Anthropology Impact Strategy
Brunel’s anthropology department brings together a vibrant group of scholars actively engaged with the worlds within which they work, both local – through such activities such as public seminar series, appearances at literary festivals and work with schools and museums – and at national and international policy levels. The department has long since been recognised as a pioneer in new sub-fields of the discipline, including medical anthropology, the anthropology of education, childhood and youth, and psychiatric and psychological anthropology. In each of these areas we have actively sought to have an impact that goes well beyond the University and into the lives of those we work with.
In the field of medical anthropology, for example, our research on neglected tropical diseases (such as lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths) is contributing to debates about appropriate strategies to control these diseases. The UK Department of International Development currently funds numerous programmes in sub-Saharan Africa, and we are liaising with them about how best to refine strategies currently relying upon the mass distribution of drugs, free of charge, to adults and children living in areas where these diseases are endemic. Our intensive work on HIV/AIDS – in London and in South Africa – has likewise informed the policy field, while research on leprosy in India has changed the way local NGOs work with the patients in their care, demonstrating beyond doubt the value of qualitative, nuanced research that captures the lived realities of people’s everyday lives.
At the same time, in actively recruiting doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, social workers and other health-related professionals to our taught-Master’s programmes we have also built up direct lines of communication through which our research is filtered down into frontline practice. The fact that a seminal textbook by one of the founders of our Medical Anthropology programme, the late Cecil Helman, features prominently on the reading lists of trainee medical professionals in this country speaks for itself: Brunel anthropology has been a key player in spreading anthropological knowledge beyond the confines of the University.
In addition to having a practical positive impact in the areas of global health and education, Brunel anthropologists also take seriously the importance of contributing to the enrichment of cultural life in less tangible ways. We are committed, for example, to producing writing that, while grounded in solid ethnographic fieldwork, reaches out beyond an academic audience to entertain as well as to inform. Andrew Beatty’s popular A Shadow Falls: In the Heart of Java – published by Faber – is a fine example of this genre, and he has further engaged the public with it through appearances at literary festivals, media interviews and online blog discussions. Barbara Knorpp’s [hyperlink] work on ethnographic film also feeds into this vein of our work, with a commission to curate a public film series at the National Portrait Gallery, as well as an invitation to present at the Royal Anthropological Institute’s ‘London Anthropology Day’ at the British Museum, an event at which Brunel anthropologists host well-attended workshops every year. Our research on sport – from rugby in South Africa to football in Melanesia – has likewise engaged public interest in the run-up to the 2012 Olympic Games, with Will Rollason contributing to the public seminar series ‘Athletic Foundations’. We have also built up strong relationships with local schools, offering accessible talks to introduce six-form students to the discipline and working with teachers of the new Anthropology A-level to bring the subject alive to a new generation.
Our lively weekly research seminar – at which we exchange knowledge with other invited anthropologists not only from within the UK but from across Europe and beyond – offers a central focal point for our research to be debated, tested and disseminated more widely, and these events are open to the public. Regular research-centre themed workshops offer concentrated opportunities for knowledge exchange, and regularly embrace the contributions of hands-on educationalists and health professionals as well as scholars.
Brunel anthropologists are also getting their voices heard on the media, from interviews with Radio Eire on religious tolerance to appearances on BBC World TV to offer fresh perspectives on world events such as the Indonesian general election in April 2009. We also appear as commentators on programmes such as BBC Four’s The Thirties in Colour. Peggy Froerer’s documentary film Village Lives, Distant Powers (produced by Margaret Dickinson), based on her research on the development, the state and corruption in India, also captured the public’s imagination through showings at a number of public venues, including the London Socialist Film Co-op.
For further information, please contact James Staples, Department Impact Co-ordinator james.staples@brunel.ac.uk
Last updated August 2012
