Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology

The Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology (ISCA) is a leading centre for anthropological teaching and research in the UK and the world. Originally established as the only centre in the UK specialising in postgraduate teaching and research within the discipline, it continues to supervise large numbers of graduate and research students. The department came top of the Power Rankings for Anthropology in the UK in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise and received a score of 5 in the 2001 equivalent exercise. Research in ISCA is particularly broad based, including not only traditional ethnographic specialisms in social anthropology, but also thematic specialisms such as visual anthropology, material anthropology and museum ethnography, medical anthropology, and cognitive and evolutionary anthropology. The Institute's links with the Pitt Rivers Museum contribute a particular strength in material culture and the anthropology of representations. In 2001, the ESRC Centre on Migration Policy and Society (COMPAS) was established within within the School of Anthropology. COMPAS is now responsible for considerable research and an MPhil programme in Migration Studies.

All episodes

Title	Description	People	Date
What's next? The National Obesity Observatory	Harry Rutter is interviewed about the National Obesity Observatory.	Harry Rutter	22 February, 2016
Hacking the Food System: Technologies of Justice and Inequality	Melissa Caldwell gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series on 3rd December 2015.	Melissa Caldwell	8 February, 2016
Food as Media	Eva Giraud gives a talk for the UBVO seminar seires on December 2nd 2015.	Eva Giraud	8 February, 2016
Celebrity Chefs as Political Activists: Audiences, Moments and Affect	Michael Goodman gives a talk for the UBVO seminar seires on 1st December 2015.	Michael Goodman	8 February, 2016
Keynote: When Food Goes Digital: From a Mundane Point of View	Steve Woolgar gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series on 30th November 2015.	Steve Woolgar	8 February, 2016
Digital Food Activism	Karin Eli and Tanja Schneider gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series on 29th November 2015.	Karin Eli, Tanja Schneider	8 February, 2016
The Who and What of Diabetes on Twitter	Mariano Berguerisse Diaz, Amy McLennan and Stanley Ulijaszek give a talk for the UBVO seminar series on 28th November 2015.	Mariano Berguerisse Díaz, Amy McLennan, Stanley Ulijaszek	8 February, 2016
Political Food Served Digitally All Day? An Online/Offline Perspective on Food- Related Political Consumerism	Katharina Witterhold gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series on 27th November 2015.	Katharina Witterhold	8 February, 2016
Marketing Conscious Consumption	Ryan Foley gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series on 26th November 2015.	Ryan Foley	8 February, 2016
Unravelling the Mediterranean migration crisis: Reflections from the field	Heaven Crawley, Coventry University, gives a talk for the COMPAS Hilary term 2016 seminar seires; 'Open the Way: Understanding the Refugee Crisis' on 21st January 2016.	Heaven Crawley	4 February, 2016
The time of our lives: Migration and slow pain	Yasmin Gunaratnam, Goldsmiths College, gives a talk for the COMPAS seminar series.	Yasmin Gunaratnam	27 January, 2016
Love and Legality: questions of wellbeing for irregular migrants and their citizen partners	Melanie Griffiths, University of Bristol, gives a talk for the COMPAS seminar series.	Melanie Griffiths	27 January, 2016
Migrants, conditionality and welfare in the UK	Peter Dwyer, University of York, gives a talk for the COMPAS seminar series.	Peter Dwyer	27 January, 2016
Beyond the 'asylum-seeking market': spaces of responsibility and moments of care within the privatisation of asylum accommodation	Jonathan Darling, University of Manchester, gives a talk for the COMPAS seminar series.	Jonathan Dwyer	27 January, 2016
Migration and the health trajectories of immigrants and host country nationals	Osea Giuntella, Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, gives a talk for the COMPAS seminar series.	Osea Giuntella	27 January, 2016
Intergenerational and inter-ethnic wellbeing of migrants: an analysis for the UK	This paper uses a UK nationally representative data set to examine the extent to which family migration history helps explains inter-ethnic variations in subjective well-being. By Cinzia Rienzo, National Institute of Economic and Social Research [NIESR].	Cinzia Rienzo	9 November, 2015
The Limits of collaboration: attempting a reciprocal Gypsy/Roman life story	In this Anthropology departmental seminar, Paloma Gay y Blasco (St Andrews) evaluates a twenty-year collaborative project she has undertaken with her Gypsy informer (15 May 2015)	Paloma Gay y Blasco	4 August, 2015
Mary Douglas Memorial Lecture 2015: The Societalization of Social Problems	Professor Jeffrey C. Alexander (Yale University) delivered the Mary Douglas Memorial Lecture on 3 June 2014 at Oxford. The lecture was 'The societalization of social problems: recent social crises and the civil sphere'	Jeffrey Alexander	4 August, 2015
Migration in the Media	Rob McNeil, COMPAS, University of Oxford, gives a talk for the Immigration and democracy in the UK COMPAS Seminar Series.	Rob McNeil	27 July, 2015
The cage of freedom: Mobility and labour in contemporary Bangkok	Claudio Sopranzetti, University of Oxford, gives a talk for the Arrival Cities COMPAS Seminar Series.	Claudio Sopranzetti	27 July, 2015
Immigration and the NHS	Carlos Vargas Silva, COMPAS, University of Oxford, gives a talk for Immigration and democracy in the UK COMPAS Seminar Series.	Carlos Vargas Silva	27 July, 2015
Damaged trust and a changing electorate?: Migration as a contemporary political issue in the UK	Scott Blinder, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, gives a talk for the Immigration and democracy in the UK COMPAS Seminar Series.	Scott Blinder	27 July, 2015
The border is everywhere: Refugee journeys in Europe	Daniel Trilling, New Humanist Magazine, gives a talk for Shifting Powers, Shifting Mobilites COMPAS Seminar Series	Daniel Trilling	27 July, 2015
The Urban Outlaw as Rights Broker	Nicholas Simcik Arese, University of Oxford, gives a talk for the Arrival Cities COMPAS Seminar Series.	Nicholas Simcik Arese	27 July, 2015
How informalities and diversification make an arrival neighborhood: International migrants in Kumkapi, Istanbul	Kristen Biehl, University of Oxford, gives a talk for the Arrival Cities COMPAS Seminar Series.	Kristen Biehl	27 July, 2015
Arrival cities under occupation? Political economies of urban consolidation and rural migration in the contemporary West Bank	Kareem Rabie, CUNY Graduate Center, gives a talk for the Arrival Cities COMPAS Seminar Series.	Kareem Rabie	27 July, 2015
The xenophobic city: Security, neoliberalisation and violence from the bottom of Aegean Sea to the centre of Athens	Dimitris Dalakoglou, University of Sussex, gives a talk for the Arrival Cities COMPAS Seminar Series.	Dimitris Dalakoglou	27 July, 2015
The scale and scope of citizenship in early modern Europe: Preliminary estimates	Chris Minns, London School of Economics, gives a talk for the Arrival Cities COMPAS Seminar Series.	Chris Minns	27 July, 2015
Safeguarding children from destitution: How do local authorities respond to families with ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’?	Sarah Spencer and Jonathan Price, COMPAS, Oxford, give a talk for the COMPAS series.	Sarah Spencer, Jonathan Price	14 July, 2015
Stacking Ontologies: Mundane Technoscience in the Silk Mill	Dimitris Papadopoulos (University of Leicester) discusses different ways to think about technoscience beyond its core institutions (13 March 2015)	Dimitris Papdopoulos	27 May, 2015
Obsessed by Love: Erotic Magic, Delirious Love and Female Power in Mozambique	Christian Groes-Green (Roskilde University Copenhagen) discusses the nature of being in love and how this is seen and discussed in Mozambique and written about in other African nations (6 March 2015)	Christian Groes-Green	27 May, 2015
Anthropology, Ethnomusicology, the Anthropology of Dance: Same Difference?	Andrée Grau (University of Roehampton) discusses the anthropology of dance and its development as a discipline of anthropology. The talk also reflects on the discipline's neglected figures (27 February 2015)	Andrée Grau	27 May, 2015
The Agency of Eating: Mediation, Food and the Body in Highland Ecuador	This Anthropology departmental seminar by Emma-Jayne Abbots (University of Wales Trinity St David) aims to define and extend the theoretical boundaries of food studies	Emma-Jayne Abbots	27 May, 2015
What can the lived experiences of white working class communities tell us about social cohesion?	This briefing explores the lived experiences and concerns of segments of the majority population in Higher Blackley, a ward in the north of Manchester. Part of the COMPAS Breakfast Breifing Series.	Daniel Silver	21 May, 2015
Lost objects, imaginary assemblages and the mass graves of the Spanish Civil War	Layla Renshaw (Kingston University London) discusses objects recovered during the exhumation of Civil War victims and considers their imaginative power and life cycle (6 February 2015)	Layla Renshaw	7 May, 2015
On representation and power: portrait of a Vodun leader in present-day Benin	An Anthropology Departmental Seminar by Emmanuelle Kadya Tall of IRD, Paris (30 January 2015)	Emmanuelle Kadya Tall	7 May, 2015
Moving the cracks: motorcycle taxis, politics and the fragility of power in Bangkok	Claudio Sopranzetti (Oxford) discusses the Red Shirts, the motorcycle taxi drivers whose protests in 2010 brought Bangkok to a standstill (23 January 2015)	Claudio Sopranzetti	7 May, 2015
Ecology of undernutrition and infection	Professor Stanley Ulijaszek (University of Oxford) presents a lecture on undernutrition and infection (14 November 2014)	Stanley Ulijaszek	7 May, 2015
Biocultural approaches to Type 2 diabetes	Stanley Ulijaszek (University of Oxford) presents a lecture on Type 2 diabetes from the Disease Ecology Lecture series (28 November 2014)	Stanley Ulijaszek	7 May, 2015
Obesity: epidemiology and biocultural factors	Professor Stanley Ulijaszek (University of Oxford) presents a lecture on obesity from the Disease Ecology Lecture series (21 November 2014)	Stanley Ulijaszek	7 May, 2015
From Amazonian couvade to neo-couvade in cosmopolitan trends of co-parenting: a comparative analysis	In this Fertility and Reproduction Seminar Françoise Barbira-Freedman (Cambridge) examines ideas and behaviour that intimately associates a man with the birth of his child (1 Dec 2014)	Françoise Barbira-Freedman	13 April, 2015
Infant feeding and child health and survival in early twentieth-century England	A seminar for the Fertility and Reproduction Group by Alice Reid of the University of Cambridge (24 November 2014)	Alice Reid	13 April, 2015
Revisiting breastfeeding in light of the gift logic. Is a comparison of Gogo and Italian women possible?	A seminar for the Fertility and Reproduction Group by Mara Mabilia of the University of Padua (17 November 2014)	Mara Mabilia	13 April, 2015
How to protect your newborn from neonatal death: spirits and infant feeding practices in the Gambia	A seminar for the Fertility and Reproduction Group by Sarah O'Neill of the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp (10 November 2014)	Sarah O'Neill	13 April, 2015
Bangladeshi women's experiences of infant feeding in Tower Hamlets	This Fertility and Reproduction Seminar by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Public Health Team looks at why so many Bangladeshi women in the borough are mix feeding with breast and bottle (3 Nov 2014)	Christine McCourt, Juliet Rayment	13 April, 2015
Breastpump technology and 'natural' motherly milk in Enlightenment France	In this Fertility and Reproduction Seminar Margaret Carlyle (Cambridge) discusses developments in breastpump technology in 18th-century France (27 October 2014)	Margaret Carlyle	13 April, 2015
Hiring a wetnurse in seventeenth-century England	In this Fertility and Reproduction Seminar Leah Astbury (Cambridge) discusses the increase of maternal breastfeeding in 17th-century England (20 October 2014)	Leah Astbury	13 April, 2015
Negotiating nutrition: from baby to toddler in the Peruvian Andes	In this Fertility and Reproduction Seminar Bronwen Gillespie (Sussex) examines the the use of Sprinkles, a multiple-micronutrient product recommended by the state, in Peru (13 October 2014)	Bronwen Gillespie	13 April, 2015
Keynote: Evolutionary Ecology of Present-Day Obesity Production	Stanley Ulijaszek, ISCA, University of Oxford, gives a talk for the Australasian Society for Human Biology Annual Meeting, Adelaide.	Stanley Ulijaszek	16 February, 2015
Famine, Starvation, and Narratives of Hunger	Stanley Ulijaszek, ISCA, University of Oxford, gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series.	Stanley Ulijaszek	16 February, 2015
UNU Lecture- Nutrition and Health Transition	Stanley Ulijaszek, ISCA, University of Oxford, gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series.	Stanley Ulijaszek	16 February, 2015
UNU Lecture- Societal Change and Health	Stanley Ulijaszek, ISCA, University of Oxford, gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series.	Stanley Ulijaszek	16 February, 2015
UNU Lecture-Systems Change and Obesity	Stanley Ulijaszek, ISCA, University of Oxford, gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series.	Stanley Ulijaszek	16 February, 2015
Keynote: Nutritional States and Welfare Regimes	Stanley Ulijaszek, ISCA, University of Oxford, gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series.	Stanley Ulijaszek	16 February, 2015
Nutritional Anthropology Lecture- Evolution of Human Nutrition	Stanley Ulijaszek, ISCA, University of Oxford, gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series.	Stanley Ulijaszek	16 February, 2015
Malaysian Food Barometer	Elise Mognard gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series.	Elise Mognard	16 February, 2015
Clothes, Sizing and Obesity	Maciej Henneberg, School of Medical Sciences, University of Adelaide, gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series.	Maciej Henneberg	16 February, 2015
Is Obesity a Disease?	Paul Griffiths, Charles Perkins Center, University of Sydney, gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series.	Paul Griffiths	16 February, 2015
Obesity and time urgency	Peter Whybrow gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series, part of the Welfare Regimes Hypothesis.	Peter Whybrow	16 February, 2015
Political ecology of obesity	Stanley Ulijaszek gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series, part of the Welfare Regimes Hypothesis	Stanley Ulijaszek	16 February, 2015
Inequality and obesity	Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, Welfare Regimes Hypothesis, gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series on 27th November 2009.	Richard Wilkinson, Kate Pickett	16 February, 2015
The history of the obesity epidemic	Thorkild Sørensen (University of Copenhagen) gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series on 27th November 2009	Thorkild Sørensen	1 February, 2015
Behavioral biology and obesity	Trent Smith (Washington State University) gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series on 27th Novmber 2009	Trent Smith	1 February, 2015
Can there be an anthropology of Hinduism?	A discussion of the anthropology of Hinduism and the difficulties of categorizing religion. Anthropology Departmental Seminar by David Gellner of Oxford (5 December 2014)	David Gellner	29 January, 2015
Cleaning up and moving on	A discussion of Kazakhstan's 'nuclear renaissance' and the transformation of the region from nuclear test site to wasteland to a centre for civilian research. Anthropology Departmental Seminar by Catherine Alexander of Durham (28 November 2014)	Catherine Alexander	29 January, 2015
Biosecurity practices in labs and museums: sentinels, simulation, stockpiling	A discussion of the relationship between the anthropology of biosecurity and the rationality of risk as well as the anthropology of human-animal relationships. Anthropology Departmental Seminar by Frédéric Keck, Musée de quai Branly (21 November 2014)	Frédéric Keck	29 January, 2015
Ways of speaking, ways of knowing	A discussion of the ethnolinguistic identity of the Inugguit based on 12 months of fieldwork in NW Greenland. Anthropology Departmental Seminar by Stephen Leonard of the University of Oxford (14 November 2014)	Stephen Leonard	29 January, 2015
On forms of mental discipline and understanding of national psyche in contemporary Serbia	An ethnography of mental hygiene and neuro-security in contemporary Serbia. Anthropology Departmental Seminar by Maja Petrović-Šteger of the ISRF and Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (31 October 2014)	Maja Petrović-Šteger	29 January, 2015
Martyrs, militants and emotions	A discussion of Albanian radicalisation in Kosovo begore 1999. Anthropology Departmental Seminar by Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers of the University of Bournemouth (17 October 2014).	Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers	29 January, 2015
Climate change and migration: how are they linked?	Dina Ionesco International Organization for Migration and Alex Sutton UK Climate Change & Migration Coalition give a talk for the COMPAS Breakfast Briefing series.	Dina Ionesco, Alex Sutton	18 December, 2014
Anthropology, Childhood, and Obesity	Stanley Ulijaszek, ISCA, University of Oxford, gives a talk for the Unit for Biocultural Variation and Obesity and Karolinska Institutet Workshop: Developmental Frameworks of Childhood Obesity.	Stanley Ulijaszek	17 December, 2014
Evidence of the effectiveness of health-related food taxes	Peter Scarborough, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, gives a talk for the Michaelmas Term UBVO Seminar series.	Peter Scarborough	17 December, 2014
It's not fat - it’s bioprene: marathon swimming and heroic fatness	Karen Throsby, Leeds University, gives a talk for the Michaelmas term UBVO seminar series.	Karen Throsby	17 December, 2014
Rodent Models of Obesity-Reductionist Approaches to Understanding the Basis of a Complex Human Trait	Neil Docherty, University College Dublin, gives a talk for the Michaelmas Term UBVO Seminar Series.	Neil Docherty	17 December, 2014
Exploring critical geographies of obesity and fatness: environments, bodies and activism	Rachel Colls, Durham University, gives a talk for the Michaelmas Term UBVO seminar series.	Rachel Colls	17 December, 2014
From denial to corporate social responsibility: rhetoric of the food industry on obesity prevention	Amadine Garde, Liverpool University, gives a talk for the Michaelmas Term UBVO seminar series.	Amadine Garde	17 December, 2014
Why are westerners drawn to fight with IS in Syria and Iraq? And what can we do in response?	Rachel Briggs (Institute for Strategic Dialogue) and Peter Neumann (International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation) give a presentation for the COMPAS Breakfast Brefiing Series.	Rachel Briggs, Peter Neumann	18 November, 2014
How did the UK national press portray Bulgarians and Romanians prior to the lifting of transitional controls on 1 January 2014?	William Allen, Migration Observatory, COMPAS, University of Oxford, gives a talk for the COMPAS Breakfast Briefing series.	William Allen	27 October, 2014
Water, human evolution and diet	This public lecture on the role of water in human evolution took place at Somerset House in London as part of its 'Month of Water'. 17 June 2014.	Stanley Ulijaszek	2 October, 2014
Marett Memorial Lecture 2014: How to capture the wow. Awe and the study of religion	Professor Birgit Meyer delivered the 2014 Marett Memorial Lecture on the interplay of religious things and bodily sensations. Introduced by James Grant. 2 May 2014	Birgit Meyer	2 October, 2014
Choreographing lived experience: the stories that dancing bodies tell	This Anthropology seminar looks at the role of dance and movement of the body as a theme in itself; using dance to understand embodied experience. 21 February 2014	Rosie Kay, Karin Eli	2 October, 2014
Models, muddles and metaphors	This seminar, on the theme of Models in Anthropology, draws on examples from the fields of Amazonian and obesity studies. 9 May 2014	Elizabeth Ewart, Stanley Ulijaszek	2 October, 2014
Social anthropology of the arts: expression, genre and agency	This seminar, on the theme of Art and Creativity, explores the anthropology of artistic and imaginative processes, a field that is interdisciplinary by nature. 23 May 2014.	Caroline Potter, Ramon Sarró, Zuzanna Olszewska, Clare Harris	2 October, 2014
Intersections: an ethnography of everyday togetherness and intensified diversity in Elephant and Castle	This Anthropology seminar, on the theme of Diasporas and Migration, presents emerging findings from a collaborative ethnography in a 'super-diverse' South London area. 30 May 2014	Mette Berg, Ben Gidley, Hiranthi Jayaweera, Ramon Sarró	2 October, 2014
Decade of Migration, Session 4: How are changing patterns of globalisation manifested in shifts in global wealth and power?	In the fourth panel of the Decade of Migration conference Nicholas Van Hear, Robin Cohen and John Burry look at geopolitical influences and global shifts in power and how it affects migrants.	Nicholas Van Hear, Robin Cohen, John Burry	24 September, 2014
Decade of Migration, Session 3: Mobility and the global labour market: What can the past tell us about the future?	In the third panel of the Decade of Migration conference Martin Ruhs, Monique Kremer, and Roger Waldinger gave different insights into mobility and the global labour market.	Martin Ruhs, Monique Kremer, Roger Waldinger	24 September, 2014
Decade of Migration, Session 1: How does the growth of the world’s cities reframe our understanding of the social, the economic and the political?	In the first panel of the Decade of Migration conference Ash Amin and Vicki Bell focus on cities.	Ash Amin, Vicki Bell	24 September, 2014
Decade of Migration, Introduction	Michael Keith, Paul Boyle, and Andrew Hamilton introduce the conference "Decade of Migration" and discuss the challenges and hopes for the topics and discussions.	Michael Keith, Paul Boyle, Andrew Hamilton	24 September, 2014
"We're all excluded together": work-related conditionality and the welfare entitlements of UK, EEA and non-EEA citizens	Based on a project conducted by LSE and COMPAS Isabel Shutes talk examines inclusion and exclusion with regards to welfare rights.	Isabel Shutes	29 July, 2014
"The next day you are on the street": The tactics of time in managing welfare support to young people subject to immigration control as they make the transition to adulthood	Part of the COMPAS Seminar Series Trinity 2014- Borders of the welfare state: Exploring the tensions between migration enforcement and welfare state entitlements	Elaine Chase, Jenny Allsopp	29 July, 2014
Feeding a xenosceptic culture: legal and administrative penalties for being European	Part of the COMPAS Seminar Series Trinity 2014- Borders of the welfare state: Exploring the tensions between migration enforcement and welfare state entitlements	Charlotte O'Brien	29 July, 2014
Provision of welfare to irregular migrants: exploring the borders of the Norwegian welfare state	Jacobsen, Bendixsen and Karlsen outline findings from the project PROVIR, examining the access to welfare and its limitations for irregular migrants in Norway.	Christine M. Jacobsen, Synnøve Kristine Nepstad Bendixsen, Marry-Anne Karlsen	29 July, 2014
Becoming less illegal: Deservingness frames and undocumented migrant incorporation	COMPAS Seminar Series Trinity 2014- Borders of the welfare state: Exploring the tensions between migration enforcement and welfare state entitlements	Sébastien Chauvin	29 July, 2014
The fundamental social rights of irregular migrants under the European Social Charter: Central or marginal to their access to services in Europe?	COMPAS Seminar Series Trinity 2014- Borders of the welfare state: Exploring the tensions between migration enforcement and welfare state entitlements	Colm O’Cinneide	29 July, 2014
How to strike a balance between mainstream and targeted efforts for immigrant integration in Europe?	Liz Collett and Milica Petrovic from the Migration Policy Institute give a talk	Liz Collett, Milica Petrovic	14 July, 2014
What is the role of NGOs in the assisted voluntary returns of asylum seekers and irregular migrants?	Derek McGhee and Claire Bennett, University of Southampton, give a talk for the COMPAS Breakfast Breifing series	Derek McGhee, Claire Bennett	14 July, 2014
What shapes migrant destitution and what can be done about it?	Sue Lukes former member of the Housing and Migration Network and John Perry former member of the Housing and Migration Network and Policy Adviser at the Chartered Institute of Housing and manager of housing rights give a talk for the COMPAS Series	Sue Lukes, John Perry	14 July, 2014
The Disenchantment of the Plate	John Coveney, Flinders University, gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series	John Coveney	30 June, 2014
What would the British food system look like if it took ecological public health at its heart?	Geof Rayner gives a talk for the UBVO seminar series	Geof Rayner	30 June, 2014
Bodies of water	Amy Sharrocks, Artist, filmmaker and sculptor, gives a talk forhe UBVO seminar series	Amy Sharrocks	30 June, 2014

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