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Professor James Staples
Professor - Anthropology

Marie Jahoda 221

Summary

After completing a first degree in anthropology in 1990 I worked for nearly ten years as a journalist before my ongoing fascination with South India drew me back to SOAS, University of London, to undertake a PhD. Thanks to ESRC and British Academy Fellowships I was able to stay on there for four years after completion as a post-doctoral fellow, broadening out my initial research on the social consequences of leprosy to consider how attitudes towards negatively construed bodily differences in India are shaped by – and shape – ideas about what constitutes human completeness. A further 16-months’ fieldwork in Hyderabad examined how the category of disability is constituted in multiple ways, and how it is experienced by disabled people in their day-to-day interactions. I joined Brunel as a lecturer in January 2007, returning regularly to my original field site to pursue new research on various topics, including food and social mobility, and suicide.

Qualifications:

  • PhD Social Anthropology (SOAS, London) 2003
  • BA (Hons) Social Anthropology (SOAS, London) 1990
  • PG Cert (Brunel) 2008

Responsibility

Divisional Senior Tutor, REF co-ordinator, Director of South Asia Studies Research Group, Deputy Divisional Lead

Newest selected publications

Staples, J. (2025) 'Disabling Stories and Tales of Disability: Making Sense of Narratives in South India', in Sati, S., Das, S. and Mahanta, B. (eds.) Narratives of Disability: Global Perspectives. Springer.Open Access Link

Book chapter

Staples, J. and Friedner, M. (2025) 'Disability on the Move: Disabled Mobilities in Contemporary India', in Linder, B. and Bedi, T. (eds.) South Asia on the Move: Mobilities, Mobilizations, Maneuvers.. Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press. pp. 179 - 198. ISBN 10: 94-6372-649-7. ISBN 13: 978-94-6372-649-8. Open Access Link

Book chapter

Staples, J. and Marsland, R. (2024) 'Time for a Focus on Climate Change and Health'. Medical Anthropology: cross-cultural studies in health and illness, 43 (1). pp. 1 - 4. ISSN: 0145-9740 Open Access Link

Journal article

Staples, J. (2023) 'Making up leprosy in India', in Mizuho, M., Sae, N. and Kenta, F. (eds.) Life, Illness and Death in Contemporary South Asia: Living through the Age of Hope and Precariousness.. London : Routledge. pp. 17 - 29. ISBN 10: 1-003-31651-4. ISBN 13: 978-1-032-32744-0. Open Access Link

Book chapter

Staples, J. and Marsland, R. (2023) 'Encountering Ethics'. Medical Anthropology: cross-cultural studies in health and illness, 42 (1). pp. 1 - 3. ISSN: 0145-9740

Journal article
More publications(45)

Brunel University London
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Uxbridge
Middlesex UB8 3PH

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