Anthropological Research at Glasgow
Since the original Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences was founded fifty years ago, anthropological research has been conducted continuously by successive generations of staff and students at the University of Glasgow.
Among the various important contributions made by anthropologists based at the University, those of two late colleagues can be highlighted. Simon Charsley conducted doctoral research in Uganda, following this with highly influential work on, among other topics, sericulture in India, the changing nature of caste, and matrimony in Scotland.
Nicole Bourque’s work was focused, initially, on the investigation of popular religious belief and syncretism in Ecuador and Bolivia, but she went on to study religious education in schools, corporate ‘away days’ and symbolic struggles over pilgrimage routes and pilgrim identities.
Current and recent research by staff and doctoral students at University of Glasgow includes work on a number of areas of anthropology, including, but not limited to, the environment, religious experience, the body, death, language, migration, drug use, health, gender, education and tourism.
We have a strong regional focus on Central and Eastern Africa, Europe (in particular, Bulgaria, France and the UK) and North America. Our work takes in a number of theoretical perspectives, including applied anthropology, science and technology studies, museum anthropology and visual anthropology.
As anthropologists, we are committed to using research to better understand the world, inform policy and practice, and contribute to developments in theory. This comes out through our work as members of interdisciplinary projects as well as our individual research.