Anthropological Research
Cultural Anthropology at Uppsala has several strong environments, including theoretical perspectives in Political Ecology, Political Culture, and Medical Anthropology, and regional perspectives in the Circumpolar area, West Africa, and South East Asia. This depends largely on the high success rate of the members of our department in obtaining external funding for research projects, for senior staff, recent PhDs, and also through them for the financing of new doctoral positions.
Our particular profile includes: research concerning ethnicity, politics and the state, the construction of identity, ethno-mobilization and indigenous issues; research concerning cultures in armed conflict and the repercussions of such conflicts, studies of child warriors, female combatants or abductees, and transformations beyond wartime conditions; research concerning cultural norms and symbol systems, capital punishment, honor killings and their various social perceptions, medical anthropology, and the world views of various religious congregations.
The Uppsala anthropology also embraces research within our own society, such as gender-based career options for young parents, hospital birthing policies, and the determinants of Swedish TV production. A number of our researchers have engaged in studies which might be categorized as Global Meetings. These include studies of the Hindu diaspora in England and Sweden, the identity and religion of Mandaeans in diaspora, and Old Colony Menonites in Bolivia.
With strong links to Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), as well as the Nordic Africa Institute, the Uppsala anthropology has historically held an international reputation for its African research profile. Our researchers are also active in South America and Southeast Asia.