UCL Anthropology

27/05/2026

In this year's Daryll Forde Lecture, Professor Ramon Sarró explores how prophets, ruins, and imaginative processes connect and form meaning.

Drawing on long-term ethnographic research in West and Central Africa, Professor Sarró examines contexts marked by historical rupture and the uneven presence of state institutions, where the past persists not as a stable archive but as fragment, trace, and ruin.

📆 Lines of Connection: Prophets, Ruins, and the Ethnographic Imagination
Wed 10 June, 2.30pm

Register here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/events/2026/jun/lines-connection-prophets-ruins-and-ethnographic-imagination

22/05/2026

Congratulations from everyone at UCL Anthropology to all those graduating today! What a fantastic achievement.

20/05/2026

Half Day Conference: Re-thinking Participation in Birth Cohorts
📆 17 Jun 2026, 15:00 – 19:00

Longitudinal birth cohorts, which follow participants and their families all their lives, have been and are an invaluable research resource, yet the question of what it means to be a lifelong participant is underexamined. Our half day conference aims to open new avenues for considering this valued and vital form of research participation and the new challenges and opportunities that come through re-thinking what it means to be a birth cohort participant.

Our half day public conference will include presentations from the Directors of two leading birth cohort studies in the UK and a social scientist who has worked for over 20 years with the Pelotas Birth Cohort Study in Brazil.

Talks – followed by a Q and A – will include the following:

Professor Rosie McEachan:
“Born in Bradford – can a research project change a city? Reflecting on 18 years of evidence, engagement and impact”
(Director of Born in Bradford, Bradford Institute for Health Research)

Professor Alissa Goodman:
“Generation New Era – a new nationally representative birth cohort study for the UK”
(Co-Director of Generation New Era and Co-Director of Population Research UK, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies)

Associate Professor Dominique Behague:
“From Critique to Repair: Rethinking Co-Production in the 1982 Pelotas Birth Cohort”
(Dept of Medicine, Health and Society, Vanderbilt University)

Find out more and book: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/events/2026/jun/re-thinking-participation-birth-cohorts

30/04/2026

Professor Sandra Gaudenzi (UCL) was recently interviewed by Oliver Atkinson for The Audience Connection Podcast, in a special two-episode mini-series exploring storytelling, interactivity and impact.

Both conversations draw directly on Sandra’s research and teaching at UCL, and may be of interest to students, researchers and practitioners working with digital media, immersive storytelling and narrative change.

Episode 1: From Story-telling to Story-living
This episode explores how interactive and immersive media shift audiences from passive viewers to active participants.

Episode 2: Intentional Storytelling
In the second episode, Sandra discusses how storytelling can be used to shape meaningful social change.

Episodes are available to listen to on Spotify, Apple and YouTube:

Episode 1 – From Story-telling to Story-living
YouTube: https://youtu.be/XEW4paKTBOo

Episode 2 – Intentional Storytelling
YouTube: https://youtu.be/EkjBgR8HH6U

16/04/2026

🎬 Student Film Showcase: Public Anthropology

Join us for a special screening celebrating the latest films from students of UCL’s Public Anthropology programmes. These works explore urgent social, political and personal themes through bold and thoughtful nonfiction storytelling.

From intimate portraits to globally resonant stories, the showcase highlights a new generation of filmmakers pushing the boundaries of documentary practice.

📍 Rich Mix Cinema, London
📅 Friday 17 April (2pm)

Films include:
• Do You Remember? — Husam Ibrahim (11’)
• A Film, My Body — Maar Dinu (23’)
• Nest of the Birdman — Yifei Wang (29’)
• A Step Change — Yitong Liu (24’)
• I Am Mine, and I Am Yours Too — Panchsheel Gaikwad (22’)
• A Month with My Grandpa — Liren Zhang (30’)

🎤 Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.

🔗 More info & tickets: https://opencitylondon.com/events/student-film-showcase-public-anthropology-2/

31/03/2026

A powerful new photography exhibition is opening that explores the lived experiences of pregnancy endings through striking portraits and personal stories.

The exhibition brings together research, art and lived experience to create space for reflection and conversation around a topic that is often overlooked or silenced.

It is a collaboration between The Feminist Miscarriage Project (led by Professor Susie Kilshaw (UCL) and Dr Victoria Browne (Loughborough University)), documentary photographer Tara Todras-Whitehill, and artist-curator Meg Ferguson.

By combining personal and often marginalised voices with visual storytelling, the exhibition invites audiences to engage with the complex experiences people face and encourages more open dialogue about pregnancy endings.

Read more about the exhibition:
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/news/new-photography-exhibition-explores-experiences-pregnancy-endings

25/03/2026

We’re delighted to share that UCL has once again been recognised as home to one of the world’s leading Anthropology departments!

In the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026 (Anthropology), UCL has been ranked 4th in the world — marking the fifth year in a row we’ve held this position.

This continued recognition reflects the department’s ongoing commitment to outstanding research and inspiring teaching.

Read more: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/news/4th-world-anthropology-5th-year

23/03/2026

In this episode of the Disruptive Voices Podcast, host Jade Hunter is joined by UCL Professor of Anthropology, Jo Cook, to explore AnthropoloJOY, an ambitious project examining how joy is experienced, expressed and understood across different cultures.

AnthropoloJOY is the first long-term qualitative research project of its kind, investigating what joy means in the UK and beyond. Professor Cook shares how the absence of joy during the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the project’s creation, and why it’s time to rethink the way we talk about human emotions. The episode explores the project’s innovative research methods, including: participant observation, micro-phenomenological interviews, and photovoice. Together, these approaches aim to deepen our understanding of joy’s role in strengthening resilience, connection and wellbeing.

Listen here:

In this episode, host Jade Hunter is joined by UCL Professor of Anthropology, Jo Cook, to explore AnthropoloJOY, an ambitious project examining how joy is experienced, expressed and understood across different cultures. AnthropoloJOY is the first long-term qualitative research project of its...

12/03/2026

Join us for the Inaugural Lecture of Professor Joanna Cook as she explores what an anthropological focus on joy can reveal about how people live, what they value, and how new possibilities emerge in the world.

While anthropology often examines the challenges and inequalities shaping contemporary life, this lecture asks a different question: what happens when we focus on joy? Through this lens, Professor Cook reflects on “natality” — the idea that something new can always be brought into being — and how hope, connection and human flourishing persist even in difficult circumstances.

📅 18 March 2026
⏰ 18:00
📍 Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, UCL (London)
🎟️ Free to attend

🔗 Register here: ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/jo-cook-inaugural

11/03/2026

Last night we hosted the Leverhulme Lecture “Anthropology of Life Support Systems: From Earth to Outer Space, and Back”, delivered by Visiting Leverhulme Professor Perig Pitrou.

The talk explored how humans create and manage life support systems - from agricultural and medical practices on Earth to experimental systems designed for life beyond our planet. By examining these technologies and ecological relationships, the lecture highlighted new ways of thinking about how humans sustain life, interact with other organisms, and imagine inhabiting environments both on Earth and in outer space.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for an engaging evening of discussion on anthropology, ecology, and life in extreme and extraterrestrial environments.