Section: Studying Social Anthropology
Social Anthropology is the comparative study of human conduct and thought in their social contexts. Societies around the world vary enormously in their social, cultural and political forms, while their individual members display a huge diversity of ideas and behaviour. The study of these variations, and the common humanity which underlies them and renders them intelligible to outsiders, lies at the heart of social anthropology. While the subject matter overlaps to some extent with that of sociology, human geography and development studies, social anthropology is also closely linked to history and philosophy.
Information about our Undergraduate Programmes is available on the Undergraduate Teaching Office website.
Information about our Postgraduate Programmes is available on the Graduate School of Social and Political Studies website.
The ESRC, through its Researcher Development Initiative, has agreed to fund a new Anthropology postgraduate training consortium, linking Edinburgh, Aberdeen, St Andrews and Glasgow.
Two annual five-day residential courses are planned. The first course targets students at the pre-fieldwork level and the second is aimed at those are at a fairly advanced stage of writing up.
The pre-fieldwork course will run over four days and will involve 6 half-day sessions, each combining a plenary workshop with smaller break-out groups. One distinguished UK anthropologist will be invited to attend the entire course, and will open the programme with a formal lecture, on a subject of his/her choice. Workshop topics include: writing fieldnotes; politics and ethics; working in a second language; visual methodologies; archival research; and material methodologies including issues of property and ownership.
The advanced (post-fieldwork) course will include plenary workshops, with break-out groups to address key topics in the building of research careers, both within and outside the academy and a series of parallel master-classes lead by distinguished international guests, allowing students to present their work and receive feedback from some of the most exciting innovators in world anthropology. Each day will close with a plenary lecture from one of the international visitors, drawing on their current research-in-progress.
The workshops will cover the following areas: anthropological publishing; grants and research careers; researching for policy and practice; and innovation ethnography.
This page was published on 3 May 2012