PhD Social Anthropology
Apply now
Introduction
The deadline to apply for September 2025 entry is Monday 30 June 2025.
We warmly invite candidates to apply for PhD degrees in Social Anthropology
Our Social Anthropology group forms an international centre of excellence for postgraduate training, recognised as one of the premier and largest research departments in the UK.
We have developed a distinctive body of research and teaching which systematically links everyday life to key challenges that we face in the contemporary world. This manifests itself in exciting new work on topics including:
- political violence, law, and peace
- migration and displacement
- arts, media, and cultural heritage
- global, public, and mental health, diagnostics, and wellbeing
- infrastructures, innovations, and social justice
- environment, resources, and sustainability
- kinship, gender, generations, and inheritance
- sexual and reproductive politics
- religion and public life
- creative, multimodal, more-than-human, and collaborative ethnographies
Our research is global in scope. We have established a reputation for work in Europe, and are a major centre for the anthropological study of South Asia. Our specialist interests span other parts of the world, including Africa, East and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and North America.
Applied research includes policy-related work on asylum-seekers, NGOs, healthcare, sustainable development, cultural heritage, and participatory rights.
Our work combines an emphasis on ethnographic fieldwork with a focus on contemporary issues.
We welcome interdisciplinary research. We are home to the Edinburgh Centre for Medical Anthropology (EdCMA), and have numerous collaborations with colleagues in Law; Geography; History, Classics, and Archaeology; and the Edinburgh College of Art, including the Atelier Network.
We also work closely with the Centre for African Studies (CAS), particularly with research on international development, and the Centre for South Asian Studies (CSAS).
- Programme overview
Usually undertaken full-time over three years, or part-time over six years, the PhD in Social Anthropology is a research degree in which you will make an original contribution to our knowledge by pursuing an extended and focused piece of research on a topic of your interest.
The PhD programme combines work on your thesis project, usually based on long-term fieldwork, with systematic training in anthropological and social research skills.
The programme is supported by the School of Social and Political Science, which enables you to acquire a broader set of transferable skills during your time with us.
Research Training
The Graduate School provides a suite of ESRC-recognised research training courses for social science students across the University. Postgraduate research students can access core, intermediate, and advanced research training courses tailored to the need of their projects. These include courses and workshops offered by the School’s Research Training Centre. We are developing an exciting package of flexible web-based training courses in line with the increased emphasis on ongoing training throughout the course of doctoral studies.
You are encouraged to participate in taught Masters level courses to assist your intellectual development and support your research.
The University’s Institute for Academic Development also provides a range of courses and events to assist with methodological training and career development.
- Postgraduate community
We are deeply committed to our students at all levels. Our cosmopolitan community of postgraduate researchers, from the UK, Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Australasia, make a critical contribution to the thriving research environment in Edinburgh.
In a typical year we have a total of around thirty PhD students from different cohorts registered in core Social Anthropology, with others working in specialist research centres like the Centre of African Studies and the Centre for South Asian Studies.
STAR
In 2007 we launched the STAR (Scottish Training in Anthropological Research) Programme, bringing together PhD students and early career researchers from Edinburgh, Aberdeen, St Andrews and Glasgow. Each year we jointly run two intensive workshops, combining training in anthropological skills with distinguished international guests providing masterclasses.
Applying for this PhD
- Identify potential supervisors suited to your research interests
- Write a draft research proposal
- Contact the Postgraduate Advisor with your research proposal and list of potential supervisors
- Once discussed with the Postgraduate Advisor, formally submit your application on EUCLID
Postgraduate Advisor
Scholarships
Funding opportunities available for postgraduate study in the School of Social and Political Science.