Dr Luke Heslop
Senior Lecturer in Anthropology and Global Challenges

Summary

I received my doctoral training in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh (PhD, 2015) and held a Fellowship at the London School of Economics prior to my appointment as Lecturer in Anthropology at Brunel University London. I have conducted long-term ethnographic research in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, with a research programme that engages with contemporary debates in development and economic anthropology. My work examines markets, kinship, infrastructure, labour, and mobility, with particular attention to how macroeconomic and political transformations are lived, negotiated, and contested in emerging economies. I specialise in trade and the social life of work in South Asia, and my recent research extends this focus to the financialisation of development, the transformation of aid and advisory regimes, and the role of entrepreneurship in reshaping moral and economic life.

Academic adjacent roles:

Director of Research at the Policy Research Institute for South Asia (PRISA)

Consultant Anthropologist for the Placemaking Team at Dar Al-Handasah 

Country of Origin Expert and Consultant for Communitology

Producer and Co-host of the award-winning podcast series The Migration Menu. 

Office hours by appointment. Email luke.heslop@brunel.ac.uk to make an appointment. 

Qualifications

• Introduction to Project Management, City University of London (2020)
• PhD in Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh (2015)
• MSc(res) in Social Anthropology, University of Ediburgh (2010)
• BA(Joint Hons) Anthropology and Development Studies, Sussex University (2009)

Responsibility

• Director of Education
• Departmental REF Impact Lead
• Recognised Programme Developer for the College
• Post Graduate Convenor 
• Academic Misconduct Investigator (Department wide)
• NSS Steering Committee Member
• Department Management Board Member
• Divisional Lead for Alumni, Capabilities and Employability (ACE)
• Divisional lead for Web and social Media