Professor James Staples
Professor - Anthropology
Marie Jahoda 221
- Email: james.staples@brunel.ac.uk
- Tel: +44 (0)1895 267412
- Anthropology
- Social Science and Communications
- College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences
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
Staples, J. (2025) 'Food, Place, and Personhood in South India: The Limits of Terroir', in Colquhoun, A. and Graf, K. (eds.) Beyond Terroir: Tasting Place and Placing Taste in Global Perspective. Oxford : Berghahn.Open Access Link
Staples, J. (2025) 'From leprosy to ground zero: imagining futures in a world of elimination'. Medical Anthropology Quarterly: international journal for the cultural and social analysis of health, 0 (accepted, in press). ISSN: 0745-5194 Open Access Link
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
Staples, J. and Friedner, M. (2024) '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
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
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
Staples, J. (2022) 'Unpacking Communal Tensions in Leicester'. Anthropology Today, 38 (6). pp. 27 - 27. ISSN: 0268-540X Open Access Link
Staples, J. and Marsland, R. (2022) 'Grappling with Diversification'. Medical Anthropology: Cross Cultural Studies in Health and Illness, 41 (1). pp. 1 - 3. ISSN: 0145-9740
Marsland, R. and Staples, J. (2021) 'Diversifying Medical Anthropology'. Medical Anthropology: Cross Cultural Studies in Health and Illness, 40 (1). pp. 1 - 2. ISSN: 0145-9740
Staples, J. (2020) 'Sacred Cows and Chicken Manchurian: The Everyday Politics of Eating Meat in India'. Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press. ISSN 10: 0295747870 ISSN 13: 978-0295747873
Staples, J. (2019) 'Blurring Bovine Boundaries: Cow Politics and the Everyday in South India'. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 42 (6). pp. 1125 - 1140. ISSN: 0085-6401 Open Access Link
Staples, J. (2018) 'Doing disability through charity and philanthropy in contemporary South India'. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 52 (2). pp. 129 - 155. ISSN: 0069-9667 Open Access Link
Staples, J. (2018) 'Appropriating the Cow: Beef and Identity Politics in Contemporary India', in Bhushi, K. (ed.) Farm to Fingers: The Culture and Politics of Food in Contemporary India. Cambridge University Press. pp. 58 - 79.Open Access Link
Staples, J. and Klein, JK. (2017) 'Introduction: Consumer and Consumed'. Ethnos: journal of anthropology, 72 (2). ISSN: 1469-588X Open Access Link
Staples, J. (2017) 'Beef and beyond: exploring the meat consumption practices of Christians in India'. Ethnos: journal of anthropology, 72 (2). ISSN: 1469-588X Open Access Link
Staples, J. (2016) '‘We are one caste, one disease, and one religion’: biographies of Christian conversion in a South Indian leprosy colony'', in Malekandathil, P., Pachuau, JLK. and Sarkar, T. (eds.) Christianity in Indian History: Issues of Culture, Power and Knowledge. Primus. ISBN 10: 9384092282. ISBN 13: 978-9384092283.
Staples, J. and Mehrotra, N. (2016) 'Disability Studies: Developments in Anthropology', in Grech, S. and Soldatic, K. (eds.) Disability in the Global South: the critical handbook. Springer. , International Perspectives on Social Policy, Administration, and Practice. pp. 35 - 49. ISBN 13: 978-3-319-42486-6.
Staples, J. (2016) 'Leprosy's Journey in India', in Medcalf, A., Saavedra, M., Romera Sa, M. and Bhattacharya, S. (eds.) Leprosy: A Short History. Hyderabad, India : Orient BlackSwan. pp. 76 - 86.
Staples, J. (2016) 'Food, Commensality and Caste in South Asia', in Klein, JA. and Watson, JL. (eds.) The Handbook of Food and Anthropology. Bloomsbury. pp. 74 - 93. ISBN 13: 9780857855947.
Smith, K., Staples, J. and Rapport, N. (2015) 'Extraordinary Encounters Authenticity and the Interview'. ISSN 10: 1782385894 ISSN 13: 9781782385899
Staples, J. (2015) 'An ‘Up and Down Life’: Understanding Leprosy through Biography', in Staples, J., Smith, K. and Rapport, N. (eds.) Extraordinary Encounters: Authenticity and the Interview. Oxford : Berghahn Books. , 28. pp. 60 - 82.
Staples, J. and Smith, K. (2015) 'Introduction: The Interview as Analytical Category', in Staples, J., Smith, K. and Rapport, N. (eds.) Extraordinary Encounters: Authenticity and the Interview. Oxford : Berghahn Books. , 28. pp. 1 - 18.
Staples, J. (2015) 'Personhood, agency and suicide in a neo-liberalising South India.', in Broz, L. and Muenster, D. (eds.) Suicide and Agency: Anthropological perspectives on self-destruction, personhood and power. Farnham : Ashgate. pp. 27 - 46.Open Access Link
Staples, J. (2014) 'Leprosy and a life in South India: journeys with a Tamil Brahmin'. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books. ISSN 13: 978-0-7391-8734-0
Staples, J. (2014) 'Putting Indian christianities into context: Biographies of christian conversion in a leprosy colony'. Modern Asian Studies, 48 (4). pp. 1134 - 1159. ISSN: 0026-749X Open Access Link
Staples, J. (2014) 'Communities of the afflicted: constituting leprosy through place in South India'. Medical Anthropology, 33 (1). pp. 6 - 20. ISSN: 0145-9740 Open Access Link
Staples, J. (2014) 'Civilizing Tastes: From Caste to Class in South Indian Foodways', in Klein, JA. and Murcott, A. (eds.) Food Consumption in Global Perspective: Essays in the Anthropology of Food in Honour of Jack Goody. New York : Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 65 - 86.Open Access Link
Staples, J. (2012) 'Culture and carelessness: Constituting disability in South India'. Medical Anthropology Quarterly: international journal for the cultural and social analysis of health, 26 (4). pp. 557 - 574. ISSN: 0745-5194 Open Access Link
Staples, J. (2012) 'The suicide niche: Accounting for self-harm in a South Indian leprosy colony'. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 46 (1-2). pp. 117 - 144. ISSN: 0069-9667
Staples, J. (2012) 'Ethnographies of Suicide (Special Issue of 'Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry'. Springer.
Staples, J. and Widger, T. (2012) 'Situating suicide as an anthropological problem: Ethnographic approaches to understanding self-harm and self-inflicted death'. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 36 (2). pp. 183 - 203. ISSN: 0165-005X
Staples, J. (2012) 'Suicide in South Asia: Ethnographic Perspectives (Special issue of Contributions to Indian Sociology)'. Delhi: Sage.
Staples, J. (2012) 'Contributions to Indian Sociology: Suicide in South Asia: Ethnographic perspectives (special issue)'.
Staples, J. (2012) 'Suicide in South Asia: Ethnographic perspectives'. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 46 (1-2). pp. 1 - 28. ISSN: 0069-9667
Staples, J. (2011) 'Ethnographies of suicide in South Asia'. Contributions to Indian Sociology, forthcoming 2012. ISSN: 0069-9667
Staples, J. (2011) 'At the intersection of disability and masculinity: Exploring gender and bodily difference in india'. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 17 (3). pp. 545 - 562. ISSN: 1359-0987 Open Access Link
Staples, J. (2011) 'Leprosy and stigma'. Leprosy Review, 82 (2). ISSN: 0305-7518
Staples, J. (2011) 'Interrogating leprosy 'stigma': Why qualitative insights are vital'. Leprosy Review, 82 (2). pp. 91 - 97. ISSN: 0305-7518
Staples, J. (2011) 'Nuancing 'leprosy stigma' through ethnographic biography in South India'. Leprosy Review, 82 (2). pp. 109 - 123. ISSN: 0305-7518
Staples, J. (2009) 'Body', in Barnard, AJ. and Spencer, J. (eds.) The Routledge encyclopedia of social and cultural anthropology. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 10: 0415409780. ISBN 13: 9780415409780.
Staples, J. (2008) ''Go on, just try some!': Meat and meaning-making among South Indian Christians'. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 31 (1). pp. 36 - 55. ISSN: 0085-6401 Open Access Link
Staples, J. (2007) 'Livelihoods at the margins: Surviving the city'. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press. ISSN 10: 1598742736 ISSN 13: 978-1-59874-273-2
Staples, J. (2007) 'Peculiar people, amazing lives: leprosy, social exclusion and community making in South India'. New Delhi: Orient Longman. ISSN 10: 8125029869 ISSN 13: 978-81-250-2986-1
Staples, J. (2007) 'When things are not as they seem: Untangling the webs that hold together a South Indian NGO', in Smith, M. (ed.) Negotiating Boundaries and Borders: Qualitative Methodology and Development Research. Oxford : Elsevier. , 8. pp. 131 - 154. ISBN 10: 0762312831. ISBN 13: 978-0762312832.
Staples, J. (2007) 'The “leper” and the State in South India'. Economic and Political Weekly: a journal of current economic and political affairs. ISSN: 0012-9976
Staples, J. (2005) 'Leprosy in South India: The paradox of disablement as enablement'. Review of Disability Studies, 1 (4). pp. 13 - 28. ISSN: 1553-3697
Staples, J. (2005) 'Becoming a man: Personhood and masculinity in a south Indian leprosy colony'. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 39 (2). pp. 279 - 305. ISSN: 0069-9667
Staples, J. (2004) 'Delineating disease: Self-management of leprosy identities in South India'. Medical Anthropology: cross-cultural studies in health and illness, 23 (1). pp. 69 - 88. ISSN: 0145-9740
Staples, J. (2003) 'Disguise, revelation and copyright: Disassembling the South Indian leper'. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 9 (2). pp. 295 - 315. ISSN: 1359-0987