UCL Anthropology

Applications open for the Julia Scott Memorial Bursary

The aim of the Julia Scott Memorial Bursary is intended to enable students in financial need to pursue their postgraduate studies in the Anthropology Department at UCL.

Eligible fee status: Home (UK domicile only)

Eligible programmes: Taught Masters programmes in the Anthropology Department

Deadline: 5pm BST, Thursday 25 June 2026

📲 all info over on the main University College London funding page via the link in today’s story and the Student Information Highlight above ⬆️

Proud to see the creativity, curiosity, and community of UCL Anthropology on full display at last week's AnthroShow 2026.

This annual showcase brought together student research in all its forms—from dissertations and ethnographic projects to films, podcasts, posters, photography, and creative works—demonstrating the breadth and impact of anthropological thinking today. The event highlighted not only academic excellence but also the power of storytelling, collaboration, and public engagement.

What stood out most was the energy of a community coming together to celebrate each other's work, share ideas, and explore the many ways anthropology helps us understand the world around us.

Congratulations to all the students, staff, and organisers who made AnthroShow 2026 such a success. Events like these remind us that research is at its best when it is shared, accessible, and connected to wider conversations.

Read more: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/news/2026/jun/anthroshow-2026-celebrates-student-research-creativity-and-community-ucl

Such a great event last night! Professor Ramon Sarró joined us to deliver this year's annual Daryll Forde Lecture on prophets, ruins, and the ethnographic imagination.

Drawing on decades of ethnographic research across West and Central Africa, Professor Sarró explored how prophetic figures, material ruins and imaginative forms of social life become intertwined in contexts shaped by historical rupture and uncertainty. His lecture offered a fascinating reflection on the ways anthropology can engage with the forces that connect past and future, presence and absence, memory and possibility.

A huge thank you to Professor Sarró for sharing his insights, and to everyone who joined us for an evening of stimulating discussion. The conversation continued afterwards at the drinks reception, where colleagues, students and guests had the chance to connect and reflect on the themes of the lecture.

🚨 Deadline Alert: Tuesday 16 June 2026

Applications are open for the Mary Douglas Research Scholarships 2026 at UCL Anthropology. These prestigious scholarships support outstanding doctoral research and are available to students pursuing a PhD in Anthropology at UCL.

📅 Application deadline: 16 June 2026 (next Tuesday)

If you're planning to apply, now is the time to prepare and finalise your proposal and submit your application.

For more information on how to apply, visit: https://bit.ly/3RUBEvg

UCL Anthropology’s annual Anthroshow returns on Tuesday 9 June 2026, from 3:30 pm to 8:30 pm, at 14 Taviton Street, London WC1H 0BW.

The event will showcase research by Anthropology and Archaeology students, alongside photography from UCL’s Anthropolitan magazine. Visitors can also take part in the department’s community garden project and receive a free houseplant.

Food and refreshments will be provided.

Anthroshow is Anthropology beyond the page—alive with curiosity, creativity, and conversation, and open to everyone.

Please register in advance via Eventbrite: https://shorturl.at/fBVq5

Anthroshow 2026: The Annual UCL Anthropology Students’ Show
Tuesday 9 June 2026 | 3:30 pm–8:30 pm

Join us TODAY for a fascinating talk by Tunay Altay exploring migrant drag performance, q***r migration, and the politics of visibility in contemporary Germany.

Drawing on ethnographic research conducted between 2020–2026, Tunay examines how migrant drag performers navigate racialised and sexualised regimes of citizenship, create alternative pathways to belonging, and build infrastructures of care, resilience, and political imagination in the face of growing anti-gender and anti-migrant movements.

This talk offers a timely perspective on sexuality, migration, and resistance in an era marked by rising anti-trans politics, pro-natal conservatism, and broader challenges to human rights.

📆 Performing Politics: Drag, Q***r Migration, and the Aesthetics of Postmigrant Survival
04 Jun 2026, 17:30
Student Common Room, 14 Taviton Street

📍 Everyone welcome
🎟️ No booking required

More info: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/events/2026/jun/performing-politics-drag-q***r-migration-and-aesthetics-postmigrant-survival

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

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

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

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