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Durham Centre for the Anthropology of Health

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The Durham Centre for the Anthropology of Health (Previously Anthropology of Health Research Group) bridges biological and social anthropology, community medicine, evolutionary medicine, social epidemiology and public health. We work on local, regional and international scales. We aim to advance the interdisciplinary anthropological study of health, to critically debate local and international health issues, and to support impact and outreach activities.

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Durham Centre for the Anthropology of Health members

Jump to the Active Durham Centre for the Anthropology of Health members to see their current interests and recent research outputs or contact the Research Co-ordinator Dr Loretta Lou for more information. 

Seminars and Events

Many of our Anthropology of Health seminars are open to the public alongside our students and wider university community. The current Anthropology of Health Seminar Series is available lower down this page.

 

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HEAT Conference 23 - 24 April 2025

Health, Environment, and AnThropology (HEAT) 2025: Durham and Edinburgh universities bring you this two day international conference on planetary health and the environment. See the programme and book now.

HEAT Conference 2025
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Impacting the World

Anthropology Research at Durham covers a wide range of activity from the production of knowledge to advancing the discipline, to applied research for public benefit. See how anthropological perspectives benefit people both in the UK and across the world.

How our research is impacting the world

 

 

Postgraduate Study

We offer a range of postgraduate taught programmes offering the opportunity to pursue advanced specialist courses and also conversion courses from other degrees. The following Masters courses relate most closely to Anthropology of Health and the expert staff who are part of this research centre.

 

Anthropology of Health Masters Courses

MSc Medical Anthropology (L6K507)

This course engages with anthropological approaches to the study of health drawing on sociocultural, ecological and evolutionary perspectives.
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MSc Physical Activity, Health and Society (C6K009)

Our Physical Activity, Health, and Society programme examines the inequalities across physical activity, health and society.
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MSC Global and Planetary Health (L6AK07)

Global and Planetary Health aims to give you the knowledge and skills to help tackle the worlds major challenges such as climate change and viral pandemics.
Planet Earth

Masters by Research

We offer an MA in Sociocultural Anthropology by Research and the MSc in Biological Anthropology by Research.
Students chatting during a seminar

Active Durham Centre for the Anthropology of Health members

Selected research interests are shown for centre members - clicking on their names will take you to a more comprehensive profile. Centre members can also be contacted directly when exploring options for Postgraduate Research supervision.

Professor Helen Ball
  • Infant Sleep Safety, Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy (SUDI), SIDS
  • Relationship of sleeping and infant feeding methods
  • Evolutionary medicine
  • see profile for more...
Professor Jane Macnaughton
  • Medical humanities
  • Embodied and emergent symptoms
  • Movement and health
  • see profile for more...
Professor Gillian Bentley
  • Early life development and later life health
  • Evolutionary medicine
  • Reproductive ecology
  • see profile for more...
Dr Roslyn Malcolm
  • anthropology of autism and neurodivergence
  • empathy
  • gender and the body
  • human-animal studies
  • see profile for more...
Dr Hannah Brown
  • Community-Based Health Care
  • Global Health and Development
  • Health Governance
  • see profile for more...
Professor Tessa Pollard
  • Walking and walking groups
  • Using ethnography to inform interventions
  • The health of migrant populations
  • see profile for more...
Dr Liana Chase
  • Nepal and the Himalaya
  • Open Dialogue
  • global mental health
  • see profile for more...
Professor Andrew Russell
  • Medical anthropology
  • Tobacco (its use and control)
  • Public Health Anthropology
  • see profile for more...
Professor Kate Hampshire
  • Critical medical anthropology
  • Sub-Saharan Africa (especially West Africa)
  • digital technologies and health
  • see profile for more...
Professor Bob Simpson
  • Death and Donation
  • Tissue economies
  • 'Human subject research' and the ethics
  • see profile for more...
Dr Ben Hildred
  • Cricket
  • Reconciliation
  • Social Change
  • see profile for more...
Dr Jed Stevenson
  • child development
  • hunger and thirst
  • mixed methods and epistemologies
  • see profile for more...
Dr Jack Jenkins
  • West Africa, Liberia, Sierra Leone
  • Rural Livelihoods and Development
  • Urban and Rural Transport
  • see profile for more...
Dr Johanna Thren
  • Global Medical Genetics
  • Gene anomalies
  • see profile for more...
Dr Andrea Lambell
  • Complementary therapies
  • Neurodegenerative conditions
  • Palliative care
  • see profile for more...
Dr Tom Widger
  • Suicide, self-harm, ethnopsychiatry
  • Charity, philanthropy, CSR, development
  • Religion, nationalism, politics
  • see profile for more...

 

Anthropology of Health Seminars 2024/25

Many of our Anthropology of Health seminars are open to the public alongside our students and wider university community. Some are also live streamed online. For further information about individual seminars or the whole series, please contact the Senior Research Administrator, Kate Payne (kate.payne@durham.ac.uk).

Postit note with the word seminar written in red

Please also note that our other Research Groups will be presenting their own seminar series' during this period. You can find details on their Research Group pages: Social Anthropology (SARG) and Evolutionary Anthropology (EARG).

 

MICHAELMAS TERM 2024

This period has now ended and seminar dates have all passed. See Epiphany Term 2025 dates below for upcoming events.

 

EPIPHANY TERM 2025

 

Wednesday 15 January, 13.00 - 14.30 (CLC407, Calman Learning Centre)

  • SARG & AHRG Joint-seminar
  • Chris Courtney (Durham University)
  • From Miasmatic Mists to Air-Conditioning Disease: Worrying About Humidity in Chinese History
  • Abstract to follow

 

Wednesday 22 January, 13.00 - 14.30 (D104, Dawson Building)

  • William Tantam (University of Bristol)
  • Virtual abuse, infinite harm: Conceptualising trauma with survivors of online-facilitated child sexual abuse
  • Abstract to follow

 

Wednesday 5 February, 13.00 - 15.00 (CLC407, Calman Learning Centre)

  • SARG & AHRG Joint-seminar
    • Why and how we speak with the dead: an interdisciplinary dialogue on spiritualist practices in China and the UK
  • Adam Reed (University of St Andrews)
    • Living Images: Spiritualism and the equivocations of mediumship
  • Luis Junquiera (University of Cambridge)
    • Divine Influence or Mental Power? Redefining Ritual Healing in Republican China (1912-1949)

 

Wednesday 12 February, 15.00 (CLC407, Calman Learning Centre) 

  • DEPARTMENTAL SEMINAR (DATA THEME)
  • Tom Neumark
  • Title TBA

 

Wednesday 19 February, 13.00 - 14.30 (CLC407, Calman Learning Centre)

  • Looking for biosolidarity: The struggle for community-making among eco-anxious climate activists in Britain
  • Bridget Bradley (University of St Andrews)

 

Wednesday 26 February, 15.00 (CLC407, Calman Learning Centre) 

  • DEPARTMENTAL SEMINAR (DATA THEME)
  • Alberto Acerbi (Department of Sociology and Social Research - University of Trento)
  • Title TBA

 

Wednesday 5 March, 13.00 - 14.30 (D104, Dawson Building)

  • PhD students seminar
  • Off-the-boat 

 

Wednesday 19 March, 15.00 (CLC407, Calman Learning Centre)

  • DEPARTMENTAL SEMINAR
  • Tom Widger – Inaugural Professorial Lecture
  • Title TBA

 

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Taught Courses

We offer a range of postgraduate taught programmes offering the opportunity to pursue advanced specialist courses and also conversion courses from other degrees.

Explore our taught masters programmes
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Research, Impact and Engagement

We are one of the largest departments of Anthropology in the UK, spanning social anthropology, evolutionary anthropology and the anthropology of health.

Research, Impact and Engagement

Get in touch

Contact us to find out more about undergraduate and postgraduate opportunities in our Department.

Department of Anthropology

Durham University
Dawson Building
South Road
Durham, DH1 3LE

 

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