Section: Staff Profiles

John Harries

Name
Dr John Harries
Title
Honorary Fellow
Organisation
Social Anthropology, School of Social and Political Science
University of Edinburgh
Address
Edinburgh UK EH8 9NW
Telephone
+44 (0)131 651 1163
E-Mail
URL
http://www.san.ed.ac.uk/staff/harries_john

Research Interests

  • Bones, things, landscapes and the affective presence of the past

  • Senses, imagination and the environment

  • Newfoundland, the Beothuk and the cultural politics of indigeneity in North America

  • Anthropological approaches to the study of public administration

  • The historiography of travel and tourism

Biographical Statement

Over the last few years I have been conducting research concerning the ways in which the people of Newfoundland, Canada, remember the Beothuk, a native people of that island who became extinct (or were exterminated) in the early 19th century. Through this research I have been addressing the question of how we may theorise the presence of the past. This is particularly a concern with the material traces of past lives, be they human bones or scratches on stones, and how these traces are enfolded into the work of individual and collective memory. This work is presently being prepared as a monograph entitled Beothuk Ghosts: Memory, Materiality and the Politics of Postcolonial Regret in Newfoundland.

This concern with the material traces of the past and politics of heritage and commemoration has lead me to become a founding member of the bones collective - a network of anthropologists, archaeologists, historians and artists who are concerned with the "emotive materiality" and "affective presence" of human remains. For more information see: http://www.san.ed.ac.uk/research/bones_collective

Other research interests are associated with projects concerning the organisation and integration of health and social care services in the UK, and in particular the ways in which one may apply anthropological approaches to the understanding of "management" in these settings.

Finally, building upon my interest in the temporality of physical world and the sensous presence of the past, I have been involved with Sawyer Seminar Series entitled "Embodied Values: Bringing the Sense Back to the Enviroment, which is being hosted by the Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh (see: http://www.iash.ed.ac.uk/Sawyer/Home.html). Additionally, I am developing, in collaboration with colleagues at the Edinburgh College of Art and elsewhere, a research network concerning "capital ruins", which will be focussed on the experience of time in sites of urban regeneration in Edinburgh and other cities.

Selected Publications

“Contributions of ethnography to the study of public services management", with Guro Huby and Suzanne Grant. Public Management Review 12 (1) January 2011.

"The substance of bones: the emotive materiality and affective presence of human remains", with Cara Krmpotich and Joost Fontein. Journal of Material Culture 15 (4) December 2010: 371-384.

"Of bleeding skulls and the postcolonial uncanny: bones and the presence of Nonosabasut and Demasduit". Journal of Material Culture 15 (4) December 2010: 371-384.

"Supporting reconfiguration of social care roles in the UK", with Guro Huby, Pamela Warner, Eddie Donaghy, Richard Lee, Linda Williams, Peter Huxley, Sherrill Evans, Chris Barker, Jo White and Sally Philpin. Report Prepared for the Department of Health. 2010. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/content/1/c6/03/89/23/Hubyetal2010Reconfiguration-FinalReport.pdf 

Forthcoming and in progress

"Encountering the past: unearthing human remains in archaeology and anthropology, with Paola Filippucci, Joost Fontein and Cara Krmpotich, in Archaeology and Anthropology: Past, Present and Future, ed. David Shankland. Oxford: Berg. Forthcoming 2011.

Beothuk Ghosts: Memory, Materiality and the Poetics of Postcolonial Regret in Newfoundland. Book manuscript being prepared for McGill-Queen's University Press.

"A stone that fits close in the hand, the bones of a caribou and the sound of snow falling on dead leaves: sensing the presence of the past in the wilds of Newfoundland". Being revised for resubmission to History and Anthropology.

"The matter of bones", with Joost Fontein. Being revised for submission to the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

Rocks

This page was published on 3 March 2011


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