Annals: Departmental reports and staff listings
Durham University
Anthropology Department, Durham University, Dawson Building, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE.
www.dur.ac.uk/anthropology/
Durham Departmental Report – Bob Simpson, Head of Department
The department has teaching and research strengths in both biological and social areas of the discipline [ www.dur.ac.uk/anthropology/ ]. We place strong emphasis on interdisciplinarity with a range of collaborations taking place between natural/ physical scientists and social/ biological anthropologists. Our research strengths include empirical and field-based studies of environment, energy and development, human subject experimentation and ethics, animal-human relations, social learning, evolutionary medicine, health and well-being, international health and development, public culture, understanding human behaviour and cultural evolution. We maintain high levels of engagement with the Durham Energy Institute, Wolfson Research Institute, the Institute of Hazard, Risk & Resilience and the Institute of Advanced Study. We have also developed a number of collaborative lab-based research activities both at Queen’s Campus (sleep and infancy, reproductive ecology and hormones, ambulatory assessment) and at Durham (Bio-Archaeology). We run six taught masters degrees (Socio-cultural Anthropology, Sustainability Culture and Development, Medical Anthropology, Evolutionary Medicine and Evolutionary Anthropology) as well as an ESRC approved MA in Research Methods. These degrees are closely linked to our research groups[Public Culture in Theory and Practice, Evolutionary Anthropology Research Group, Anthropology in Development, Medical Anthropology Research Group].
The department hosts editorial offices for History & Anthropology (Dr Steve Lyon), and the International Journal of Primatology (Dr Jo Setchell).
Research income is currently in excess of £1million per annum. Recently completed and currently ongoing awards include: Towards an engaged anthropology [Nuffield Foundation £148,807], Identifying Social Learning [The Royal Society £262,489], NorthEast Cot Trials [Newcastle NHS Trust], Pigs, People & Neolithisation of Europe [NERC £93,747], Early determinants of reproduction [Wellcome, £70,000], The Children of Ephraim [AHRC, £127,481], Tipping points: mathematics, metaphors and meaning [Leverhulme, £150,885], Revealing "alcohol narratives" [ Just4youth, £52,570], Biomedical and Health Experimentation [ESRC/DfID, £164,161], Mammal conservation in south Africa [Earthwatch, £53,992], Customer Led Network Revolution [Ofgem, Low Carbon Network, £343,924.24], Infant Sleep Information Source (ISIS) Project [ESRC £96,087], Volunteers, donors and vendors: gamete transactions in Sri Lanka [Wellcome, £104,184].
The Department’s postgraduate community has continued to grow at a high rate, currently with 80 research students and between six and twelve students on each of our six taught masters programmes. Research students are funded by ESRC, MRC, NERC, Wellcome and Wenner-Gren. Our Postgraduate Annual conference is now a large event attended by the whole department, with prizes awarded for the best student talks and posters. We also hosted the first RAI PG conference in November 2011. The Department hosts the annual Writing Across Boundaries workshop for PhD students [an ESRC DTC advanced training event.. www.dur.ac.uk/writingacrossboundaries/
Details of other postgraduate support and activity can be found in our monthly postgraduate newsletter: (www.dur.ac.uk/anthropology/postgraduate/pgnewsletter/)
Academic/teaching staff
Helen L Ball (PhD, Professor, Director of Postgraduate Studies) Behaviour and physiology of infant sleep, Child sleep and obesity, Evolutionary medicine, Human behaviour, Parenting, infant care, infant mortality, SIDS, infanticide, Human reproduction, Midwifery and postnatal care
h.l.ball(AT)durham.ac.uk
Robert A Barton (PhD, Professor) Behavioural ecology and sociobiology, Comparative studies of brain size and structure in relation to behavioural ecology, Evolution of mamalian reproductive traits, Primate evolution and behaviour
r.a.barton(AT)durham.ac.uk
Sandra Bell (PhD, Senior Lecturer, Deputy Director of Durham Energy Institute) Environmental anthropology, European wetlands, Interdisciplinarity, Socio-technical systems of energy, Western Buddhism
sandra.bell(AT)durham.ac.uk)
Gillian Bentley (PhD, Professor) Medical anthropology, Human reproduction, Infant health
g.r.bentley(AT)durham.ac.uk
Alan Bilsborough (PhD, Emeritus Professor) Human evolution, the functional basis for cranial diversity in early hominids, the reconstruction of evolutionary patterns, the interaction of social and biological variables in human biology, patterns of nutrition and disease
alan.bilsborough(AT)durham.ac.uk
Trudi Buck (PhD, Teaching Fellow) The evolution of human craniofacial diversity, Early human migrations, Biological anthropology from material culture, Forensic anthropology, Applications of geometric morphometrics to human evolution, Public engagement with science and anthropology
t.j.buck(AT)durham.ac.uk
Ben Campbell (PhD, Lecturer) Development Anthropology, Nepal, Kinship
ben.campbell(AT)durham.ac.uk
Matei Candea (PhD, Lecturer) The nature and limits of relationality, Alterity in Corsica, Gabriel Tarde, Interspecies sociality
matei.candea(AT)durham.ac.uk
Michael B Carrithers (PhD, Professor) Nature of publics and public sphere, Rhetoric and culture, Rhetoric of photography, Sociality, Narrative as a form of social and cultural understanding, Theories of interaction, dialogism and mutualism, activity theory, East Germany
m.b.carrithers(AT)durham.ac.uk
Peter J Collins (PhD, Senior Lecturer) Aesthetics, Britain, Kenya, Hospitals, Qualitative research methods, Religion, ritual and symbolism, Space and place, Stress
p.j.collins(AT)durham.ac.uk
Iain Edgar (PhD, Senior Lecturer) Humanistic groupwork in research and teaching, Imagination and dreaming, Welfare and community care
i.r.edgar(AT)durham.ac.uk
Yulia Egorova (PhD, Senior Lecturer) Jewish communities in Asia and Africa, Religions of South Asia, Socio-cultural implications of genomics, Judaising movements
yulia.egorova(AT)durham.ac.uk
Charles Gullick (PhD, part-time lecturer) Latin America, West Indies, Europe and the Mediterranean, Cognitive and cultural anthropology, Ethnohistory, Folklore and material culture, Intercultural communications and management studies
c.j.m.r.gullick(AT)durham.ac.uk
Kate Hampshire (PhD, Senior Lecturer) Africa, Demography, Health and disease, Human ecology, Livelihood strategies and security, Nomads, migrants and other mobile populations, Pastoralists, Sahel
k.r.hampshire(AT)durham.ac.uk
Russell Hill (PhD, Reader, Director of Research) Primate Behaviour and Ecology, Predator-Prey Interactions, Felid Behaviour and Ecology, Conservation and Human-Wildlife Conflict
r.a.hill(AT)durham.ac.uk
Jeremy Kendal (PhD, RCUK Fellow/Lecturer) Innovation, Social learning, Gene-culture coevolution, Cultural evolution and niche construction, Controlled laboratory experiments, Computer simulation and mathematical modelling
jeremy.kendal(AT)durham.ac.uk
Rachel Kendal (PhD, Royal Society Dorothy Hogkin Fellow/Lecturer) Social Learning, Behavioural Innovation, Cultural Evolution, Applications to Welfare and Conservation
rachel.kendal(AT)durham.ac.uk
Elisabeth Kirtsoglou (PhD, Lecturer) Gender and sexuality, Same-sex relations, Mediterranean Ethnography, Greece, Consumption, Globalisation, Terrorism
elisabeth.kirtsoglou(AT)durham.ac.uk
Kris Fire Kovarovic (PhD, Lecturer) African Plio-Pleistocene palaeoecology, Early hominin environments and methods for reconstructing habitats, Faunal community ecology, Mammalian functional morphology (particularly ungulates), Tracing environmental change
kris.kovarovic(AT)durham.ac.uk
Jamie Lawson (PhD, Teaching Fellow) Evolutionary psychology and behavioural ecology of human mating strategy and attractiveness, evolutionary approaches to the study of same-sex oriented sexual behaviour in humans, within-sex variation in mating strategy and the impact of Life History theory on individual reproductive and sexual decisions.
j.f.lawson(AT)durham.ac.uk
Robert Layton (PhD, Emeritus Professor) Anthropology and archaeology of art in non-literate societies, Evolution of social behaviour, Indigenous land rights, Social change, especially among French peasants and Australian Aborigines
r.h.layton(AT)durham.ac.uk
Stephen Lyon (PhD, Senior Lecturer) Conflict resolution, political and legal anthropology, E-Social Science, Islam, Pakistan
s.m.lyon(AT)durham.ac.uk
Claudia Merli (PhD, Lecturer) Medical anthropology, Reproductive health, Gender, Embodiment, Thailand, Muslim minority, Female genital cutting, Male circumcision, Ethnopsychiatry, Culture-bound syndromes, Natural hazards and religion, Tsunami
claudia.merli(AT)durham.ac.uk
Nayanika Mookherjee (PhD, Reader) Anthropology of politics, state, violence, memory, and human rights, Gendered violence during wars, Affective apparatus (museums, memorials), senses and the nation-state, Political kinship, genetics and transnational adoption, Ethics, Diasporic communities and South Asia
nayanika.mookherjee(AT)durham.ac.uk
Stavroula Pipyrou (PhD, Teaching Fellow) Political anthropology, European ethnography, Mafia and 'illegal' organisations, Civil society and economic sustainability, Kinship and relatedness, Power and governance, Conflict resolution, Refugee identity, Anthropology of dance, Death, Italy, Greece, Turkey
stavroula.pipyrou(AT)durham.ac.uk
Tessa Pollard (PhD, Senior Lecturer) Evolutionary perspectives on 'western' diseases, Lifestyle, inequalities and cardiovascular diseases/type 2 diabetes, The health of migrant populations in the UK, especially in relation to South Asians, Early life influences on health in relation to populations in transition, Stress and health
t.m.pollard(AT)durham.ac.uk
Andrew Russell (DPhil, Senior Lecturer) Applied anthropology and development, Cross-cultural education, Medical anthropology, especially reproduction and contraception, Migration, Nepal, Perceptions and use of environment
a.j.russell(AT)durham.ac.uk
Jo Setchell (PhD, Senior Lecturer) Growth and ontogeny, Interactions between hormones, immunity and reproduction, Reproductive strategies, Secondary sexual traits and signalling in males and females, Socioendocrinology, Primate behavioural ecology, Sexual selection, Life history strategies and phenotypic plasticity, Ethnoprimatology
joanna.setchell(AT)durham.ac.uk
Paul Sillitoe (ScD, Professor) Development and social change, Economic anthropology and tribal socio-political orders, Environmental anthropology and natural resources management, Human ecology and ethnosciences, Indigenous knowledge and participating development, Livelihood and technology, Melanesia and South Asia
paul.sillitoe(AT)durham.ac.uk
Veronica Strang (PhD, Professor, Director of the Institute of Advanced Study) Environment, Water, Landscape, Multidisciplinarity.
Bob Simpson (PhD, Professor) Comparative bioethics, Kinship and the new reproductive and genetic technologies, Kinship, divorce, and relationship breakdown in Western societies, Narrative and biography, Sri Lanka, ritual tradition and performance
robert.simpson(AT)durham.ac.uk
Malcolm Smith (PhD, Senior Lecturer) Current patterns of human evolution, inferred from genetic studies of contemporary British populations and predicted from historical demography, Historical genetics, inbreeding, Migration and the distribution of surnames
malcolm.smith(AT)durham.ac.uk
Una Strand Viðarsdóttir (PhD, Lecturer) Craniofacial growth, Development of modern human shape variation (hard tissues), Human evolution, Geometric morphometric techniques to study changes in craniofacial form during ontogeny
una.vidarsdottir(AT)durham.ac.uk
Jamie Tehrani (PhD, RCUK Fellow/Lecturer) The evolution and transmission of tradition, The phylogenetic analysis of culture, The spread of rug-weaving in Western and Central Asia, Cross-cultural analysis of folktales, Tattooing and body ornamentation across cultures
jamie.tehrani(AT)durham.ac.uk
Thomas Yarrow (PhD, Lecture) The anthropology of development; institutional knowledge; NGOs and civil society; life-history and personal narrative; enactments of 'modernity'; Interdisciplinarity (specifically archaeology and anthropology); conservation and heritage practice.
Gavin Weston (DPhil, Teaching Fellow) Anthropology of violence, Guatemala, Human rights, Latin America, Legal anthropology, Vigilantism
gavin.weston(AT)durham.ac.uk
Research Staff
Mwenza Blell (PhD, Research Associate) Health, culture and the body, Human reproductive ecology, Health issues in international development, The health of vulnerable populations in Britain and abroad
m.t.blell(AT)durham.ac.uk
Susana Carro-Ripalda (PhD, Research Associate) Children's experiences of parental migration, Personal and inter-personal processes in transnational migration, Selfhood and personhood, The rhetorical and constitutive power of emotions.
susana.carro-ripalda(AT)durham.ac.uk
Gillian Cooper (PhD,Research Associate) Appetite and body weight regulation, Hormone research, Reproductive ecology
gillian.cooper(AT)durham.ac.uk
Tom Henfrey (PhD, Research Associate) Ecology and Environment, Livelihood strategies, Latin America
t.w.henfrey(AT)durham.ac.uk
Dawn Mee (Research Associate) Medical anthropology
dawn.mee(AT)durham.ac.uk
Papreen Nahar (PhD, Research Associate)
papreen.nahar(AT)durham.ac.uk
Alejandra Nunez-de-la-Mora (PhD, Research Associate) Developmental effects on reproductive function in migrant Bangladeshi women
alejandra.nunez(AT)durham.ac.uk
Gina Porter (PhD, Senior Research Fellow) Africa, Nigeria, Spatial perspectives, Child mobility and transport, Social networks of refugee youth, Agricultural marketing and market institutions, People/environment relationships, NGOs
r.e.porter(AT)durham.ac.uk
Charlotte Russell (PhD, Research Associate) Craniometric analysis of British and Danish archaeological populations
c.k.russell(AT)durham.ac.uk
Salla Sariola (PhD, Research Associate) South Asian studies, science and technology, gender and sexuality
salla.sariola(AT)durham.ac.uk