Post:	Professor of Social Anthropology
Other posts:	Professor in Anthropology (Development Studies - CDE)
	Professor of Social Anthropology (Jvrc)
Location:	Arts C C128
Email:	J.R.Fairhead@sussex.ac.uk
Telephone numbers
Internal:	7194 or 7185
UK:	(01273) 877194 or (01273) 877185
International:	+44 1273 877194 or +44 1273 877185

Biography

Before his appointment as Chair in Social Anthropology at Sussex in 2001, James Fairhead was Reader in Social Anthropology at SOAS, University of London and, earlier still, Lecturer in Anthropology and Development at Oxford (Queen Elizabeth House). He has an MA and PhD in Anthropology from SOAS, and BA in Agricultural and Forestry Sciences from Oxford. James is a member of the ESRC Strategic Research Board and the ESRC International Committee. He has recently acted as Vice-Chair of the joint ESRC/DfID funding scheme. He is a member of the governing bodies of the University of Sussex (Council) and of the Royal Anthropological Institute (Council).

Research

James Fairhead's research has unfolded in several phases. It began with doctoral fieldwork (1986-9) in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), focusing on questions of fertility and health, although focusing less on people than on soils and plants. Whilst still writing about DRC and its conflicts, in 1991 he began a second phase of research focusing on agro-ecology and vegetation management in the Republic of Guinea. This led to a trilogy of books examining how environmental sciences and policy engage with the lives and perspectives of land users, considering disjunctures between them. The first (Misreading the African Landscape) focuses on one part of Guinea; the second (Reframing Deforestation) focuses on the West African forest zone more generally, and the third (Science, Society and Power) examines the forces shaping the conduct of environmental science, comparing how these forces play out in West Africa and the Caribbean. Interest in the anthropology of science and of health informs a third phase of research, begun in 2002 which examines how immunization research and policy unfolds in relation to the social worlds of West Africa (Guinea and The Gambia) and the UK. His recent book Vaccine Anxietes draws this work together. Alongside anthropological fieldwork, Fairhead also writes on the broader social and environmental history of the regions, including the major source book: African American Exploration of West Africa. His current research builds on these themes. Firstly, he is developing research on mining and society in contemporary Africa. Secondly, he is researching the importance of on-going interdisciplinary work on Amazonian soils (Terra Preta) for humid West Africa. Thirdly he is researching the 19th century history of anthropology in its engagement with Liberia.

Research Supervision

James is keen to supervise enthusiastic doctoral students developing original research ideas. He is particularly suited to supervise those seeking to research on agro-ecological and environmental knowledge, practices, policy and history, whether in Africa or the Caribbean, but extending to Amazonia; west and central African society, transformation, 'development' and conflict including (but not necessarily limited to) the relations with development agencies, and mining interests; health practices, research and policy - principally in Africa.

Current Doctoral Students:

James Fraser - The Dark earth phenomenon: sustainable agriculture for Amazonia and beyond (Leverhulme)
Genner Llanez-Ortiz - Indigenous universities and the Construction of interculturality: The case of UCI-Red in the Yucatan, Mexico (Mexican National Scholarship)
Anita Nayar - Medicinal plants in Ayurvedic systems of healing in Kerala, South India (Wenner-Grenn)
Dinah Rajak - Anglo-American corporate social responsibility
Kathy Riley - People's experiences of participation in a Cuban neighbourhood (ESRC)
Caroline Wilson - Commoditization of health provisions in Kerala (ESRC)
Lowell Woodcock - The environmental history of Tobago: globalisation and development in crisis 1763-2005 (Leverhulme)

Recent Doctoral Students:

Elizabeth Hartmann - Strategic Scarcity: the origins and impact of environmental conflict ideas (awarded 2002)
Nicole Blum - The social shaping of environmental education: policy and practice in Menteverde, Costa Rica (awarded 2005)
Pauline Von Hellermann - Things fall apart? A political ecology of 20th century forest management in Edo state, Southern Nigeria (awarded 2005)
Serge Elie - The waning of a pastoralist community: an ethnographic exploration of Soquotra as a transitional social formation (awarded 2006)
Deborah Simpson - Civil society in the 'new' South Africa: from critique to collaboration (awarded 2006)
Rebecca Prentice - 'Thiefing a chance': Garment work and the production of flexibility in Trinidad (awarded 2007)
Laura Lauzzana - The politics of local knowledge and communication: seed systems, gender and development in Dodoma and Singida regions, Tanzania (awarded 2007)

Teaching

James Fairhead founded the MA in Anthropology of Conflict, Violence and Conciliation. He currently teaches a graduate course in  'Critical Debates in Environment and Development'

Publications

Books
Fairhead, J and M. Leach, 2007, Vaccine anxieties: global science, child health and society. London: Earthscan, Science in Society Series
Fairhead, J and M. Leach, 2003, Science, society and power: environmental  knowledge and policy in West Africa and the Caribbean. Cambridge: CUP .
Fairhead, J., S. Holsoe, T. Geysbeek and M. Leach 2003 African-American exploration of West Africa: four nineteenth century diaries. Indiana University Press (African American Studies Series)
Fairhead, J and M. Leach 1998, Reframing Deforestation: global analyses and local realities - studies in West Africa. , London: Routledge.
Fairhead, J and M. Leach., 1996, Misreading the African Landscape:  Society and Ecology in a Forest-Savanna Mosaic , African Studies Series, Cambridge and New York:  Cambridge University Press

Recent Journal Articles
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, Forthcoming 2008, New therapeutic landscapes in Africa: Parental engagement with infant health care in the Republic of Guinea, Social Science and Medicine
Fairhead, J., J.A. Cassell, M. Leach, M.S. Poltorak, C.H. Mercer, A. Iversen, 2006, Is the cultural context of MMR rejection a key to an effective public health discourse? Journal of Public Health 120, 783-794
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2006, Where techno-science meets poverty: medical research and the economy of blood in The Gambia, West Africa. Social Science and Medicine
Fairhead, J., M. Leach and M. Small, 2006, Public engagement with science? Local understandings of a vaccine trial in the Gambia. Journal of Biosocial Science. Jan;38(1):103-16
Cassell, J., M. Leach, M. Small, C. H. Mercer, A. Iversen, J. R. Fairhead, 2006, Social shaping of childhood vaccination practice in rural and urban Gambia: a quantitative survey of mothers based on ethnography. Health Policy and Planning September 2006, 21, 5.
Poltorak, M., J. Fairhead, M. Leach and J. Cassell.  2005, 'MMR talk' and vaccination choices: an ethnographic study in Brighton. Social Science and Medicine 61, 3, 709-719
Cassell, J., M. Leach, M. Poltorak, C. H. Mercer, A. Iversen, J. R. Fairhead, 2006, Is the cultural context of MMR rejection a key to an effective public health discourse?   Public Heath
Fairhead, J. and I. Scoones, 2004, Local knowledge and the social shaping of soil investments: critical perspectives on the assessment of soil degradation in Africa. Land use policy
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2003, Practising 'biodiversity': the articulation of international, national and local science/policy in Guinea. Oxford Development Studies, 31, 4, 427-440,
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach 2002, Manners of contestation: 'Citizen Science' and Indigenous Knowledge in West Africa and the Caribbean. International social science journal, 299-312
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2002, Changing perspectives on forests: science/policy processes in wider society. , IDS Bulletin, January 2002, 1-12
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach 2002, 'Sustainable' timber production and science/policy processes in Trinidad, IDS Bulletin, January 2002, 75-83
Fairhead, J and M. Leach 2002, Plural perspectives and institutional dynamics: the case of forestry in West Africa. International Journal of Agricultural Research and Extension.

Recent Book Chapters
Fairhead, J., 2008 (forthcoming), Amazonian Dark Earths in Africa? In W. Woods (ed.) Terra Preta Nova: A Tribute to Wim Sombroek. Berlin: Springer-Verlag
Fairhead, J., 2008 (forthcoming), Kouankan and the Guinea-Liberian border. In J. Knörr (ed.) The Powerful Presence of the Past: Historical Dimensions of Integration and Conflict in the Upper Guinea Coast. Halle: Max Plank Institute
Fairhead, J., 2007, Partnerships for sustainable timber production in Trinidad: Dealing with social and ecological dynamics. In M. Ros-Tonen (ed) Partnerships in sustainable forest resource management: learning from Latin America. Leiden: Brill
Fairhead, J. 2005, Transnational dimensions to environmental resources, modes of governance and local resource management in Eastern DRC  In Q Gaussin and M. Whyte (eds). Nordic African Institute.
Fairhead, J. 2003, Achieving sustainability in Africa.  In Black, R. and H. White (eds.) Targeting Development: critical perspectives on the Millennium Development Goals. London: Routledge, pp. 292-306
Fairhead, J and M. Leach,  2004, Practicing Patrimony and biodiversity: the articulation of diverse local, national and international perspectives in Guinea, West Africa.  In Roussell, B., M. Cormier Salem (et. al),
Fairhead, J and M. Leach, 2004, Termites, society and ecology: perspectives from West Africa. In Motte-Florac, E and J. Thomas (eds) Les Insects dans la tradition orale. Paris: Peeters.
Fairhead, J and M. Leach, 2002, Anthropology, culture and environment, in J. Clancy ed. Exotic no more, Chicago University Press.