Anthropology and Sociology

Our faculty ground their research and teaching in a commitment to theoretical innovation, robust empirical research and fine-grained ethnographic fieldwork. From this, we develop critical perspectives on how global problems are experienced differently around the world. Among the few bi-disciplinary departments of anthropology and sociology in Europe, our work bridges conventional North-South divides, theory and practice, and the worlds of academia and policy.

Be it in Africa, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, or in Europe, North and South America, our research is primarily geared towards the analysis of social, political, economic, legal and cultural phenomena across the following domains:

• Governance, the state, international organisations, law and policy
• Global security and everyday insecurity, violence and conflict
• Markets, land, labour and corporations
• Migration, forced displacement, borders and minorities
• Poverty, inequality and social movements
• Race, ethnicity and gender relations
• Environment, rural development, agriculture and food security
• Cities and urban issues
• Bio-medicine and bio-technologies
• Visual and material culture
• Gender, sexuality and queer theory