Anthropologists who conduct health-related research at the University of Bristol are primarily located in the School of Social and Community Medicine but the Medical Anthropology Group also includes academic staff based in the School of Clinical Sciences (Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry) and the School of Sociology, Politics and International Sciences (Faculty of Social Sciences and Law).  Only a minority are currently employed in designated anthropology posts but all members of the group hold doctoral qualifications in anthropology and some have specialised training in medical anthropology. 

We use anthropological approaches in different types of qualitative and mixed methods research. Members have conducted fieldwork in India, Nepal, Malawi, Solomon Islands, Guyana and the UK.  Areas of research interest among medical anthropologists at the University of Bristol include: concepts of health and illness and treatment-seeking practices; hospital ethnography; menopause and the life course; medical pluralism; mental health and suicide prevention; concepts of evidence in biomedicine and the social sciences; anthropology of public health; health inequities.

Members of the Medical Anthropology ‘How To Use Theory’ Group meet monthly to discuss how to use anthropological theory in relation to our current work.  Discussions focus on the use of theory, often drawn inductively from a particular research project and we aim to link these emergent concepts to wider academic debates.  We occasionally host guest speakers such as PhD students doing ethnographic research in health-related areas.