Public Anthropologist
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Public Anthropologist boldly and candidly engages with conditions of violence, inequality, and injustice and explores ways in which anthropology might generate public awareness and have an impact beyond academia.
In its journey into the dilemmas and challenges of the contemporary world, Public Anthropologist avoids standardizing intellectual efforts into specifically formatted articles. Rather, it welcomes diversity and creative writing. Articles published in the journal should be accessible yet authoritative, appealing yet not sensationalist. A submission must be the work of a specialist, but without jargon; methodologically rigorous, and yet politically engaging.
The editors invite articles and special issues on topics related to war, rights, poverty, security, access to resources, new technologies, freedom, human exploitation, health, humanitarianism, violence, racism, migration and diaspora, crime, social class, hegemony, environmental challenges, social movements, and activism. We encourage both ethnographic and more theoretical submissions. Although the journal mainly focuses on contemporary issues, we also welcome submissions that adopt a historical perspective. The journal also publishes reviews of books, films, and documentaries that deal with relevant challenges and opportunities of our time and encourages reviews of both scholarly works and fictional literature as well as the work of activists, journalists, and artists. Reviews of non-English materials may be submitted.
Public Anthropologist addresses a broad readership of social and cultural anthropologists, sociologists, ethnographers, political scientists, social and cultural historians, political historians, political actors, policy makers, activists, journalists, and artists.
Articles should be between 6000 and 9000 words in length. Reviews should comprise between 1000 and 2000 words.
Visit the Public Anthropologist blog for lively conversations, original posts, comments on work published in the journal, previews of Tables of Contents, and more!
For editorial queries and proposals, or for review queries, please contact the editor-in-chief, Antonio De Lauri.
Public Anthropologist Award (PUAN-A)
PUAN-A is awarded to a social and cultural anthropologist who has published an outstanding contribution that addresses – in innovative, engaging and compelling ways – key societal issues related to one or more of the following topics: violence, war, poverty, social movements, freedom, aid, rights, injustice, inequality, social exclusion, racism, health, and environmental challenges. For more information, visit the PUAN-A web page linked above.
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Online only€116.00$136.00
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- External Indexers:
Antonio De Lauri, Chr. Michelsen Institute (Norway)
Associate Editors
Juan Ricardo Aparicio, Universidad de los Andes (Colombia) Heidi Mogstad, Chr. Michelsen Institute (Norway)
Saumya Pandey, Chr. Michelsen Institute (Norway)
Advisory Board
Lila Abu-Lughod, Columbia University (USA)
Irfan Ahmad, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity (Germany)
Ruben Andersson, University of Oxford (UK)
Sindre Bangstad, KIFO - Institute for Church, Religion, and Worldview Research (Norway)
Synnøve Bendixsen, University of Bergen (Norway)
Marie-Benedicte Dembour, Ghent University (Belgium)
Robert Borofsky, Hawaii Pacific University (USA)
Gisela Elvira Canepa Koch, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Peru)
Sealing Cheng, Chinese University of Hong Kong (China)
Manuela Ivone Cunha, Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia/University of Minho (Portugal)
Jason De León, UCLA (USA)
Olga Demetriou, Durham University (UK)
Elizabeth Cullen Dunn, Indiana University Bloomington (USA)
Didier Fassin, Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton (USA)
Ilana Feldman, George Washington University (USA)
Friederike Fleischer, Universidad de los Andes (Colombia)
Divine Fuh, University of Cape Town (South Africa)
Alex Golub, University of Hawaiʽi at Mānoa (USA)
Linda Green, University of Arizona (USA)
Thomas Hylland Eriksen, University of Oslo (Norway)
Barak Kalir, University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
Sohini Kar, London School of Economics (UK)
Tobias Kelly, University of Edinburgh (UK)
Nichola Khan, University of Edinburgh (UK)
Catherine Lutz, Brown University (USA)
Thomas McIlraith, University of Guelph (Canada)
John-Andrew McNeish, Norwegian University of Life Sciences - NMBU (Norway)
Sally Engle Merry (†), New York University (USA)
Henrietta Moore, University College London (UK)
Mariella Pandolfi, University of Montréal (Canada)
Shalini Randeria, Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (Austria)
Madeleine Reeves, University of Manchester (UK)
Lisa Ann Richey, Copenhagen Business School (Denmark)
Katharina Schramm, University of Bayreuth (Germany)
Rachel Sieder, Center for Research and Graduate Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS) (Mexico)
Gunnar Sørbø, Chr. Michelsen Institute (Norway)
Andrea Steinke, Centre for Humanitarian Action (Germany)
Ann Stoler, The New School for Social Research (USA)
Inge Tvedten, Chr. Michelsen Institute (Norway)
Olaf Zenker, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg (Germany)
Ekatherina Zhukova, Karlstad University (Sweden)
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“Sighted” Peer Review
The editors of Public Anthropologist are aware of both the advantages and the limits of blind peer review. In order to promote dynamic exchanges among authors and reviewers, the journal offers “sighted” peer review as an option alongside double-blind peer review. Sighted peer review asks scholars to engage in an open, scientific dialogue. The overall aim is to transform the review process into an open exchange similar to that of a seminar.
The decision to have a submission undergo sighted peer review will be contingent on the explicitly expressed and unqualified willingness of both the author and the reviewers. Absent consent from both sides, double-blind peer review will be the default review model for the journal.
The sighted peer review process works as follows:
Articles will be initially reviewed by members of the editorial team for intrinsic quality, coherence with the aims of the journal, and original contribution to anthropological debates and the advancement of the field. Some submissions will be rejected outright or will be returned with comments and with the recommendation to revise and resubmit. Articles that receive mostly favourable reviews by editorial team members will be reviewed by specialists on the subject. Reviewers will know the names of the authors and will be asked to provide comments and suggestions for minor or more extensive revisions. In turn, authors will know the names of reviewers and will have the opportunity to reply. All exchanges will be monitored and moderated by members of the editorial team. If the editorial team considers comments or responses to be affected by bias or to be expressed in an inappropriate manner, they will request that they be amended or will not forward them. This open review mechanism is based on responsibility, right (to dissent or agree), and awareness.
Public Anthropologist Award (PUAN-A)
PUAN-A is awarded to a social and cultural anthropologist who has published an outstanding contribution that addresses – in innovative, engaging and compelling ways – key societal issues related to one or more of the following topics: violence, war, poverty, social movements, freedom, aid, rights, injustice, inequality, social exclusion, racism, health, and environmental challenges.
A contribution can be any published research output – for example a book, peer reviewed article, documentary, etc.
Public Anthropologist Award (2026) Application: For outputs published in 2024 and 2025, please submit your research output together with your CV (2 pages) to Public Anthropologist’s Editor-in-Chief, Antonio De Lauri: antonio.delauri@cmi.no no later than 15 January 2026 (Write PUAN-A + “Title of the research output” in the subject heading).
Prize: A committee chaired by the Editor-in-Chief will select one research output for the Public Anthropologist Award. The author will receive a prize of 500 €.
For more information on the journal, please visit brill.com/puan.
Prize Winners
The winner of the Public Anthropologist Award 2025 is Elliott Prasse-Freeman for his book Rights Refused. Grassroots Activism and State Violence in Myanmar (Stanford University Press, 2023). Elliott Prasse-Freeman is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the National University of Singapore. Rights Refused is the result of long-term ethnographic engagement, which brought Prasse-Freeman to investigate a variety of forms and contexts of activism, from protest camps to prisons. The book explores the gap between elite human rights cosmopolitans and subaltern Burmese subjects who work in situations of violent governance. Well documented and well written, Rights Refused is a must read for all those interested in how rights frameworks operate and change.
The winner of the Public Anthropologist Award 2024 is Maria-Theres Schuler for her book Disability and Aid. An Ethnography of Logics and Practices of Distribution in a Ugandan Refugee Camp (Brill, 2023). Maria-Theres Schuler is a social anthropologist, journalist, and filmmaker with expertise in global inequality, corporate responsibility and social movements. Disability and Aid is an important book written with a commendable ethnographic sensibility. Of potential interest to experts and students of humanitarian, development and disability studies, as well as anthropology and African studies, the book provides a nuanced investigation of the dynamics of aid to disabled people in a Ugandan refugee camp.
The winner of the Public Anthropologist Award 2023 is Gwen Burnyeat for her book The Face of Peace. Government Pedagogy amid Disinformation in Colombia (University of Chicago Press, 2022). Gwen Burnyeat is Junior Research Fellow in Anthropology at Merton College, University of Oxford. She is a political anthropologist and has worked on peace and conflict in Colombia for over a decade as both an engaged scholar and peacebuilding practitioner. The Face of Peace is an engaging journey into the complexity of Colombians' peace efforts and challenges. Moving between different scales of inquiry, Burnyeat explains the intricacies of the government-public relationship and the dynamics and failures of liberal peace-making. A great ethnography and a precious reference for comparative analyses on peace processes.
The winner of the Public Anthropologist Award 2022 is Catherine Besteman for her book Militarized Global Apartheid (Duke University Press, 2020).
Catherine Besteman is Francis F. Bartlett and Ruth K. Bartlett Professor of Anthropology at Colby College. Throughout her career, she has worked on issues related to power dynamics that produce and maintain inequality, racism, and violence, as well as collective efforts for social change.
Militarized Global Apartheid effectively addresses key instances of exploitation, inequality, and division in the contemporary world. The book is a lucid and nuanced exploration of the global hierarchies that, whether we are aware of it or not, have a devastating impact on the lives of many while creating privileges for a few others.
The winner of the Public Anthropologist Award 2021 is Ather Zia for her book Resisting Disappearance: Military Occupation and Women’s Activism in Kashmir (University of Washington Press, 2019 & Zubaan Publishing, 2020). Ather Zia is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Gender Studies Program at the University of Northern Colorado Greeley. She holds a doctorate in Anthropology from the University of California, Irvine. Her research examines the Indian military occupation, settler colonialism, and women’s collective political and social challenges in the disputed Indian-administered Kashmir. Resisting Disappearance is a powerful narration of the effects of oppression and political disputes on people's everyday life. The book is engaging and shrewdly written. It effectively summarizes the broad and committed scholarship and research behind it. An excellent example of anthropology's capacity to both inform and inspire.
Public Anthropologist
Search for other papers by Antonio De Lauri in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Public Anthropologist boldly and candidly engages with conditions of violence, inequality, and injustice and explores ways in which anthropology might generate public awareness and have an impact beyond academia.
In its journey into the dilemmas and challenges of the contemporary world, Public Anthropologist avoids standardizing intellectual efforts into specifically formatted articles. Rather, it welcomes diversity and creative writing. Articles published in the journal should be accessible yet authoritative, appealing yet not sensationalist. A submission must be the work of a specialist, but without jargon; methodologically rigorous, and yet politically engaging.
The editors invite articles and special issues on topics related to war, rights, poverty, security, access to resources, new technologies, freedom, human exploitation, health, humanitarianism, violence, racism, migration and diaspora, crime, social class, hegemony, environmental challenges, social movements, and activism. We encourage both ethnographic and more theoretical submissions. Although the journal mainly focuses on contemporary issues, we also welcome submissions that adopt a historical perspective. The journal also publishes reviews of books, films, and documentaries that deal with relevant challenges and opportunities of our time and encourages reviews of both scholarly works and fictional literature as well as the work of activists, journalists, and artists. Reviews of non-English materials may be submitted.
Public Anthropologist addresses a broad readership of social and cultural anthropologists, sociologists, ethnographers, political scientists, social and cultural historians, political historians, political actors, policy makers, activists, journalists, and artists.
Articles should be between 6000 and 9000 words in length. Reviews should comprise between 1000 and 2000 words.
Visit the Public Anthropologist blog for lively conversations, original posts, comments on work published in the journal, previews of Tables of Contents, and more!
For editorial queries and proposals, or for review queries, please contact the editor-in-chief, Antonio De Lauri.
Public Anthropologist Award (PUAN-A)
PUAN-A is awarded to a social and cultural anthropologist who has published an outstanding contribution that addresses – in innovative, engaging and compelling ways – key societal issues related to one or more of the following topics: violence, war, poverty, social movements, freedom, aid, rights, injustice, inequality, social exclusion, racism, health, and environmental challenges. For more information, visit the PUAN-A web page linked above.
-
Online only€352.00$409.00
-
To place an order, please contact customerservices@brill.com
-
Online only€116.00$136.00
-
To place an order, please contact customerservices@brill.com
- External Indexers: