The SSL ‘Book of the Month’ feature highlights a book in our collection that has been chosen by one of our Subject Consultants. This may be a recent addition to our stock or an existing item that we would like to share with you.

September’s book of the month was selected by Helen Worrell, Subject Consultant for Anthroplogy.

After society: anthropological trajectories out of Oxford

Edited by Joao de Pina-Cabral and Glen Bowman

Berghahn Books

Available at GN25.AFT 2020 but currently on display at our New Books Display Area.

It was chosen to introduce the newly moved Anthropology collections and highlight the recent history of Oxford’s Anthropology department.

Book Overview

In the early 1980s, when the contributors to this volume completed their graduate training at Oxford, the conditions of practice in anthropology were undergoing profound change. Professionally, the immediate postcolonial period was over and neoliberal reforms were marginalizing the social sciences.  Here self-ethnography is used to portray the contributors’ anthropological trajectories, showing how analytical and academic engagements interacted creatively over time.

Reviews

“This volume provides a valuable mix of autobiographical reflections on what it was to be a student of anthropology at Oxford at a particular time in the Institute’s history. Such reflections are all the more insightful, written as they are, by former students who by now have had largely successful (indeed very successful) careers in the discipline.”

Elizabeth Ewart, University of Oxford

How can I access it?

A hard copy can be found on our New Books Display Area (around the corner from our Issue Desk), which can be borrowed by Oxford University students and staff. It is usually shelved at GN25.AFT 2020.

What would your SSL Book of the Month be? Do you have a favourite book in our collection? If so, we would love to know what it is. Add a comment below or email us.