students at Cambridge and CEA Florence, and have presented at numerous academic conferences and seminars. I also have extensive experience as a translator and editor.
Paola Perrin de Brichambaut
Graduate student, Goldsmiths
MPhil Social Anthropology, 2019
I have worked in citizen engagement, democracy education, and research.
After graduation, I developed and managed a democracy education and youth project with Social Science Works, a social enterprise in Germany. We encouraged pupils to deliberate on the European Union, its values and future, and their rights and responsibilities as citizens.
I then joined the Berlin University of the Arts as a research associate. I was part of a transdisciplinary research project to establish a new research centre dedicated to urban climate change policy. Led by a cohort of Berlin based universities, THE University of the Arts team developed co-design methods to support the consultation of various actors, in particular citizens, in climate-related transformations. We also worked with public institutions and museums to develop new approaches to cultural education centred on the challenges posed by the climate crisis and possible pathways.
In 2024, I enrolled in the MA Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Adam James Smith
Filmmaker
MPhil Social Anthropology, 2016
After graduating, I relocated to the United States to begin my Assistant Professorship in documentary filmmaking and multimedia production at Florida Atlantic University. Since then, I moved to New York to pursue documentary filmmaking full-time.
My filmmaking practice spans rural and urban environments across China, Japan, and the United States. In 2020, I released Americaville, my first solo-feature film that I developed and shot while on the MPhil programme in conjunction with my thesis - Meanings of ‘America’ for the Residents of Jackson Hole, China. The film went on to screen at festivals, organisations and universities around the world.
More recently, I premiered the short films Frontier Phantom (2023) in Paris and Okmulgee Invitational (2023) in Toronto. I am currently working on two new feature documentary films. The first, Nighthawks (working title), is centred on a migrant worker at the world’s largest art factory in Shenzhen, who reflects on how reproducing Edward Hopper's depictions of American isolation resonates with his own experiences of urban loneliness and connection. The second, In the Valley of Solace, documents the life of a young woman who left urban China to live alone and off-the-land in a remote river valley in Yunnan Province.
I am an Affiliated Filmmaker at the Visual Anthropology Lab in Cambridge and a member of The Explorers Club in New York City.
Dr Jan-Jonathan Bock
Deputy Head, ‘Strengthening Democracy’ division, Hertie Foundation
PhD Social Anthropology, 2015
MPhil Social Anthropology, 2011
BA Human, Social and Political Sciences, 2010
Since obtaining my PhD in 2015, I’ve worked in policymaking, educational charities, and democracy initiatives.
I first worked as Research Fellow at the interdisciplinary Woolf Institute in Cambridge. I co-led a project examining intercultural and interfaith relations across Italy, Germany, India and the Gulf region. I then became Programme Director of educational institution, Cumberland Lodge, designing and delivering education programmes for global future leaders in the fields of democracy, social cohesion and pluralism.
I now work at the Hertie Foundation, one of Germany’s largest philanthropic organisations. The Foundation strengthens democratic life through projects that encourage active citizenship and civic participation, and champion greater public involvement of young people. I focus on our debating and European programmes.
Johannes Laubmeier
Writer
MPhil Social Anthropology, 2014
I work as an author and reporter. My reportage, ‘The quest to identify Victim #13 - one of the thousands of migrants who have died crossing the Mediterranean’, published in The Sunday Times Magazine was shortlisted at the British Journalism Awards in 2017 for New Journalist of the Year. My first novel Das Marterl was published in Germany in 2022, and explores themes of memory, nostalgia and loss.
I also hold an MA in Critical and Cultural Theory from Cardiff University (2013) and a BA in Journalism (2012) from the University of Eichstätt, Germany.
Dr Emily Parker
Paediatric Doctor; Clinical Fellow - Clean Air Fund Partnership
BA Social Anthropology, 2011
After graduating I worked as a Fundraiser and Project Manager for various urban regeneration projects. This helped me realise I wasn’t cut out for an office role, and I switched to clinical work in 2014 with a job as an Occupational Therapy Assistant in neuro-rehabilitation. I completed the Newcastle University accelerated medicine programme in 2019, and then began work as a doctor.
In 2022-23, I undertook a one-off role as a Sustainability Fellow in Paediatric Medicine. This was the first time I had connected my personal commitment to reducing my environmental impact with my professional role as a doctor.
New recommendations now call for doctors to learn about the health impacts of air pollution and inform their patients and, in 2024, I joined the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) as a Clinical Fellow to work on this directive. Our team are developing educational materials for healthcare professionals, establishing an RCPCH policy on air pollution, and creating an advocacy toolkit for healthcare professionals to engage in conversations encouraging system-level change.
Social Anthropology has given me a unique and invaluable perspective on medicine. It has provided the skills to combine my clinical work with policy, advocacy and research around broader issues affecting human health.
