University of Oxford

Social Anthropological Research

Social anthropology has always aimed at the widest possible comparative study of social forms and processes, as a means to sympathetic engagement with human experience across time and space. Current research at ISCA carries forward the tradition of intensive fieldwork in specific places as a key research practice, while refining its tools and purposes to reveal key ongoing processes in the world today. A particular focus is upon contemporary aspects of the spread of the world religions. Social anthropology at ISCA also has a strong leaning towards history, both the unfolding history of places studied and the developing history of anthropological practice and theory itself.

Several of those engaged in social anthropological research at ISCA have close links with specialist projects in the visual, medical, museum and migration studies fields, as detailed on other pages. Most staff members also have collaborative links with colleagues in the various Area Studies centres of the University.