Annals: Departmental reports and staff listings

University of Kent

The Marlowe Building, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NR
T. 01227 827928 F: 01227 827289
E: anthro-office(AT)kent.ac.uk W: http://www.kent.ac.uk/anthropology

Degrees offered in anthropology

Undergraduate:

Single honours: BA Social Anthropology, BSc Anthropology, BSc Biological Anthropology, BSc Medical Anthropology

Combined honours in Social Anthropology and Archaeology, Accounting and Finance, Cultural Studies, Economics, History, Law, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, Social Policy and Sociology or with a European language

Graduate:

(Taught) MA in Social Anthropology; Social Anthropology and Computing; Visual Anthropology. MA and MSc in Environmental Anthropology. MSc in Ethnobotany; Evolution and Human Behaviour.

(Research) MA, MSc, MPhil, PhD

Social programmes

Four-year BA degree in social anthropology with a language, including a year’s anthropological study abroad: in Finland, The Netherlands, Denmark and Japan, the language of instruction is English; in France, Spain, Italy and Germany it is the language of the country. Four-year BSc degree in anthropology with a year in Europe or Japan. Four-year BSc degree in biological anthropology with a year in the USA.

Departemental report

In accordance with university policy, from August 2009 the department (which includes the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology) will change its name to the School of Anthropology and Conservation.

The anthropology side of the School continues to expand, and first year recruitment has now reached 120, split evenly between the BA and BSc degrees. This expansion reflects an increasing interest in anthropology among school-leavers fuelled by a strong recruitment programme in the south-east region in which open days and visits to local schools have played a major part. The anthropology BA and BSc degrees with a year overseas have proved very popular, especially the degrees with a year in Japan. Denmark has now also been added to the portfolio.

Postgraduate level numbers have improved. The specialist MSc programmes in Ethnobotany and Environmental anthropology continue to recruit well, and the MA in Visual anthropology has been substantially strengthened with professional practical components that appeal strongly to students. A new MSc in Evolution and Human Behaviour has been launched following from staff recruitment in biological anthropology.

We have attracted post-doctoral research staff through Leverhulme awards and through the Marie-Curie fellowship scheme and the Urgent Anthropology Research Fellowship, which we continue to host. We have healthy postgraduate research numbers. There are currently approximately 30 students enrolled for the PhD programmes in anthropology, with a further 16 arriving this year. Our vigorous research culture manifests itself in the regular Tuesday seminar research seminar with guest speakers, the annual Paul Stirling lecture – in November 2008 given by Professor Robin Dunbar – and in the encouragement of staff and students to present papers at and attend international conferences.

There are some staff changes to report. Sadly, after more than twenty years at the University of Kent, Bill Watson retired in 2008. Bill remains Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology and Multicultural Studies. We have been joined by Michael Poltorac, who was appointed to a position in Social Anthropology from the beginning of 2009. Biological Anthropology has been substantially strengthened with the appointment in 2008 of Stephen Lycett, Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel and Patrick Mahony. The new head of School is Professor Douglas Macmillan from the DICE side of the School. The representative head on the anthropology side is Roger Just.

Staff list

Glenn Bowman: Palestine; Yugoslavia; nationalism and ethnicity; tourism; visual anthropology (photography); religion.

Melissa Demian, (PhD Cambridge): Papua New Guinea; Kinship and exchange, gender, property theory, legality and legal pluralisms, aesthetics, temporality; Melanesian ethnography

Christine Eagle: IT technical advisor and lecturer in statistics

Professor Roy Ellen, FBA, (PhD LSE): South-East Asia, Eastern Indonesia, Ethnobiology, cognitive anthropology, classifications, ecology and environmental anthropology.

Professor Michael Fischer,  (PhD Texas): South Asia, Pakistan, the South Pacific, the Cook islands. Anthropology and computing; computer modelling.

Patrick Mahony, (PhD Sheffield): Biological anthropology, forensic anthropology, osteology, bioarcheology in the prehistoric Levant.

Sarah Johns, (PhD Bristol): Hominin evolution and behaviour; history of evolutionary theory; evolutionary psychology; human sexual behaviour.

Professor Roger Just (PhD Oxford): Greece, north Mediterranean; Ethnicity and Nationalism; kinship; fishing communities, anthropological theory; philosophy.

Stephen Lycett, (PhD Cambridge): Biological anthropology and palaeolithic archaeology, palaeoanthropology, cultural transmission theory and the evolution of material culture

Nicholas Newton-Fisher (PhD Bristol): Primates, especially chimpanzees, behavioural ecology and the evolution of social systems.

Peter Parkes, (DPhil, Oxford): Pakistan (Hindu Kush); Turkmenistan social structure; ritual; oral literature and performance; visual anthropology; agro-pastoral production; adoption and fostering.

Daniela Peluso, (PhD Columbia University): Amazonia. Kinship, gender, development, environmental anthropology.

Raj Puri, (PhD University of Hawaii): South-east Asia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Europe. Environmental anthropology, ethnobiology, historical ecology, methods, conservation, development, water, climate change.

Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel, (PhD Cambridge): Biological anthropology; evolutionary anthropology; palaeolithic stone tools; craniometric variation

Anna Waldstein, (PhD University of Georgia): Mexico, British Isles. Medical anthropology, ethnopharmacology, medical ecology, nutrition and health and traditional medical systems.

Professor David Zeitlyn (PhD Cambridge): Cameroon and Nigeria; West Africa. Religion; anthropological linguistics; biography and autobiography; kinship and population history; photography; research methods; computing applications.

Part-time Teaching Staff

Professor Patricia Howard (PhD Wisconsin) Central America; ethnobotany, political ecology, food commodity systems

Gary Martin, (PhD Berkeley) Mexico; Sabah; Morocco. Ethnobotany; Applied ethnobiology in relation to integrated development and wildlife conservation.

Research Staff

Novellino, Dario (PhD Kent): Urgent Anthropology Research Fellow: Southeast Asia; Ethnobotany; environmental anthropology.

Deter, Christine (PhD UCL): Bioarchaeology; forensic anthropology

Julian Lee (PhD, Melbourne): ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow: Malaysia; politics; multiculturalism and violence.

Simon Platten (PhD University of Kent): Indonesia and the British Isles. Small-scale cultivation and socio-cultural change.  Ethnobotany of food crops.  Environmental anthropology; Eden Project link person.

Professor Thomas Thornton (PhD, Washington): Urgent Anthropology Research Fellow: Native North America; applied anthropology; environmental anthropology.

Staff in other Departments

Axel Klein (PhD SOAS) Kent Institute of Medicine and Health Sciences: Africa, Caribbean. drug dependence, substance abuse, addiction

Honorary Members:

Adams, Dr Cameron (PhD, Georgia): Central America; medical anthropology; biological anthropology

Adams, Dr Mary ((PhD Kent): Southern Africa; religion; gender; family livlihood strategies

M. Alexiades, (PhD CUNY): Amazonian medicinal plants and non-timber forest products, community development and the broad range of issues related to environmental struggles and environmental identities in tropical forests.

Bicker, Alan: Pakistan; Africa; Polish resistance in northern France; indigenous knowledge.

Butcher, Mary: Europe; basket-making

Cantwell, Dr Cathy (PhD Kent) Ritual and religious organisation; refugee communities; Buddhism, North India, Tibet.

Colclough, Dr Nevill (PhD LSE) History and anthropology, political systems; Italy.

Connell, Dr Bruce (PhD Edinburgh) Linguistics; Africa: Nigeria, Cameroon.

Delibas, Dr Kayhan (PhD Kent) Islam; Middle East politics; globalisation; modernisation.

Eades, Professor Jerry (PhD Cambridge) Urban anthropology, development; West Africa, Japan, China.

Hann, Professor Chris (PhD Cambridge) Economic and political anthropology, ethnicity; Eastern Europe, Turkey, China especially Central Asia.

Heinrich, Prof Michael, School of Pharmacy, London.

Henfrey, Dr Tom (PhD Kent) Environmental anthropology, Guyana.

Kesby, John (DPhil Oxford) Cultural regions, ritual and belief systems; East Africa (Tanzania).

Klapper, Dr Stefanie (PhD Kent): human ecology; historical ecology

Kocher-Schmid, Dr Christin (PhD Basel) Ethnobiology, cognitive anthropology, constructions of identity, arts and aesthetics; Papua New Guinea.

Lyon, Dr Wenonah (PhD Texas) Cognitive anthropology, gender, development, medical anthropology; Pakistan.

Robert Mayer (PhD SOAS, PhD Leiden): Ritual and religious organisation, refugee communities; Buddhism, North India, Tibet.

Nesbitt, Dr Mark (PhD Reading, Centre for Economic Botany, Kew) Ethnobotany; archaeobotany; economic botany.

Yoshitaka Ota (PhD UCL): Pulau; N-E Kent; France; maritime anthropology; conservation.

Prato, Dr Giuliana (PhD London) Political anthropology, popular culture, migration. Italy, Balkans.

Pardo, Dr Italo (PhD London; Honorary Reader) Political anthropology, urbanism, elites, legitimacy; Italy.

Pritchard, Dr. Diana (PhD, LSE): Impact of conservation

Renshaw, Dr Jonathan (PhD LSE) Rural development; Latin America, S. Asia.

Veltman, Mr Rob (MA Lancaster) Linguistics.

Executive Officer: Susan Simpson

Anthropology Secretaries: Jan Horn (undergraduate), Nicola Kerry-Yoxall (postgraduate), Shelley Malekia (postgraduate/admissions), Caroline Grundy (reception), Chris Williams. 

Requirements for taught MA: Six written pieces of coursework, 10,000-word dissertation

Requirements for PhD: Three years’ registration, 80,000-word dissertation

Academic year system: Two 12-week terms and one 6-week term

Special resources and facilities

Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE); Ethnobiology laboratory; links with Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew; Biological Anthropology laboratory; links with Powell-Cotton Museum, Birchington; Centre for Social Anthropology and Computing; four Sun servers maintained by the department, and undergraduate microcomputer laboratory and graduate research room with Macintosh IBM-compatible machines; laser printing and optical reading/scanning capability.

Departmental series

CSAC Monograph Series

Ethnographics Gallery. http://lucy.kent.ac.uk/

Experience Rich Anthropology: http://lucy.kent.ac.uk/

For prospectus write to:

Undergraduate: Admissions Office, Registry, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NZ.

Graduate:  Graduate Office, Registry, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7NS.

For further information, write to: Anthropology Secretary, Marlowe Building, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NR.