Mobility

So much of our lives is in constant motion. People, ideas, cultures and objects all move.

Work here at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography touches on mobility in many ways. The migration focused work of the Centre on Migration, Policy & Society (COMPAS) contributes enormously to this field. There is a rich vein of study of items that have come from around the world to the collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum.

In contrast the Emptiness Project looks at what is left behind when people move.

'Understanding people’s movement choices is crucial for policy both responding to and shaping the emergence of urban areas.'

PEAK Global Report, 2023

Francisco Obando, Juan Carlos Duque, Michael Keith, Susan Parnell, Andrew Tucker, Stephanie Debere

Publications relating to mobility from members of staff

Explore a range of publications connected to mobility. These publications are by current members of the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography but some have been published whilst they were at other institutions.

Some journals my require a subscription.

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Urban transformations and public health in the emergent city

Editors: Michael Keith and Andreza Aruska de Souza Santos

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Object Diasporas, Resourcing Communities: Sierra Leonean Collections in the Global Museumscape

Paul Basu

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New Data Shows Net Migration Falling: What’s Actually Behind the Numbers

Rob McNeil

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On the Steppe

Matthew Porges

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Between loss and opportunity: The fate of place after postsocialism

Dace Dzenovska, Volodymyr Artiukh and Dominic Martin

The Emptiness project

92-year-old Milda lives in a village next to a former railway station in the Latvian-Russian borderlands. During the Soviet period, it was a vibrant transportation hub.

COMPAS Research Projects

All current research projects at Centre on Migration, Policy and Society

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The Migration Observatory

The Migration Observatory informs debates on international migration and public policy.

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Academic Profile

Michael Keith, Professor of Anthropology, Director of the PEAK Urban Research programme

Michael’s research focuses on migration related processes of urban change.

Academic Profile

Clare Harris, Professor of Visual Anthropology, Curator for Asian Collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum

Objects that have moved around the world form a key part of Professor Clare Harris’s research focus. Her pioneering work on Tibetan art, visual/material culture, photography and museums has effectively created a new field of study. Much of Clare’s work on Tibet and its diaspora has been informed by her wider interests in art and aesthetics; the politics of constructions of knowledge, collecting and representation (especially in relation to museums, the art world, and photography); and a critical approach to the impact and aftermath of British imperialism and Chinese interventions in Tibet.

Academic Profile

Carlos Vargas-Silva, Professor in Migration Studies

The overarching theme of Carlos’s research is the interaction of migration with labour markets, public services, and health outcomes, with a key focus on the role of policy in affecting those interactions.

Academic Profile

Dace Dzenovska, Associate Professor in the Anthropology of Migration

Dace is currently researching the emptying towns and villages in Eastern Europe and Russia in order to understand what it means to live in and govern emptying places, as well as what such places can tell us about how flows of capital and shifts in political authority are reconfiguring space and place.

Pitt Rivers Museum

We have close links with the Pitt Rivers Museum

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Mobility

Current Research Themes at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography

So much of our lives is in constant motion. People, ideas, cultures and objects all move.

Publications relating to mobility from members of staff

Urban transformations and public health in the emergent city

Object Diasporas, Resourcing Communities: Sierra Leonean Collections in the Global Museumscape

New Data Shows Net Migration Falling: What’s Actually Behind the Numbers

On the Steppe

Between loss and opportunity: The fate of place after postsocialism

Current Research Projects & Activities

The Emptiness project

COMPAS Research Projects

The Migration Observatory

Oxford Anthropologists working in this area

Michael Keith, Professor of Anthropology, Director of the PEAK Urban Research programme

Clare Harris, Professor of Visual Anthropology, Curator for Asian Collections at the Pitt Rivers Museum

Carlos Vargas-Silva, Professor in Migration Studies

Dace Dzenovska, Associate Professor in the Anthropology of Migration

Units at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography

Institute of Social & Cultural Anthropology (ISCA)

Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS)

Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion (CSSC)

Institute of Human Sciences

Institute for Science, Innovation & Society (InSIS)

Pitt Rivers Museum