Margaret Mead leaned forward and squinted into the cup.  "The anthropology of Britain?  Its not exactly Bali, is it?  You're on your own on this one." 

I'm a PhD student at The University of Melbourne, and I study contemporary Britain.  As an MA student at The University of Auckland (my home town), I wrote my thesis on the British Solomon Islands Protectorate.  Then somewhere between WWOOFing in Yorkshire, realising I'd make a mediocre Melanesianist, and making a vain escape attempt from The Gender of the Gift, I made the jump from British colonialism to Britain itself.  

Of course, Marilyn Strathern had been there already. 

My graduate scout badges are in historical anthropology, and I'm fascinated by how people in the present interact with the past, particularly with pasts beyond memory. 

My PhD project is about the revival of 'traditions' in West Yorkshire.  It isn't about the invention of tradition; it's about the possibility of political narratives being oriented to the past, rather than the future.  It's about nostalgia, too.  And radicalism.  And things like growing cress and brewing ale ... and even a little bit of clog dancing. 

Yorkshire is an inspired choice of fieldsite, because I have an irrational fear of whippets and greyhounds. 

If you'd like to get in touch, you can contact me at niwdoog [dot] jb [at] gmail [dot] com, or find me on Twitter. 

Peace be with you.

Margaret Mead was not harmed in the making of this blog, although a flat cap was certainly doffed to Esther Newton.