School of Social and Political Science

Background

I am Dean of Research in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CAHSS) and Professor of Anthropology of Migration in the School of Social and Political Science (SSPS), where:

1. My long-term ethnographic engagement with the displaced Chagossian community culminated in the inscription of Chagossian sega tambour music on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. The nomination file drew on my AHRC Impact and Engagement project CHAGOS: cultural heritage across generations. Visit our digital archive to browse exhibits, download recipes, and listen to the Chagos Tambour Group album. This work built upon: my ESRC Research Fellowship on debates about sustainable resettlement and environmental conservation in the context of the Chagos Marine Protected Area (MPA) and the UK government's policy review on resettlement of the Chagos Archipelago, my Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship on Chagossian onward migration to the UK, and my ESRC Postgraduate Studentship on the politics of victimhood amongst forcibly displaced Chagos islanders in Mauritius. My Inaugural Lecture focused on the challenges of reclaiming Chagos after displacement.
2. I have a longstanding ethnographic interest in Indian Ocean islands, particularly Chagos, Mauritius, and Seychelles. I also led a work package on labour migration and connective infrastructure in Maldives as part of an ERC Consolidator Grant on roads and the politics of thought: ethnographic approaches to infrastructure development in South Asia.
3. My work on participatory arts methods and creative engagement with migration and displacement has included co-direction of an AHRC GCRF Network Plus MADAR: Maghreb action on displacement and rights. Our website is at MADAR-network.org. MADAR followed an AHRC Impact and Engagement project MARAM: mobilising access to rights for artists in Morocco, which generated a virtual exhibition and downloadable guide for artists in Morocco. MARAM built upon an ESRC/AHRC Forced Displacement project on Arts for Advocacy: creative engagement with forced displacement in Morocco, which generated a series of exhibitions and a downloadable creative arts, migration, and advocacy toolkit.
4. I led an ESRC GCRF Protracted Displacement project on Improving healthcare at the intersection of gender and protracted displacement amongst Somali and Congolese IDPs and refugees in Somalia, Eastern DRC, Kenya, and South Africa. Our website is at displacement.sps.ed.ac.uk.

Postgraduate research supervision

I'm keen to discuss co-supervising postgraduate research projects related to my current research interests via our MScR Social and Political Science and/or our PhD Social Anthropology.

Research-led teaching

I convene the writing-up seminar for post-fieldwork PhD students in Social Anthropology. I enjoy teaching on our core political anthropology course Culture and Power. I co-designed our elective course Anthropology of Displacement and Migration, and I designed our elective course Anthropology and Environment.