Anthropology Department’s Annual Postgraduate Conference

HUMAN BODIES, ANTIBODIES AND

OTHER BODIES

Durham University 24th April 2018

 Organising committee:

Admir Jugo
Alec Ayers
Alice-Amber Keagan
Guy Lavender-Forsyth
Janelle Wagnild
Jiangnan Li
Mei Xue
Misheck Nkhata
Vasiliki Bathrelou

The organising committee would like to thank Durham University’s Anthropology

Department for their support.

Images:

Cover image: “5896161874399021506" by Kevin, is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Abstracts: “5896161567635553362" by Kevin, is licensed under CC BY 2.0, cropped

Bios: “5896161567635553362" by Kevin, is licensed under CC BY 2.0, cropped

 2018 Durham Annual Postgraduate Conference
HUMAN BODIES, ANTIBODIES AND OTHER BODIES
24 April 2018, College of St Hild and St Bede, Durham University

PROGRAMME

8:00 - 9:00 Registration and Coffee

9:00- 9:15 Welcome and Opening Remarks

Dr Stephen Lyon, Head of the Anthropology Department

9:15 – 11:00 Panel 1 Panel 2

NONHUMAN BODIES TECHNO-DIGITAL BODIES
Chair: Jiangnan Li Chair: Mei Xue

Upul K. WICKRAMASINGHE: Vasiliki BATHRELOU: Antibody

Water ‘bodies’ and human
‘bodies’ in the context of CKDu
epidemic in Sri Lanka.
Alec AYERS: Spatial and
Temporal Variability in Leopard
(Panthera pardus) Activity Levels
in the Soutpansberg Mountains
(South Africa)
Isobel WISHER: Negotiating the
Body, Identity, and Selfhood
through Materials in the Upper
Palaeolithic'
practices: intelligent electronic sex
hardware or else sex womanoids
Alexander Matthew C-KENT
WIDDOWS: Digital Bodies in
Politics
Ellena DEELEY: ABC’s “Two
Hearts”: Conjoined Twins and the
Neo-Ethnographic Television
Documentary
Dhruv RAMNATH: Cyber Bodies
of Devotion in a New Guru
Movement

11:00-11:15 Coffee Break

11:15 – 13:00 Panel 3 Panel 4

BODIES IN AND OF
REPRODUCTION
Chair: Guy Lavender-Forsyth
Anaïs MARTIN: “Who do I look
like?” Body, Identity and
Relatedness for Donor Conceived
Adults in an Anonymous Context
Period
EBODIED KNOWLEDGE
Chair: Boyang Zhou
James A. COXON: Pit Sense:
Knowledgeable Bodies v Bodies of
Knowledge
Gustavo SANDOVAL: On
Embodied Knowledge and Record
Production in Archaeological
Excavation.
 Anne-Sophie GIRAUD: Between
“Anatomical Waste” and “Child”:
the Reconfiguration of the
Liminal Status of the Unborn in
France
Boglarka KISS: The Ontological
Politics of Maternal Brain Death
During Pregnancy
Emily TUPPER: Exercising
“Good” Bodies in GoodGym
Hsiang-Wei HSIAO: The
Interrelation Between Art Body
and Individuality in Paiwan
Society

Alice-Amber KEEGAN:
Parenting in the first 24-hours:
Trialling an intervention to
improve parent-infant caregiving
in the immediate postnatal
period

13:00 – 14:00 LUNCH

14:00 – 14:30 Poster Session

14:30 – 17:00 Panel 5 Panel 6

OTHER BODIES MEDICAL/ISED BODIES
Chair: Vasiliki Bathrelou Chair: Alice-Amber Keegan

Tinni BHATTACHARYYA: From Janelle WAGNILD, Tessa

Gender to Gendered:
Intersectional Perspectives on
Indian Domestic Work
Keeva FARRELLY:
(Re)Production of Other Bodies
Elena SAVVA: Bodies in a
Whorish Intercourse
Fredrik NYMAN: “Breathing
Together”: Studying Support
Groups for People with Chronic
Breathlessness in Northern
England
POLLARD, Helen BALL:
Prevalence and Correlates of
Sedentary Behaviour During
Pregnancy: the Importance of
Social Context
Abby KING: Telemedicine and the
Absent Patient Body
Misheck Julian NKHATA: Diabetes
as Uncertain Bodily Experience:
Ethnography of Diabetes
Education in Malawi
ABSTRACTS
Panel 1: Nonhuman bodies
Chair: Jiangnan Li

Water ‘Bodies’ and Human ‘Bodies’ in the Context of CKDu Epidemic in Sri Lanka
Upul K. WICKRAMASINGHE (Durham University)
In Sri Lanka, an epidemic of Chronic Kidney Disease of unknown aetiology (CKDu) is currently
affecting farming communities in the irrigated ‘dry zone’ of Sri Lanka. To date, more than thirty
scientific hypotheses have been proposed to explain the cause/s of the disease, none of which
has been successfully proved. However, many of these theories do suggest that irrigation water is
the likely medium that causes CKDu, and as such both scientific and public discourses around
the disease have been dominated by discussions of water pollution. Drawing from preliminary
ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Ginnoruwa, a village with a very high incidence of CKDu
in the east of Sri Lanka, in this paper I discuss local understandings of CKDu as a problem
related to the contamination and decontamination of ‘bodies’ in two senses – water bodies
(subterranean and irrigation) and the bodies of villagers. I discuss idioms of pollution used to
describe ‘dirty’ water and ‘clean’ water, and water’s effects of the experience and management of
the disease. In particular, I focus on how villagers describe the experience of switching from well
water, believed to be polluted by nephrotoxics, to rainwater, in terms of its corporeal effects. I
argue that paying attention to disease and pollution narratives offers an insight into how CKDu
is understood by local people as a problem that connects human bodies with water bodies within
broader irrigation infrastructures.

Temporal Variability in Leopard (Panthera pardus) Activity Levels in the Soutpansberg

Mountains (South Africa)
Alec AYERS (Durham University)
As human populations expand into previously unaltered habitats, the persecution and in some
cases, localised extinction of large carnivores has increasingly become a conservation issue
around the world. In response to increased encroachment, predators may not only shift the areas
they use but also the time period in which they are active as a means to avoid humans.
With the aid of accelerometers and GPS collars, I measured the activity patterns of leopards
residing in the Soutpansberg Mountains (South Africa) across the diel cycle to assess how
leopard activity levels temporally shifted in response to ambient conditions (such as weather and
day length) and spatially fluctuated across the landscape due to habitat composition (vegetation
structure, elevation, slope). I then assessed whether leopards that ventured into low lying human-
dominated areas were likely to shift their activity levels compared those found on the mountain.
Results from this study suggests that leopards respond to biotic and abiotic conditions by
shifting their activity levels. Additionally, leopards that visited human dominated areas were
more likely to supress diurnal and increase nocturnal activity levels compared to those on the
mountain, thus suggesting that such potentially dangerous areas may represent a “Landscape of
Fear” to these predators.

Negotiating the Body, Identity, and Selfhood through Materials in the Upper
Palaeolithic
Isobel WISHER (University of York)
Materials, both in the contemporary and the past, are frequently used to negotiate identity.
Through a dependency on materials to communicate social information, persons become
entangled with materials; the boundary between person and material becomes blurred.
Theoretical concepts of extended minds and selves elucidate the blurring of this boundary
further, critically questioning the dichotomy drawn between material and person within
archaeology.
This research seeks to understand the negotiation of body, identity, and selfhood through
materials by evaluating the use of personal ornamentation in the Magdalenian period (late Upper
Palaeolithic). Personal ornaments have been demonstrated to not merely be superfluous
decoration, but rather crucial to the communication of cultural and personal identity in
Palaeolithic societies. The exploration of the significance and social role(s) of personal
ornamentation in Magdalenian societies has the potential to reveal intricate information
regarding how Magdalenian people embodied themselves within their social worlds. I aim to
achieve this through the application of theoretical frameworks regarding human-thing
entanglement, extended self, and identity to Magdalenian personal ornaments, particularly those
from burial contexts and those made from people (e.g. perforated human teeth).

Panel 2 - Techno-Digital Bodies

Chair: Mei Xue

Antibody Practices: Intelligent Electronic Sex Hardware or Else Sex Womanoids

Vasiliki BATHRELOU (Durham University)
We live in a society in which certain body parts are considered shameful. Their names are often
replaced by some “cute” alternatives or are not to be uttered out loud at all, especially when they
concern female “private” body parts. Openly discussing sex is often considered shameless and
dirty, in other words, a taboo. In societies where such everyday discourse is deemed
inappropriate, the invention of sex robots emerges as a paradox and is ironically juxtaposed with
what we nowadays accept as “normal” sexual behavior. Those in favour of sex robots argue that
their use will prevent sexual crimes by “assisting” perpetrators of sexual violence, rapists and
pedophiles to control their behavior and divert their “urges” to robots equipped with sensors
able to recognize and respond to the owner’s “mood”, while most - if not all of them - have a
“resist” option. For others this argument simply treats sexual violence as a treatable symptom
and sex robots as a partial fix that will probably only enable perpetrators to act out their violent
dispositions. This paper proposal aims to explore both sides of the debate, question the ethics
surrounding sex robots, whose use could potentially be leading to a perpetuation and a
normalization rather than a prevention of a circle of violence.

Digital Bodies in Politics

Alexander Matthew C-KENT WIDDOWS (Durham University)
The internet is and has transformed how we engage in politics. It has played an integral part in
the many political events and subversions over the course of the last decade, from the Arab
Spring in 2010 to the waves of populism sweeping across Western Europe and North America.
As the internet, through communicative tools on social media platforms, becomes more and
more integral and integrated into our lives, it becomes increasingly difficult to divorce our offline
and online personas. In providing a medium through which we forge and reinforce identities,
create communities through shared values, socially bond, and share information on the internet,
our digital selves are just as much a tangible, real and inseparable aspect of our identities. As
such, it is becoming increasingly apparent that, in order to fully understand these political
upheavals, demands an analysis of the digital bodies that inhabit these online platforms, how
they proliferate into mass online movements and then perforate into the offline world. What this
study endeavoured to unveil is the mechanisms of behaviour that lead to political actors online
to coalesce under one ideology and then serve to influence real-world politics, with a specific
focus on the rise of populism in the Labour Party prior to and during the UK’s recent 2017
General Election.

ABC’s “Two Hearts”: Conjoined Twins and the Neo-Ethnographic Television

Documentary
Ellena DEELEY (University of Exeter)
In 2011, a medical documentary was produced for ABC’s Foreign Correspondent series that
focuses on the surgical separation of Indian conjoined twins Stuti and Aradhana Yadav. The
programme narrativizes the social and medical context of the twins’ birth at Padhar Missionary
Hospital in Betul, India and the subsequent international medical collaboration that takes place
between Australian and Indian doctors to separate the twins. Titled “Two Hearts”, the
documentary utilises strategies and conventions from the genres of broadcast investigative
journalism and the science documentary. Australian ABC journalist Zoe Daniels appears as an
on-screen presenter and authoritative commentator throughout the programme. In one telling
sequence, Daniels is seen in the operating theatre with the surgical team, where she provides
commentary on the progress of the operation and marvels at the twins’ exposed interior
anatomy. This paper will argue that the ABC documentary constitutes an example of what
Kerstin Knopf has termed “neo-ethnographic” filmmaking which reproduces colonialist
“subject/object relations (filmmaker/filmed) with its underlying self/other dichotomy”. Indeed,
the documentary positions Daniels (and the viewer) in the role of anthropological observer and
the twins themselves as biological and ethnographic specimens. Nicholas B. Dirk has observed
that, “for colonial ethnography, the colonized subject was first and foremost a body, to be
known and controlled through the measurement and interpretation”. Indeed, the paper will
argue that the representation of the twins’ conjoined, racialized bodies in the documentary draws
on Western histories of exhibiting the bodies of colonised peoples in ethnographic displays.
Cyber Bodies of Devotion in a New Guru Movement

Dhruv RAMNATH (SOAS University of London)

This paper rejects the idea that physical contact is integral to devotion in Hindu guru
movements. By exploring how cyber selves are created through the internet for the devotional
outpouring of religious communities across the globe, the paper offers an intense analyses of a
particular guru movement originating in India called the Sharavana Baba movement. Since
history has demonstrated that devotees of gurus seek close proximity to their chosen masters,
what has accelerated in the twenty-first century has been the devotion of devotees to their gurus
on the internet while both situate their physical bodies in certain places at certain times. The
paper interrogates Sharavana Baba’s media which generates information about him that is
tailored to suit the tastes and preferences of devotees and potential devotees, and then delves
into the nature of the so-called mainstream and international media’s stance on gurus to make
sense of guru discourse. Cyber devotion must be seen as not replacing older modes of devotion
nor as erasing them out, but fuelled by devotion through a complex web of online and offline
realities, digital bodies are produced at a fast pace only to solidify firmly held practices and
processes of devotion-making on the ground.
Panel 3 - Bodies In and Of Reproduction
Chair: Guy Lavender-Forsyth

“Who do I look like?” Body, Identity and Relatedness for Donor Conceived Adults in an
Anonymous Context Period
Anaïs MARTIN (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Norbert Élias Centre)
Bodies are at the core of donor conceived families’ stories. More specifically, people conceived
through an anonymous donation often question their appearance: “Who do I look like?”. On the
basis of a social anthropology perspective, the paper will examine the importance of the body in
the experience of adults conceived in the French strictly anonymous context, focusing more
specifically on the resemblance and transmission talk. It will show how the mention of the body
is a medium to talk about their relations and their identity for donor offspring. The paper will
use the data collected through face-to-face interviews with fifteen French sperm donor
conceived adults. This study has shown how, by mentioning the body, the participants talk on
the one hand about their bond with and affiliation to their father. On the other hand it allows
them to address the impossible relationship with their absolutely anonymous donor – whom
they do not consider as a father – and how genetic transmission has nevertheless an impact on
their own identity. Their body thus simultaneously contains the evidence of their relationship
with their father and of the donor’s existence. Through this analysis the mention of genetics and
of the biological body will be questioned.

Between “Anatomical Waste” and “Child”: the Reconfiguration of the Liminal Status of
the Unborn in France
Anne-Sophie GIRAUD (Queen Mary University)
My paper will analyse the transformation of institutional and private practices around the dead
foetus in France since the 1980-1990s, observed during an ethnographic study conducted
between 2010 and 2015. These practices resist the association of dead foetus with “anatomic
waste” and tend to “personify” it by the possibility to bury and name it. However, and as a
contradiction, these practices coexist with the authorization of the late termination of pregnancy.
Through the specific study of the practices around the dead body of the foetus, swaying
constantly between “anatomic waste” to “child”, between object and person without being
assimilated to one or the other, I will show that the coexistence of these opposites is allowed by
the liminality of the unborn’s status. Even if the French law does not recognize intermediary
categories, the French State endows the unborn of a liminal status, strictly organized as situations
of instituted choices granted to intended parents. By delegating to them the possibility, to some
extent, to consider the dead foetus as a “quasi-infant” or, on the contrary, as a “failed
reproduction” or “anatomical waste”, the State organizes both the destruction and the protection
of the unborn, handling simultaneously biopolitics and thanatopolitics.

The Ontological Politics of Maternal Brain Death During Pregnancy

Boglarka KISS (University of Exeter)
Advances in biomedical technologies over the past decades have made it possible to prolong the
somatic functions of patients diagnosed as brain dead. Consequently, when a pregnant woman
suffers brain death during the early stages of pregnancy, it is now possible to provide somatic
support for an extended period of time in order to prolong the pregnancy. This paper will focus
on a case which took place in Hungary in 2013, when the somatic functions of a brain dead
pregnant woman were prolonged for 92 days, after which clinicians performed a Caesarean-
section to deliver a healthy child. The paper will investigate the case within the context of
Science and Technology Studies. In particular, the paper will engage with Annamarie Mol’s
concept of the body multiple, as well as notions of ontological politics and agential realism to
argue that in instances of maternal brain death during pregnancy, distinct ordering practices
performed in the hospital enact the pregnant and brain dead bodies separately. The analysis will
investigate the “ontological choreography” which aims to present the multiple bodies brought
into being as a singular, coherent entity and will pay special attention to moments when this
choreography breaks down.

Parenting in the First 24-hours: Trialling an Intervention to Improve Parent-Infant

Caregiving in the Immediate Postnatal Period
Alice-Amber KEEGAN (Durham University)
Bodily contact in the immediate postnatal period has been shown to have a positive influence on
prolactin production, encouraging the onset of copious milk production and the establishment
of a responsive parent-infant relationship. This study draws on evolutionary and cross-cultural
understandings of infant care which emphasise the role of bodily contact in infant caregiving,
particularly the first 24-hours after birth. This paper will discuss the background and
methodology for a trial attempting to improve parent-infant contact and postnatal caregiving in
Newcastle Birthing Centre. Birthing centres have been shown to be successful in supporting low-
risk labour and delivery, however, little is known about how effectively they support parental
care of infants in the period immediately after birth. The study will attempt to understand how
parents are caring for their infants in Newcastle Birthing Centre as well as trialling an
intervention to encourage and support bodily contact after birth.

Panel 4 - Embodied Knowledge

Chair: Boyang Zhou

Pit Sense: Knowledgeable Bodies v Bodies of Knowledge

James A. COXON (Durham University)
A Body of Knowledge - “the complete set of concepts, terms and activities that make up a
professional domain, as defined by the relevant professional association”. ‘Pit sense’ was defined,
during my fieldwork with coalminers as a ‘sixth sense, when underground it made you more alert
to every danger strange smell, odd noise ‘it came with experience,’ that uncanny acquired skill’, ‘it
can’t be learned’ Essentially pit sense is an example of what Pierre Bourdieu termed’ habitus’ ‘a
system of embodied dispositions, tendencies that organize the ways in which individuals perceive
the social world around them and react to it’. The notion of ‘pit sense’, that is in the possession
of the miners themselves, conflicts with theories of knowledge management that sees it as an
objectified asset that resides with management professionals. In this paper I will discuss this
conflict and its implication re theories of knowledge and knowledge management.

On Embodied Knowledge and Record Production in Archaeological Excavation

Gustavo SANDOVAL (University of York)
Archaeological excavation is a form of embodied practice to follow archaeological traces. Yet,
another important technical element is the production of an archaeological record. So, it is
axiomatic that excavation and recording are inter-related elements. There are two general
approaches to carrying out this technical task. Traditionally, excavation has been practiced by
workers, with archaeologists in charge of recording. This division of labour was challenged in
Britain with the emergence of single-context recording in the 1970s, where one digger both
excavate and does their own recording. The purpose behind the unification was the creation of
more sophisticated record that integrates observations and interpretations of archaeological
remains. In this purpose, British archaeology has been quite successful. In other words, technical
work has been improved by integrating bodily and visual interpretation to produce more solid
conjectures. The aim of this lecture is to question the trend of adopting British field approaches
such as single context recording in a non-British context, for instance Mexico where the
separation between the digger and the recorder still prevails.

Exercising “Good” Bodies in GoodGym

Emily TUPPER (Durham University)
“GoodGym” is an organisation that promotes innovation in the way people exercise by bringing
together “getting fit” with “doing good” – combining running and fitness with voluntary tasks
which benefit local communities. This paper draws on mobile ethnographic data gathered during
the “group run” element of GoodGym activity. It explores how “well bodies” intersect with
“good bodies” in the GoodGym case. During GoodGym activity, the body is positioned as
morally productive; not just in creating morally acceptable “fit” bodies, but in using the moving
body to do “good” in one’s local community. The paper finds that the “connected exercise”
facilitated by GoodGym offers a unique perspective from which to understand the relationship
between “well bodies” and “good bodies” beyond GoodGym.

The Interrelation Between Art Body and Individuality in Paiwan Society

Hsiang-Wei HSIAO (Durham University)
The Paiwan as a house society establishes their hierarchical relationship by owning certain
properties, such as land, myth and art-like material. Although the idea of art did not exist in
traditional Paiwan society, they do have artistic expression and distinctive aesthetics. That is, by
embodying the possession of land acquired in mythical era on the material as symbol, the
owner’s position based on the concept of precedence can not only be seen but also be
manipulated through the circulation of art-like material. In this sense, the hierarchical interaction
is abducted by the art- like material and illustrated on its body. Therefore, the material can be
examined from the anthropology of art perspective to further understand the Paiwan social
hierarchy. The art-like material enables individuals to have a position in the society because it is
considered as a status acknowledgement which was given by divinity and is practised by people.
This article will explore how the art-like material was obtained in the myth and how it is
reproduced nowadays by adopting specific artistic feature for being continuously circulated to
fulfil Paiwan hierarchical value in ceremony.

Panel 5 - Other Bodies

Chair: Vasiliki Bathrelou

From Gender to Gendered: Intersectional Perspectives on Indian Domestic Work

Tinni BHATTACHARYYA (SOAS University of London)
Media and public responses to the 2013 Khobragade v Richard scandal highlight a
disproportional deference and political privilege afforded to employers accused of exploitation
by their domestic workers. We find that Indian migrant domestic workers remain the most
vulnerable to exploitation and have the fewest opportunities to pursue justice. When examining
the feminized domain of domestic work, we must untangle how the bodies of women employers
and employees have been differentially ordered and gendered. This paper argues that employer-
employee relations are negotiated within the calculatedly shifting, permeable boundaries of a
gendered space – an intersectional class-, caste- and gender-defined space. The paper analyzes
both top-down conceptualizations and bottom-up reconfigurations of Indian domestic workers
to illuminate how such a gendered space is imagined and challenged by employers and
employees. Intra- and international social conventions and governmental policies create a
gendered space that selectively scrutinizes the movement of domestic workers within the home;
however, current civil society movements in India protest and re-imagine this construction of
space by enacting employees’ freedom both inside and outside the employer’s home. Through a
discussion of ethnographic studies, emigration policies, and local civil society movements, this
paper aims to address the structural violence of these gendered spaces and suggest a framework
that may increase the empowerment of Indian domestic workers in international contexts.

(Re)Production of Other Bodies

Keeva FARRELLY (Durham University)
Ireland’s upcoming referendum on abortion rights brings into light the tensions, conflict, and
ambiguity that often exists when attempting to conceptualise the reproductive body. Conflicting
definitions of the reproductive bodies under scrutiny have been observed within the 8th
Amendment – legislation which prohibits abortions in Ireland except where there is risk to the
life of the pregnant person – and the “pro-choice” social movement to repeal it. The legislation
has compounded issues of access and inclusion for static bodies that are unable to mobilise
abroad to receive abortion healthcare, such as asylum seekers and those without adequate means
to travel. Bodies that undergo self-administered abortions are automatically criminalised by the
State, facing risk of arrest and 14 years imprisonment. The proliferation of biological and gender
essentialism within the medical field has led to a (re)production of binaries and Other bodies.
Despite exclusive conceptualisations of the reproductive body in social, medical, and legislative
fields which privilege some bodies over Others, a lack of full bodily autonomy and self-
determination to access healthcare in Ireland is a shared experience among all invested bodies.
This paper attempts to tease out the contradictions and exclusions which underlay the abortion
discussion in Ireland by focusing on the limitations of privileging dominant discourses of the
reproductive body.

Bodies in a Whorish Intercourse

Elena SAVVA (Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences Athens)
A whorish (prostitutional) intercourse might be one of the most complicated interactions that
can be sociologically researched, as it gathers elements of professional, erotic and social
engaging. Two bodies, one room, one bed, one act, two different purposes, two opposite moral
standards (Butler, 2008). Does a whorish intercourse recommend sexual contact or it is just
professional cooperation? How does the body of a client “perceive” the body of a sex worker
and how these two bodies interact? What is sailed and what is purchased: flesh, soul, delegacy,
technique or maybe something different? If we assume that sex, tenderness, hugs, caress or
kisses are aspects of personal life that can be sailed, can we also assume that they can be
purchased (consequently that they can be transformed into services)? What does a client
consume, what does a client believe that he can consume and what is finally permitted to be
consumed? All these are questions that only clients and sex workers can answer in the context of
a qualitative research. The problem according to Scott S. and Morgan D. is that the existing
theories perceive prostitution and the relationship between clients and sex workers as the same
phenomenon.

“Breathing Together”: Studying Support Groups for People with Chronic Breathlessness
in Northern England
Fredrik NYMAN (Durham University)
“Breathing is something we all do, day in, day out, every day of our lives. It is so innate that most of us rarely stop
to think about it. We think less of breathing than of the life it sustains. For millions of people across the UK,
breathing is something they have had to think about. These are people for whom the beautiful but delicate organs
with which we breathe – the lungs – do not work as they should.” (Marmot, 2016: 3)
Breathing may be a basic physiological process, but its bodily function exceeds the lay and
biomedical discourses and clinical paradigms that define it. It is a very personal experience that
contains deep cultural and spiritual significance, which goes beyond the simple act of keeping us
alive. Yet, although being resonant and urgent topics, breath and breathing have never been the
subjects of any systematic cultural or literary study. This paper is based on early findings from
my ongoing ethnographic fieldwork. The project in question is a novel anthropological study of
breathlessness as a symptom and somatic sensation, where I am currently investigating how
people with chronic lung disease, in northern England, use support groups to self-manage their
respiratory conditions..

Panel 6 - Medical/Ised Bodies

Chair: Alice-Amber Keegan

Prevalence and Correlates of Sedentary Behaviour During Pregnancy: the Importance of

Social Context
Janelle WAGNILD, Tessa POLLARD, Helen BALL (Durham University)
While the benefits and correlates of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during
pregnancy have been well-documented, the prevalence and correlates of sedentary behaviour
during pregnancy are poorly understood. Pregnant women (n=192) recruited from two hospitals
in the North East of England continuously wore accelerometers for seven days during the
second trimester, and a subsample of participants (n=18) took part in a one-to- one semi-
structured interview. On average, women spent 9.57 hours per day (standard deviation=1.62)
engaged in sedentary behaviour, which accounted for 71.7% of waking hours. In multivariate
linear mixed models, the most significant predictor of sedentary time was index of multiple
deprivation tertile, such that residing in the middle and least-deprived tertiles was associated with
significantly more sedentary time compared to those who resided in the most deprived tertile
(p<0.05). These findings are presented alongside themes that emerged from the interviews,
which suggest there is a social expectation for pregnant women to slow down and ‘take it easy,’
which may additionally impact sedentary time. Taken together, these findings highlight the
importance of considering social context when aiming to understand physical activity practices
during pregnancy.

Telemedicine and the Absent Patient Body

Abby KING (Durham University)
Telemedicine enables secure, virtual, face-to-face doctor-patient encounters across geographical
distance. Hoping to remedy inequalities in the access to care, these technologies are used across
the spectrum of healthcare services to connect medical specialists in urban hospitals to
geographically-marginalised populations. As these technologies are increasingly normalised in the
provision of care, important questions arise about the nature of this virtual care. For Foucault
(1989), the “medical gaze”, which makes the human body a target of manipulation and
knowledge is defined by the spatial organisation which makes the gaze possible. Telemedicine
disrupts the conventional time and space of medicine. If technologies allow a particular kind of
‘gaze’ upon patients (Foucault, 1989), how might the new, de-located gaze of telemedicine
transform the meanings of being a patient? How might the physical absence of the patient body
change the way doctors see and care for their patients? In this paper, I will introduce the
ethnographic study that proposes to explore these questions in secondary care settings in the
Southwestern United States. I will also explore how the contemporary American political climate
expands these questions about the absent body to include discussions about power dynamics,
isolation, inequality and marginalization.

Diabetes as Uncertain Bodily Experience: Ethnography of Diabetes Education in

Malawi
Misheck Julian NKHATA (Durham University)
In a context in which HIV had been a major public health issue, diabetes (and other chronic
diseases) has recently been recognised a priority. One central feature of diabetes management is
diabetes education through which patients are expected to learn how to manage and control it. I
conducted participant observation and interviewed patients and health care workers attending
diabetes education sessions at two health facilities in Malawi. The aim was to understand
discourses within diabetes education and how these influence patients’ ideas about diabetes and
its management. Diabetes education revolves around what is diabetes, appropriate diet, lifestyle
and use of medicines. The body is at the fore in knowing and experiencing diabetes through
symptoms. Patients are supposed to know causes of diabetes, its symptoms, how to deal with
those symptoms and also follow a specific diet. Diabetes education emphasizes certainty – that
not following instructions will result in unbearable symptoms and death but also uncertainties –
that patients cannot know when symptoms emerge. Ultimately, patients are taught to manage
those uncertainties. To do so, diabetes education aims to fashion a form of moral subjectivity,
patient follows the instructions of biomedicine without question.

Poster Session

Maypole Dancing and Other Body Movements in a Neo-Pagan Bealtaine Ritual in

Ireland
Ana CAMILLO (Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick)
This presentation is based on my MA Ethnochoreology thesis “Maypole Dancing and Other
Body Movements in a Neo-Pagan Bealtaine Ritual in Ireland”. My research examines the role of
dance and body movements within a specific Pagan ritual in present day Ireland, namely
Bealtaine. The purpose of my research is threefold: to identify the kinds of dances and body
movements incorporated into this ritual; to question how participants – the Tipperary Pagans
group – perceive these dances and body movements in their ritual; and to analyse the importance
and meaning of body movements in the Tipperary Pagans Bealtaine ritual for the participants of
this ritual. In sum, this presentation reveals that Maypole Dancing, Puck Hunt, and Jumping the
Bonfire were incorporated in the above-mentioned ritual. Participants perceive the dance and
body movements in their ritual as enjoyable and as a means to connect with ancestors and the
earth. The dance and body movements function as homeopathic magic and as a means to
connect with the divine. This research also shows that the Tipperary Pagans engage in the
fertility ritual of Bealtaine in order to acknowledge human dependence on fertility and to connect
with nature and ancestors.

Children’s Copying in Play: An Exploration of Play as a Context for Children’s Flexible

Learning via Playful Encounters with Evidence of Failure
Guy A. LAVENDER FORSYTH (Durham University)
I present two questions arising from literature on children’s social learning and play behaviour. I
then present an experimental framework which allows me to address these questions. The first
question asks whether the information which children select to copy is influenced by how closed
or open-ended the task is. This question explores how the context of play, which is defined in
literature by its open-endedness and by a lack of repercussions on a child’s fitness, affects
children’s learning. This is an important question because most studies which investigate
children’s learning use closed-ended tasks, which neglect play as an ecologically relevant context
for children’s development. The second question asks whether, in this open-ended condition, the
information available to children’s copying can be decomposed into specific types of information
which they may or may not copy, and which children may combine with information not learnt
via copying. This question is important as social learning literature often overemphasises a
dichotomy of ‘to copy’ versus ‘not to copy’, which hides interesting variation in the types of
information children copy in different contexts. This is especially relevant to open-ended
contexts in which children can copy not only how something is accomplished, but also what to
accomplish.

The use of Regenerating Forest by Woolly Monkeys and Spider Monkeys in Peru
Lucy MILLINGTON (Durham University)
More than 60% non-human primate species are currently threatened with extinction. Habitat
modification following deforestation is one of the primary threats to primates in the 21st
century. A growing body of literature suggests that areas that have previously been cleared for
logging and agriculture can be vital habitats for endangered species as the forest regenerates,
however few of these studies have focussed on primates. This study will investigate the ability of
two endangered primate species: the woolly monkey (Lagothrix cana tschudii) and spider monkey
(Ateles chamek) to use regenerating forest habitat in a buffer zone at Manú Learning Centre, Peru.
By collecting behavioural and ranging data for the two species simultaneously at the same site, I
will be able to compare the two species’ use of regenerating forest. I will examine any differences
and similarities between their coping strategies for surviving in an anthropogenically modified
landscape. Founded on the hypothesis that woolly monkeys are able to exploit a greater diversity
of foods than spider monkeys, I predict that woolly monkeys will spend more time foraging and
feeding in regenerating forests than primary forest.
Burial Customs in Anatolia during the Bronze Age
Latif OKSUZ (Durham University)
The Bronze Age saw the emergence one of the first cities and states in Anatolia. The Early
Bronze Age (EBA) covers a period between around 3000-2000 BCE. This period is defined as a
period of urbanization, when complex societies emerged. The Middle Bronze Age (MBA) covers
2000-1600 BCE. In this period, long distance trade increased. Lastly, the Late Bronze Age (LBA)
dates to 1650-1100 BCE. During this period, Anatolia was home to several states and population
groups. Excavations and survey materials from Anatolia help us to understand changes and
variability in the mortuary practices during this time of massive social change. In western
Anatolia, where pithos burials, are the norm, sites like Yortan, Karatas-Semayuk, Troy, and
Demircihoyuk and from eastern Anatolia Titris Hoyuk, Birecik Dam Cemetery, Lidar Hoyuk and
more sites clarify our understanding of mortuary practices during the Bronze Age. My research
project aims to synthesize the burial data for the Bronze and Iron Ages, which has not been
synthesised in an overall study of geographic and chronological patterns. This poster will present
the first stages of research, focussing on the Bronze Age materials, mapping its distribution..

In the footsteps of sleeping bodies. Reviewing methodologies for studying adolescents

natural sleep
Andrea SILVA CABALLERO (Durham University)
Sleep remains an understudied phenomenon in human societies; we know little about “normal”
sleep patterns and architecture and how this might have evolved during human evolution. Since
the mid-2000s, some studies have focused on adolescent sleep patterns. Evidence suggests that
“modern” adolescents endure a “social jetlag” characterized by misalignment between the
endogenous circadian clock, and the social clock which is dependent on school schedules, social
activities and individual choice. It is therefore hypothesized that adolescents living in non-
industrial settings will also sleep longer in order to comply with their “biological/natural”
circadian cycle. However, studies examining normal adolescent sleep in these settings are scarce.
My PhD project will help bridge this gap by addressing and comparing adolescent sleep patterns
in two non-industrial and one industrial society in Mexico. The study will investigate whether the
shift in the reported sleep-wake cycle of adolescents in industrialized populations is replicated in
non-industrialized societies, and, what bio-socio- cultural environmental factors influence sleep
quality and duration in these settings. This poster will examine the strengths and weakness of the
main data collection tools for approaching sleep duration, timing and quality. Its ultimate aim is
to discuss the most suitable data collection tools for addressing my research objectives.
BIOS
AYERS, Alec (Durham University): Under the supervision of Professor Russell Hill and Dr
Kris Kovarovic, Alec Ayers’ PhD thesis focuses on the predator-prey interactions between
chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) and leopards (Panthera pardus) residing in the Western
Soutpansberg Mountains, South Africa. Although trained in Archaeology, Alec’s previous
research interests involved hominin-carnivore interactions at Plio-Pleistocene sites including how
carnivores such as African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) modified bone. Alec became increasingly
interested in the interactions between extant carnivores and primates with the belief that
interactions between sympatric species can only be assessed with a mutual understanding on how
they independently interact within their environment. Alec has utilised data derived from GPS
collar and dual axis accelerometers and environmental data to assess activity schedules, home
range analyses for both species as well as the probability of occurrence for the focal predator
species. Finally, Alec will be utilising behavioural data derived from scan samples to determine
whether perceived risk in chacma baboons increases in areas where leopards are more likely to
occur and whether baboons actively choose to avoid such risky areas within their home range.
Contact: alec.ayers@durham.ac.uk

BALL, Helen (Durham University): is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the

University's Parent-Infant Sleep Lab . She pioneers the study of infant sleep and the parent-
infant sleep relationship from a biosocial perspective. She obtained her PhD in Anthropology
from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1992. Broadly defined, her research examines
sleep ecology, particularly of infants, young children and their parents. This encompasses
attitudes and practices regarding infant sleep, behavioural and physiological monitoring of
infants and their parents during sleep, infant sleep development, and the discordance between
cultural sleep preferences and biological sleep needs. She has conducted research in hospitals and
the community, and contributes to national and international policy and practice guidelines on
infant care. She pioneers the translation of academic research on infant sleep into evidence for
use by parents and healthcare staff via ISIS -- the Infant Sleep Information Source website
(www.isisonline.org.uk). In 2013 Prof Ball received an award for Outstanding Impact in Society
from the Economic and Social Research Council for her work on parent-infant sleep.
Contact: h.l.ball@durham.ac.uk

BATHRELOU, Vasiliki (Durham University): I hold a BA in Archaeology and Art History

from University of Athens. My interests as an archaeologist focused on gender in the bronze age
at the periphery of Mesopotamia. I continued my studies in Social Anthropology (M.Sc.), at
University of the Aegean, shifting to migration and gender and sexuality issues. My master’s
thesis focused on gender and sexuality issues of the refugees in the asylum processes in Greece.
During my master’s I took part of the organization committee of the University’s Summer
school about migration (Migbord 2015). Currently, I started my PhD working on female
sexuality in the periphery of Greece, while working as a teaching assistant at Durham University.
Contact: vasiliki.bathrelou@durham.ac.uk

BHATTACHARYYA, Tinni (SOAS University of London): is an Indian researcher and

curator. She holds BA from Oberlin College, with majors in Art History and Visual Arts and
concentrations in Neuroscience and Biology. Tinni’s scholarship and curatorial practice lies at
the intersection of her art historical and political research, as she addresses the troubling history
of how colonial models of “labor”; have continually been modified and manipulated to construct
more palatable systems of control, oppression and exploitation. She has held positions at the
LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies at Columbia University, the Archeological Survey of
India, the National Museum of India, the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Peggy Guggenheim
Collection, FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. She
independently curated (Anti)Corporeality: Reclaiming and Re-presenting the Black Body (Allen
Memorial Art Museum, Fall 2016), which addressed how American artists reflect on oppressive
images of the enslaved African produced during the Atlantic Slave Trade and, in turn, re-imagine
the presence of the Black body and experience within contemporary visual culture. In June 2017,
Tinni presented the research for this exhibition at “Negotiating Art and Narrative: Symposium
for Emerging Scholars” at the Frick Collection in New York. Tinni is currently a MA Candidate
in Migration and Diaspora Studies at SOAS, University of London.
Contact: 656144@soas.ac.uk

CAMILLO, Ana (Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick): With an
interdisciplinary research field, Ana Camillo is an accomplished Ethnochoreologist and Designer.
Graduated with First Class Honours in Product Design at Centro Universitário Belas Artes de
São Paulo (University of Fine Arts of Sao Paulo), Ana is a costume design specialist. She initiated
her dance studies in 2006 with Arabian dances, and later began studying Romani (Gypsy) dances,
flamenco, and Irish dance. She graduated in 2013 as a Dance Technician specialised in classical
ballet and jazz and in 2014 completed the Gypsy Dancing Improvement Course. In 2017 she
graduated with First Class Honours as Master of Arts in Ethnochoreology at the Irish World
Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, where her research examined the role of
body movements and dance within pagan rituals in present day Ireland. She is currently a PhD
candidate at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, where the focus of her research is
Romani (Gypsy) dances within a festival/ritual context. Ana aims to advance her career as
interdisciplinary scholar and festival practitioner.
Contact: Ana.Camillo@ul.ie

C-KENT WIDDOWS, Alexander Matthew C. (Durham University): Alex is a part-time PhD

student in Anthropology at Durham University. His core research interests include politics,
migration, and digital identities. More specifically he is looking into the way in which politics has
been affected by social media in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States. His past
research has explored the notions of migration and identity, and the mechanisms by which
cultural integration or assimilation occurs in the United Kingdom, Cyprus and the Netherlands.
Contact: alex.m.c-kent-widdows@durham.ac.uk

COXON, James A. (Durham University): Jim Coxon is a PhD Researcher in anthropology at

Durham University. Jim’s personal research is concerned with coalminers and their communities
in North East England. He is particularly interested in the way that mining is currently being
commemorated and memorialised and has a recent publication on that subject. Before studying
sociology at Durham he worked as a mechanical engineer in the mining industry. Jim is a
corporate member of the North East Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers.
Contact: j.a.coxon@durham.ac.uk

DEELEY; Ellena (University of Exeter): is an AHRC-funded PhD candidate. She is co-

supervised by Dr Paul Young at the University of Exeter and Dr Helen Piper at the University of
Bristol. Her thesis, provisionally titled ‘Conjoined Twins and the Anatomy of the Neoliberal
Subject: Representing the Conjoined Body in Contemporary Literature and Screen Media’,
explores representations of conjoined twins in contemporary culture. Using the lenses of
globalization theory, critical disability studies and postcolonial studies, her thesis investigates how
conjoined twins are constructed across a variety of different discursive sites, including canonical
postcolonial literature, the mass media and biomedicine. It argues that the proliferation of
representations of conjoined twins in a variety of media forms since the last decades of the
twentieth century can be productively read in relation to shifting conceptions of subjectivity and
social connectedness under globalization.
Contact: eld208@exeter.ac.uk

FARRELLY, Keeva (Durham University): Keeva is a Masters student at Durham’s School of

Education and is currently working on their thesis which seeks to explore ways dominant
discourse is resisted by marginalised and socially active folks in their everyday lives. After
studying Sociology and Social Policy for four years in Dublin, Durham County has been a lovely
change of scenery and the academic staff at the School of Education have been brilliant to work
with.
Contact: keeva.m.farrelly@durham.ac.uk

GIRAUD, Anne-Sophie (Queen Mary University of London): Her research is cantered on the
constitution of personhood in the process of engendering, focusing on reproductive
technologies and human intervention on reproduction. Her research is at the interface of kinship
studies, anthropology of personhood and Science and Technology Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in
social anthropology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Her Ph.D.,
entitled “The Statuses of the prenatal being: processes of relational humanization. New
Reproductive Technologies and in utero death and/or stillborn”, investigates the current
transformations of the statuses of embryos and foetuses in France and the process of the
constitution of personhood during engendering. In 2017, she was a postdoctoral research
assistant at Queen Mary University of London. She joined the research project “Remaking the
Human Body: Biomedical Imaging Technologies and Professional Visions”, funded by the
Wellcome Trust, supervised by Dr. Manuela Perrotta. It explores the relations between
professional and lay visions in the field of reproductive technologies and how these relations are
interwoven with a changing social/cultural understanding of the body. Anne-Sophie Giraud is
currently a researcher at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) within the Centre of
Social Anthropology (LISST-CAS) in Toulouse (France).
Contact: a.s.giraud@qmul.ac.uk

HSIAO, Hsiang-Wei (Durham University): I am a postgraduate student from Department of

Anthropology at Durham University. My research interests are in the relations between art,
religion, hierarchy and social change among Taiwanese aboriginal people. I had worked with
Paiwan people not only for research but also for community development in Timur village and
Davalan village, Taiwan from February 2011 to February 2012 and from March 2016 to May
2017.
Contact: wei19851014@gmail.com

KEEGAN, Alice-Amber (Durham University): I am a first year PhD student funded by the
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and I am part of Durham University Parent-
Infant Sleep lab. I completed my MSc by research in 2016 looking at the efficacy of providing an
infant safer sleep box compared to a standalone cot in the same room on reducing the
occurrence of modifiable risk factors associated with SIDS whilst bed-sharing. My PhD research
is looking at the influence of sleep location on the ease of caregiving in the immediate postnatal
period and breastfeeding outcomes.
Contact: alice-amber.keegan@durham.ac.uk

KING, Abby (Durham University): Abby is a first year PhD student in Medical Anthropology at
Durham University. She is interested in the use of information and communication technologies
in healthcare, and the reciprocal influences these technologies and forms of care have on one
another.
Contact: abigail.r.king@durham.ac.uk

KISS, Boglarka (University of Exeter): Boglarka Kiss gained her MA degrees in English
literature and Hungarian literature at the University of Debrecen (Hungary). After the
completion of her MA studies she completed a taught PhD course at the same university. In
2017, she received an “Excellence in Philosophy, Sociology and Anthropology” award from the
University of Exeter to study for an MA in Philosophy and Sociology of Science. Her research
interests include the cultural and medical representations of reproduction, science and
technology studies, material agency and ontological politics.
Contact: bk296@exeter.ac.uk

LAVENDER FORSYTH, Guy A. (Durham University): I am an MSc by Research student in

Evolutionary Anthropology, in my fourth year at Durham after a BSc in Anthropology. My field
of interest is the study of human cognition and culture from an evolutionary perspective, which
is expressed in a variety of current and future projects. I have recently submitted a paper to the
journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences on the topic of the cultural evolution of writing systems
and the neuroplasticity of literacy, arguing for a positive feedback loop in which people change a
writing system to suit their needs, and the writing system changes our cognition to suit itself. I
presented a paper to the conference ‘Philosophy of Life’ (Durham, 2018) on the theoretical
traditions in anthropology, psychology, and evolutionary biology which illuminate this insight.
My current work into children’s learning and play integrates with research undertaken by Rachel
and Jeremy Kendal into social learning among humans and primates, and makes use of ongoing
collaboration between Durham Anthropology and the Centre for Life science centre in
Newcastle. In January 2019 I begin doctoral research at the University of Auckland, studying the
cognitive and cultural foundations of political beliefs and behaviours across New Zealand and
Vanuatu.
Contact: g.a.lavender-forsyth@durham.ac.uk

MARTIN, Anaïs (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Norbert Élias Centre): is a
French PhD-student in social anthropology. She works on the experience of being donor
conceived in France and in the UK, addressing the representations of incest prohibitions. Her
research falls within the scope of new kinship studies, anthropology of the body and
personhood, and gender studies. She conducted a first study on the experience of French donor
conceived adults for her Master thesis, which got rewarded by the CNAF (French national
institution dealing with family and social care). Anaïs Martin is currently conducting her PhD-
study in the UK and in France. She has received a three-years doctoral fellowship from the École
des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales for her PhD.
Contact: anais.g.martin@gmail.com
MILLINGTON, Lucy (Durham University): I am a first year PhD student in Biological
Anthropology at Durham University. My research interests are firmly rooted in biodiversity
conservation, and more specifically in primate conservation within the Neotropics. I am
particularly interested in the importance of regenerating forest as a viable habitat for primates, as
large areas of primary forest continue to be deforested at an unprecedented rate. My PhD
research is a reflection of these interests, I will investigate the use of regenerating forest by
woolly monkeys and spider monkeys in an area characterised by regenerating and primary forest
in South Eastern Peru. My Masters research was my first foray into primate conservation work,
where I collected data on the distribution of numerous species of Neotropical primates within an
anthropogenically modified landscape in Peru. Following the completion of my Masters degree, I
continued to work in the field with wild primates as a research assistant, where I collected data
on social behaviour in woolly monkeys at Tiputini, Ecuador. I went on to work as a research
assistant in South Africa for a project investigating the nutritional ecology of chacma baboons
within a human modified landscape.
Contact: lucy.a.millington@durham.ac.uk

NKHATA, Misheck Julian (Durham University): I am a third year PhD student in medical
anthropology at Durham University. I studied medical anthropology at the University of
Amsterdam and sociology at the University of Malawi. I conducted fieldwork on diabetes
management at two health facilities in Southern Malawi, Southern Africa. Previously, my
research has been around the experiences of HIV and AIDS treatment in Malawi. My current
interests are chronic diseases and use of medicines, especially antibiotics and herbal medicines.
Contact: misheck.j.nkhata@durham.ac.uk

NYMAN, Fredrik (Durham University): is a PhD student at Durham University (UK) in the
Department of Anthropology and the Centre for Medical Humanities. He is a research student
in the interdisciplinary Wellcome Trust-funded project “Life of Breath” led by Professor Jane
Macnaughton (Durham University) and Professor Havi Carel (University of Bristol).
Theoretically Fredrik relates to medical anthropology, and his research interests have come to
turn towards questions of biosocialities, health and illness. His doctoral research will explore
how people with chronic breathlessness and lung disease (living in northern England) use
support groups to self-manage their respiratory conditions.
Contact: fredrik.l.nyman@durham.ac.uk

OKSUZ, Latif (Durham University): I received my BA in Classic Archaeology at the Ataturk

University in Turkey in 2012. In 2017, I completed my Master degree in the Department of
Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures at Mississippi State University. My master thesis is
entitled “In the Light of the Artifacts: Understanding Another Domestic Area from the Iron II
Occupation, Tell Halif”. My thesis project is on analyzing typical household activities in a
domestic space from the Iron Age II occupation, Tell Halif, under the supervision of Dr. James
W. Hardin. I am currently a PhD student in the Department of Archaeology at Durham
University. My research project is on synthesizing burial data for the Bronze and Iron Ages in
Anatolia.
Contact: latif.oksuz@durham.ac.uk
POLLARD, Tessa (Durham University): Tessa's current research draws on approaches from
medical anthropology, public health and epidemiology to investigate the place of health-related
practices, particularly physical activities such as walking, in everyday lives. She also draws on an
evolutionary perspective, which considers how past adaptations may have led to today's health
problems. For some time she has applied these approaches to investigate risk factors for
cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes in migrant and minority groups in the UK, and she
currently has a particular interest in women's walking. She leads a Physical Activity Lab using a
variety of technologies, as well as qualitative methods, to investigate everyday practices such as
walking.
Contact: t.m.pollard@durham.ac.uk

RAMNATH, Dhruv (SOAS University of London): After completing his Bachelor’s in English
Studies from India, Dhruv worked as a filmmaker and photographer for various organisations
and NGOs until he, followed by a long stint as an intern with Swarajya magazine and then as a
copywriter for the Times of India, found his way to the School of Oriental and African Studies
as a student of Social Anthropology. He is interested in the mainstream media’s role in shaping
opinion on Hindu gurus as well as in how guru organisations leverage the media to attract
transnational followings. He has increasingly found himself writing about the Sharavana Baba
movement due to his anthropological association with it for over ten years.
Contact: 642535@soas.ac.uk

SANDOVAL, Gustavo University of York): Archaeological excavation is a form of embodied

practice to follow archaeological traces. Yet, I´m a doctoral student at the University of York
(2015-2018). The provisional title of my research project is “Experience and interpretation. An
epistemology of archaeological excavation”. This is a comparative study of three theoretical
British field schools of archaeological excavation. My academic background is in Archaeology
(ENAH, 2009) and MA Philosophy of Science (UNAM, 2012). I worked in Mexico for the
National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) for diverse types of archaeological
projects, including rescue archaeology and the investigation of heritage sites. I have published a
few papers in peer reviewed journals in Spanish. I have supervised undergrad student attending
excavation modules in Mexico and the UK.
Contact: gsg506@york.ac.uk

SAVVA, Elena (Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences Athens): I am a Phd
student in Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences in the Department of Sociology,
Athens. My doctoral thesis deals with clients of prostitution and especially why do they prefer to
"buy" sex. (50 interviews in depth and field notes) Αreas of my scientific interest are feminism,
post-feminist sexism, narcissism at the time of social media, new masculinities, gender identity,
prostitution and many others.
Contact: helensabba@yahoo.gr

SILVA CABALLERO, Andrea (Durham University): I completed my B.A. in Physical

Anthropology at the National School of Anthropology and History, Mexico City. During 2014, I
joined the Chronobiology and Sleep Laboratory of the Mexican National Institute of Psychiatry
“Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz”-INP where I collaborated in studies upon sleep and dream content
in depressed people, as well as on the effect of the endemic plant Calea Zacatechichi (which is a
herbal remedy known for its oneirogen properties) in sleep architecture. In 2017, I obtained my
MSc in Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Durham. My research interests include health
disparities & birth outcomes, socio-cultural representations on the human face, emotional
dream content, and human sleep ecology. Recently, I have rejoined the Anthropology
Department at the University of Durham to complete my PhD. My project, entitled “Shifting
chronotypes, sleep patterns and sleep quality among adolescents living in urban and traditional
environments”, will address the shift in the sleep-wake cycle of adolescents and the
environmental influences on the sleep quality and duration of adolescents living in Mexico. My
PhD studies are funded by the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology -
CONACyT.
Contact: andrea.silva-caballero2@durham.ac.uk

TUPPER, Emily (Durham University): am currently in the 1st year of my PhD, having
completed my MA in Research Methods here in the Durham anthropology department last year,
and my undergraduate degree in Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews in 2015.
My research is funded by a 1+3 doctoral studentship from the Economic and Social Research
Council. I am part of the Anthropology department’s Physical Activity Lab and the Durham
University Research in Sport and Exercise Science research group.
Contact: emily.c.tupper@durham.ac.uk

WAGNILD, Janelle (Durham University): I am a third-year PhD student in the Physical

Activity Laboratory within the Department of Anthropology at Durham University. My PhD is
funded by the Durham Doctoral Studentship, with additional fieldwork grants provided by the
Norman Richardson Fund via Ustinov College and a bursary from the Biosocial Society. My
PhD fieldwork was carried out in partnership with the NIHR Clinical Research Network
associated with the NHS.
Contact: j.m.wagnild@durham.ac.uk

WICKRAMASINGHE, Upul K. (Durham University): Currently I am pursuing my doctoral

studies on the theme of “Water, health and kidney disease in Sri Lanka: perspectives from
anthropology and chemistry” at the Department of Anthropology, University of Durham under
the supervision of Dr. Tom Widger. I have completed a double master degree in Environmental
Management & Development and Diplomacy from the Australian National University,
Canberra and I have also obtained a Master of Science in Analytical Chemistry from the
University of Colombo. By profession, I have been worked as an analytical chemist in a
multinational laboratory in Sri Lanka for almost five years mainly focusing on monitoring and
testing of waste and drinking water. I have also worked as an ethnographic fieldworker for two
years in Sri Lanka in a project, “Pesticides and Global Health: an ethnographic study of
agrochemical lives”, led by Dr. Tom Widger. Moreover, I worked as a visiting lecturer at Open
University, Sri Lanka teaching in a master course of Environmental Science.
Contact: upulkw@gmail.com

WISHER, Isobel (University of York): I am currently studying an MSc in Early Prehistory and
Human Origins at the University of York, specifically looking into the use of materials in identity
construction and communication in the late Upper Palaeolithic (Magdalenian period). My
research interests are in the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, particularly material agency, identity,
and cognition. My undergraduate dissertation studied the cognitive abilities of Neanderthals,
reflected in their use and management of space. Recently, I have presented on the extended self
and manifestations of identity at the Cambridge Annual Student Archaeology (CASA)
conference, and on the social significance of Neanderthal site re-use at the Theoretical
Archaeology Group (TAG) conference. Revealing the behaviours and minds of our ancestors
through studying the material record intrigues me, particularly with regard to how they perceived
and understood their world. I believe that through in- depth study of artefacts, we can gain an
insight into the most intimate behaviours of past peoples. This has ramifications for
understanding modern minds, particularly with regard to how certain cognitive systems may have
evolved to interpret the world, and the plasticity of the mind to incorporate external materials
into our neural networks.
Contact: icw509@york.ac.uk
Department of Anthropology, Durham University
Dawson Building
South Road
Durham, DH1 3LE
Tel: +44 (0) 191 334 1612 Fax: +44 (0) 191 334 1615
Email: anthropology@durham.ac.uk