Annals: Departmental reports and staff listings

University of Wales, Lampeter

 Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Wales, Lampeter, Ceredigion, Wales, UK, SA48 7ED
T: 01570 424732, F: 01570 423669
W: http://www.uwtsd.ac.uk/aha/

Departmental report

At Lampeter, teaching and research in anthropology take place within the context of an interdisciplinary liberal educational and research framework, providing a stimulating environment for our activities. Specialist research and teaching interests in Anthropology are being strengthened by the introduction of a new MA in Anthrozoology. The first intake of students will take place in October 2008. This development is supported by our laboratory space, which has provision for faunal analysis and for physical anthropology. Current staff involved in teaching and researching Anthrozoology include Sam Hurn and Penny Dransart. Their anthropological interests are complemented in archaeology by the work of Ros Coard, whose teaching and research interests include the inferring of the behaviour of major carnivores in the past (palaeoethology) and, in particular, the archaeological evidence for large cat predation. A group of mainly undergraduate students have set up their own Anthrozoology Society and they organise a lively programme of events, including weekly seminars, presented by students and staff, and field visits to various places in West Wales.

A well attended Wales Anthropology Day was a great success in June 2007. It is being used as a model for other themed study days in the university. The department is to hold further events in June 2008: a second Wales Anthropology Day and another called Wales Mediterranean Day, which will be interdisciplinary, including participation between Archaeology, Anthropology, Classics and Theology & Religious Studies. Initiatives such as these study days as well as the teaching of Anthropology at Foundation level, have resulted in a healthy level of interest in our undergraduate schemes. In the last year we have had the first graduates from the e-learning BA Anthropology and the e-learning MA in Social Anthropology. This consolidates our pioneering work on the creation of the e-learning anthropology degrees that started in 2001.

Another new development in the Department is The Sophia Centre for Cosmology in Culture, directed by Nick Campion and funded by the Sophia Trust. Its interests are in historically recorded as well as in contemporary lived experience. The aim of the centre is to investigate the role of cosmological, astrological and astronomical beliefs, models and ideas in human culture, including the theory and practice of myth, magic, divination, religion, spirituality, politics and the arts.

We wish to congratulate Sam Hurn on the award of her doctorate and for winning a Journal of Material Culture student bursary in June 2006 for a forthcoming article in the journal. In spring 2007, Penny Dransart was awarded a Visiting Fellowship at the Sainsbury Research Unit, University of East Anglia, which culminated in a workshop, jointly organised by George Lau, held on 20 June 2007 on the theme of ‘Light, water and colours in the Americas’ with invited participants from Britain, Bolivia, the USA and the Netherlands. Ángels Trias i Valls was awarded the first national C-SAP associate award (2008-2009) to develop an anthropology project regarding the learning and teaching of anthropology, and also undertook a national audit for the HEA Gender study-Group, BSA and C-SAP on the pedagogical provision of gender studies in anthropology, which is currently being completed. Paul Rainbird was elected to the Council of the RAI.

Teaching Staff

Penelope Dransart (DPhil Oxford; Reader) Human-herd animal interactions, textiles, dress and identity, iconography and material culture of belief and ritual; Andes and Scotland

Samantha Hurn (PhD UCL; Lecturer) Cross-cultural interactions between humans and non-human animals (anthrozoology); the anthropology of Europe, especially rural Wales and Andalusia, Spain

Ángels Trias i Valls (PhD Queen’s; Lecturer) Gift exchange, hierarchy and social inequality, gender, use of communication technologies; Japan, Wales

Other Teaching Staff

Nick Campion (PhD West of England; Senior Lecturer) History of astrology and astronomy; the place of both disciplines in contemporary culture; millenarian and apocalyptic belief, magic, New Age and pagan ideas and practices, the sociology of new religious movements and the nature of belief

Ros Coard (PhD Sheffield; Lecturer) Human evolution and the archaeology of the earliest humans; Pakistan and Western Europe

Sarah Daligan (MA Wales) E-Learning Tutor in Anthropology

Maya Warrier (PhD Cambridge; Lecturer in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies) Popular Hinduism, modernity and globalisation; popular religion and culture among immigrant Hindu populations in Britain; modern transnational Hindu religious movements; Ayurveda, alternative spiritualities and holistic health in contemporary Britain

Honorary Research Fellow

Elizabeth Reichel-Dolmatoff (PhD Cornell) Ethnoecology, gender, symbolic anthropology, cosmology; Amazonia

Head of Department: Paul Rainbird (PhD Sydney; Senior Lecturer) Archaeology of island societies and of colonial encounter; Micronesia

Administrator: Mrs Ann Mackie (a.mackie(AT)lamp.ac.uk

Special resources and facilities

Libraries

In addition to the main University Library, the Department houses a special anthropology library with books from Rosemary Firth. There is a video collection. The Founders’ Library, which houses the University’s oldest printed books (1470-1850) and manuscripts (from the thirteenth century), contains material of anthropological interest. It is an important resource for teaching and research. The Roderic Bowen Library, an extension to the Main Library, has been built to house these special collections. This facility has improved access for disabled readers and it has climatically controlled storage conditions.

Laboratories

The Department of Archaeology and Anthropology has dedicated laboratory space for the teaching of both material culture and physical anthropology and is well supported by comprehensive collections. Our material culture collections include pottery, stone tools, metal work, worked bone and textiles. The material used in the teaching of physical anthropology is supported by a collection of casts of our earliest ancestors and of some modern humans. The department is also well served by a comprehensive collection of animal bones from fossil archaeological sites and by modern comparative faunas. These are used extensively for teaching and research, particularly in the areas of human-animal relationships.

University Media Centre

This centre houses a substantial TV studio, contributory sound studio, subtitling and digital editing facilities and a new multi-camera e-broadcasting unit with streaming capabilities.

University Computing Services

All registered students are entitled to an account on the University computer network. The University Computing Service maintains well equipped workstation rooms located in various parts of the campus. Students are able to enter into an agreement with the UCS to obtain a network connection to university accommodation in halls.