I am a visual-digital anthropologist, currently a Lecturer in Digital Anthropology at UCL Anthropology
Previously I was a Lecturer in Anthropology (2022-2022) in the Anthropology department at Goldsmiths, University of London, where among teaching courses in visual and digital anthropology I convened the MA programme in Visual Anthropology.
Before this I was a Postdoctoral Researcher (2017-2020), and Teaching Fellow in Material and Visual Culture (2016-2017) at the Department of Anthropology, University College London (UCL)
Between 2018-2019 I completed 16-months of ethnographic fieldwork in Milan, Italy as part of the ASSA project at UCL, and have just published my monograph from this book: Ageing with Smartphones in Urban Italy, with UCL Press.
I hold a BA (First Class Hons; MA Thompson Prize) in History from University College London (UCL), and an MPhil and DPhil in Social Anthropology (St. Antony’s college) from the University of Oxford.
My doctoral thesis: Camera Iranica: Popular Digital Photography in/of Iran looked at popular digital photographic practices in Iran, with a particular focus on Iranian photoblogging (blogging with digital photographs) as an emergent form of transnational Iranian visual/digital communication.
My work has studied developments and continuities in the medium of photography, and its networked sociality in a digital age. Throughout my doctoral studies and after I continued to explore creative & collaborative digital and visual methods for ethnographic research, representation and communication – subjects on which I have published.
Prior to joining the Anthropology department at UCL, I worked as a Research Assistant at the Centre of Migration Policy and Society (COMPAS) University of Oxford on the mixed methods research project ‘A Decade of Immigration Narratives in the British Press’.
During my time as a PhD student at the University of Oxford, I co-facilitated the Oxford Digital Ethnography Group (OxDEG) (2013-2016); an interdisciplinary hub hosted between the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology and the Oxford Internet Institute for conversations about ethnography and qualitative research in digitally-mediated worlds. I was also a founding core member of the #socialhumanities TORCH (The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities) network at the University of Oxford, which explored the implications of social media for society, culture and communication.
In my latest research in Milan, Italy (2017-2020) as part of the ASSA project at UCL Anthropology, I undertook long-term ethnographic research in an inner-city, multi-ethnic neighbourhood, exploring issues of ageing, health and digital communications, working amongst Italian and migrant communities from the Middle East and North Africa. Central in my current work is exploring the practice and ideology of care and community through online & offline practices of socio-cultural / political engagement and participation.
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I have undertaken professional training in acting & performance (Guildhall School of Music & Drama [2008]; including acting, movement, & voice workshops at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA), London). As a former actress and producer I have co-developed and performed original work in London and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
In July 2017 I qualified as a (Yoga Alliance certified) Vinyasa Yoga teacher
Core research interests: Visual & digital culture, media and communications, migration and mobilities, social & political change; movement, bodies, performance Research areas: The Middle East [Iran, Afghanistan]; Euro-Mediterran and Persianate societies Doctoral research in/on Iran: anthropology & photography, media practices, popular photography, identity, youth culture, aesthetics, digital materiality, digital images Postdoctoral research in Italy: smartphones, ageing, health, bodies, technologies, politics of care and community, migration & mobilities, nationalism & transnationalism Professional affiliations/service: Royal Anthropological Institute Anthropology & Photography committee member (2017–present); ECREA (European Communication Research and Education Association) group Visual Cultures steering committee member (2017-present).
DR SHIREEN WALTON 