Sociocultural Anthropology Research Program

Sociocultural Anthropology Research Program

A Responsible Anthropology that Matters

As sociocultural anthropologists at McMaster University we are committed to an engaged and relevant anthropology that focuses on issues of public concern, and we maintain a strong critical and theoretical focus on three thematic clusters: democracy, violence, and humanitarian intervention; media, visuality, and art; and a broad range of topics within medical anthropology, including welfare, care, well-being, religion/spirituality, and Indigenous knowledge.

One of our unique and distinctive contributions as sociocultural anthropologists is that through ethnographic and community-engaged research we often build intensive, rich and enduring relationships with the people and peoples with whom we work. This gives us access to ‘human scale’ and Indigenous forms of knowledge and insights that are relatively uncommon within academia.

It also creates unique responsibilities and opportunities to make our research and writing relevant and useful to people and organizations outside the university, many of whom are not often beneficiaries of university-based research and may not even be formally organized.

McMaster sociocultural anthropologists have a rich tradition of collegiality and collaboration with one another and with our research participants as intellectual partners.

This includes long-standing relationships with Six Nations, and various capacity-building projects co-created to benefit both communities and learning environments. We bring this ethic of community-engagement and commitment to our research in different parts of the world, including Southeast and East Asia, Europe, Russia and the Americas.

As part of these commitments we have developed linkages to Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, the Asian Research Working Group, the Critical Health Research Network, and the Arts-Centered Community-Engaged Social Science Collaboration, among other research initiatives at McMaster and beyond.

We also have a long working relationship with the Indigenous Studies program at McMaster, the Indigenous Knowledge Centre at Six Nations Polytechnic, Aboriginal Health Research Network Secretariat and organizations in the wider Hamilton community.

The linkages between academic research and diverse communities and research partners extend into and inform our teaching, making anthropology a relevant and engaged endeavor for our students. Indeed, because we are committed to developing future researchers through both the undergraduate and graduate programs, students play a central role in shaping the intellectual life and direction of the department.

If you would like to join our open, multi-vocal conversation and community of research, please get in touch with any of our sociocultural anthropology faculty.

Faculty

Cal Biruk headshot image

Cal Biruk

PhD

Associate Professor, Anthropology

Graduate Chair, Anthropology

1 (905) 525-9140 birukc@mcmaster.ca
Basit Iqbal headshot image

Basit Iqbal

PhD

Associate Professor, Anthropology
Adjunct & Associate Member, Religious Studies
Adjunct & Associate Member, Institute on Globalization & the Human Condition

(905) 525-9140 x24423 iqbalb3@mcmaster.ca
Karen McGarry headshot image

Karen McGarry

PhD

Associate Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences
Associate Professor, Anthropology

(905) 525-9140 x24423 mcgarry@mcmaster.ca
Petra Rethmann headshot image

Petra Rethmann

PhD

Professor, Anthropology

Undergraduate Chair, Anthropology

(905) 525-9140 x23905 rethman@mcmaster.ca
Yana Stainova headshot image

Yana Stainova

PhD

Associate Professor, Anthropology

1 (905) 525-9140 stainovy@mcmaster.ca
Kee Yong headshot image

Kee Yong

PhD

Associate Professor, Anthropology
Associate Member, Institute on Globalization & the Human Condition

(905) 525-9140 x24423 yongk@mcmaster.ca

Theses awarded in Sociocultural Anthropology

Tomov, Valentina
2025: Jivetz and Writing the Afterlives of Protests in Bulgaria

Gordon, Loa
2024: Beyond Self: The Entangled Nature of Mental Health Self-Care in Higher Education

Elshahat, Sarah
2024: Uncovering the Complexity of Food/Nutrition, Physical Activity and Mental Health Among Arab Immigrants/Refugees in Ontario, Canada: The Can-Heal Study

Morrison, Kyle
2024: Pathways Out of the Republican Party: A Look into the Conservative Imaginary of the American Moderate

Sultana, Afroza
2023: Our Bodies are Made of Water: Co-Creation of Knowledge About Water Insecurity and Maternal Health with Haudenosaunee Women at Six Nations of the Grand River

McCann, Clayton
2023: Canadian Cannabis: Orthodoxies of Exclusion and Access

Stanley, Daina
2021: Care in Custody: An Ethnography of Illness and End of Life in Prison

Juric, Dorian
2019: Singing the Vila: Supernatural Beings in the Context of their Traditions

Plett, Rebecca
2017: In the World and of It: Russian Mennonites and Narratives of Community in Contemporary Canada

Yang, Tian
2015: Assessing Heritage, Tradition, and Identity?Anthropological Research among the Jurchen People of Wanyan Village

Lockerbie, Stacy
2014: Making Motherhood: Exploring Transnational Adoption Practices Between Canada and China

Sage, Vanessa E.
2013: Arts in the City: Visions of James Street North, 2005-2011

Brown, Heather
2012: Visualizing Uncertainty: Opposition to Islam in the Netherlands Through the Lens of Fitna: The Movie

Skye, Jairus
2012: Urban Aboriginal Health: Issues, Culturally Appropriate Solutions and the Embodiment of Self-Determination

Strachan, Laura
2012: The Bedouin Know! Using Local Knowledge to Understand the Effects of Development at the Wadi Rum Protected Area in Southern Jordan

Mossman, Kathryn
2011: Aspirations for Senegal: Exploring International NGO Connections

Geer, Sacha
2010: Conjuring and Avoiding the “Bad Man”: Narratives of Crime and Fear in Trinidad

Armstrong, Justin
2010: Lives Once Lived: ethnography and sense of place in the abandoned and isolated spaces of North America

Mitchell, Robert
2024: “The Brain Melt is Real”: On Student and Instructor Notions of Digital Technology-Inducted Distractedness at McMaster University

Aydin,  Fulden
2023: Syrian Newcomer Objects:  A Study in Material Culture and Forced Migration

Bali, Harshvir 
2023: Life in the Margins: Sikh Efforts to Seek Representation and Recognition in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir

Stef, Cristina 
2023: Preventing Elderly Orphans

Seldon, Alana 
2022: Slaves, Saviours, and Sewing Machines: An Ethnography of Cambodia’s Commercial Sex Immediascape

Elgamal, Raghad 
2022: Trauma and Care: Abandoned Memories in Egypt and Saudi Arabia

Viseu, Bianca
2020: The Window on the (South) west: The Southwest Iberian Bronze Age from a Long-Term Perspective (ca. 3500 – 800 BCE)

Saleem, Shahtaj
2019: Stabilizing the self: Immigrant Labour and Rethinking Precarity

Kirkconnell, Andrew
2019: “Where Everyone Waddles Like Me”: An examination of the autistic community on Tumblr.com

Karrel, Miriam
2018: An Exploration of Death Cafes in Canada

Del Rio, Fiona
2017: Conceptualizing Climate Activism and Exploring the People’s Climate Movement

Manitowabi, Joshua
2017: It Sometimes Speaks To Us

Mayell, Stephanie
2016: Up-rooted Lives, Deep-rooted Memories: Stress and Resilience among Jamaican Agricultural Workers in Southern Ontario

Da Silva, Stephanie
2013: “In My Heart I am Portuguese”: Perspectives on Portuguese Migration, Identity and Religion in Hamilton, Ontario

George, Meghna
2012: Laughing in Circles: Exploring the Relationship Between Politically Correct Discourses and Stand-Up Comedy in Toronto

Juric, Dorian
2010: A Treatise on the South Slavic Vila