Anthropology Reviews:

Dissent and Cultural Politics

 

Open Access Anthropology Journal (ARDAC)

Anthropology Reviews: Dissent and Cultural Politics ISSN 2041-1405

Vol. 1, No. 1,  February 2010

 

Contributors Page

 

Clare Perkins -Editorial Board (Occasional Reviewer)

 

 

Academic Qualifications.

 

BA 2:1 Religious Studies and Anthropology, University of Wales, Lampeter.

MA Social Anthropology, University of Wales, Lampeter.

 

Research Interests.

 

  • The Anthropology of Food.
  • Farming Relations in Rural Areas of Britain.
  • Post-modern Theoretical and Methodological Approaches.
  • Globalisation Discourses.
  • Anti-Corporate Globalisation Movements.
  • Public Anthropology. 

 

Research.

 

Grounded in ethnographic research, undertaken primarily for a MA in Social Anthropology, is an interest in food and farming. An exploration of interactions predominantly centred on a city-based, Welsh farmers’ market; I am broadly concerned with the interplay between the farming sector and processes associated with globalisation. Seeking to establish the reasons that give rise to participation in farmers’ markets, I am particularly struck by the socio-cultural effects of Government and European Union legislation and policy; supermarket ‘culture’; counter-motivations; scientific technologies in food production, transportation and trade; methods of diversification; and notions of ‘sustainability’. Moreover, I am concerned with the value of the broad contextualisation of perceptions, interpretations and responses from the farming community. Consequently, my predominantly qualitative data is considered primarily according to a socio-scientific, philosophical theoretical ground. I am interested in, for example, the eliciting of present and possible future emotional ‘performances’, such as those observed at the farmers’ market, by  “externality and history” (Seremetakis C N 1994: 7). Within my research, I have explored their resonance within wider contexts of Welsh ‘peripherality’, notions of ‘home’, ‘agency’, ‘family’, ‘Welshness’, ‘community’ and belonging.

 

The ‘invisibility’ of anthropology in the public sphere was integral to my research experience (Eriksen T H 2006). Considering its implications, I am interested in the impact of public ‘anthropologies’ to theoretical and methodological commitments within the field. I am also concerned with the ‘tangling’ within ethnography of ‘public’ anthropology and fieldwork data (Cunningham H 1999).

           

Continuing to explore these interests, in September 2009 I will begin to undertake a PhD at the Centre for Rural Research, in the Department of Geography, at the University of Worcester, within the project ‘Hybridity and Husbandry: Farm Families and Genetic Modification in the UK’. I am concerned with undertaking a socio-cultural-scientific exploration of how relations within the farming sector are changing according to the adoption of legislative schemes, social policies and scientific technologies. This research will feed into the specific debate surrounding GM (Genetic Modification) technology and its associated policy and decision-making processes. Particularly keen to engage in research within this multi-disciplinary framework, I am looking forward to participating in debates that seek to contribute to the understanding of UK farming within the geography of agriculture.

 

In my spare time I enjoy reading novels set in the Middle East, outdoor activities, cooking, catching up with friends, swimming, listening to a vast music collection, travelling, watching films and keeping up with an interest in art and design.

 

Funding.

 

PhD Research Studentship at the Centre for Rural Research in the Department of Geography at the University of Worcester.

 

Other Responsibilities.

 

Treasurer and Safety Officer of the Anthrozoology Society, University of Wales, Lampeter (2007-2008).

 

Occasional Reviewer, Anthropology Reviews: Dissent and Cultural Politics.

 

Publications.

 

Perkins, C. A. (Forthcoming); Keeping Friends Close, but Enemies Closer: Theoretical and Methodological Negotiations of Dominant Invisibility within Fieldwork at a City Farmers’ Market, Learning and Teaching: The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences, UK: Berghahn.

 

Conference Papers, Workshops and Presentations.

 

Mama’s hotpot: Leaving behind Tesco’s Best of British for a Taste of the Dirt (Departmental Research Seminar, University of Wales, Lampeter, 19th May 2008)

 

Mama’s hotpot: Leaving behind Tesco’s Best of British for a Taste of the Dirt (TAG (Theoretical Archaeology Group), Columbia University, New York, 24th May 2008)

 

New Age Shepherd’s Pie: Food Sustenance for the Wise (Poster Presentation, BSA Food Study Group, British Library, London, 14th July 2008).

 

Jamie’s School Dinners: The Anthropology of Food (Wales Anthropology Day Workshop, University of Wales, Lampeter, 27th June 2008).

 

‘We are what we eat’: Exploring Counter-Cultural Re-constructions of Culinary Consent (Interrogating Consent and Dominance: Citizenship, Ethnicities and Sexualities in Research and Teaching, Gregynog Conference Hall, Powys, Wales, 10th September 2008)

 

Call of the wild: The ‘Alternative’ Answer (TAG (Theoretical Archaeology Group), SouthamptonUniversity, 15-17th December 2008)

 

Keeping Friends Close, but Enemies Closer: Internalised Dominance at a Cardiff Farmers’ Market (Interrogating Consent and Dominance: Citizenship, Ethnicities and Sexualities in Research and Teaching, Gregynog Conference Hall, Powys, Wales, 9th February 2008)

 

Keeping Friends Close, but Enemies Closer: Theoretical and methodological Negotiations of Dominant Invisibility within Fieldwork at a City Farmers' Market (ASA 2009 ‘Anthropological and Archaeological Imaginations: Past, Present and Future’ Bristol, UK, 6-9th April 2009)

 

Links.

 

Creative Commons License  CC Network
Anthropology Reviews: Dissent and Cultural Politics is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.