As a Leverhulme Interdisciplinary Network on Cybersecurity and Society (LINCS) project, my research aims to interlink social science with computer science. Ethnographic fieldwork during the pandemic will form the basis of the study and inform the natural language processing (NLP) direction of the work. The role of emotion in news production will be explored, as well as questions of truth and trust.  The project will take a constructivist approach, drawing on discourse analysis and theories of affect and emotion.

I've received some great support from HAPP, LINCS and my supervisor. I've had opportunities to present my work at both the LINCS seminars and conference.  I've also benefited greatly from attending training programmes at the Graduate School, including gaining the Researcher Plus accreditation and becoming the AHSS Faculty Winner in the Annual Researcher Poster Competition.  

Savannah completed her MA in the anthropology and sociology of development at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva in 2015. Her master's thesis explored the politics of identity construction on organised youth tourism in Israel-Palestine.

Outside of academia she has applied her research experience in the development sector, working in Switzerland, Turkey, and Thailand. Additionally, Savannah is a photographer and often uses her experience in the two disciplines to produce visual ethnographies. Her images have been presented in 9 curated and 3 solo exhibitions, and in 2 Belfast-based arts journals.

Savannah’s academic research has been published in 4 peer-reviewed journals for her work exploring themes of religious and political conflict, tourism, public space, and visual methods.

Supervisors: Dr Dominic Bryan & Professor Hastings Donnan

Biography

Matthew graduated with a BSc in Anthropology from Oxford Brookes in 2014 and with an MRes in Social Anthropology from the University of St Andrews in 2015. From 2015 to 2018 he worked within the Victims and Survivor sector in Northern Ireland.

Adam W. Gilreath holds an MSc in Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology from the University of Oxford and obtained his BSc in in Psychology with a minor in Anthropology from Troy University (U.S.). Adam’s doctoral research will investigate the role of perceived threat in intergroup conflicts. More specifically, his research will examine the process by which a perceived threat leads to violent intergroup confrontations, as well as explore whether certain antecedent variables contribute to the sustainability and saliency of perceived threat in intergroup conflicts. This will be investigated in the context of the Northern Ireland conflict, and the recent proposition to remove the peace walls throughout Belfast. This research will also investigate what effects such conflicts have on the mental health of communities involved. Adam also maintains research interests in sacred values, terrorism, and identity fusion.

PURE Page

My project has received a Northern Bridge DTP-AHRC studentship (http://www.northernbridge.ac.uk/), and a British Forum for Ethnomusicology Fieldwork Grant 2019 (https://bfe.org.uk/bfe-fieldwork-grants-scheme). 

Queen's offers the unique option of studying music under the scope of Anthropology, thus gaining insights that go beyond music per se, with reference to broader human contexts. Having studied Music, Music Education and Ethnomusicology in Greece, where I am from, doing a PhD in Ethnomusicology at Queen's, has been the optimal choice to enhance my insights into what humans do when they engage with music, and how music feeds into their sociality. 

Although Muslim women do experience significant restrictions to their movement and visibility, the true source of these restrictions is due to institutionalised national and local attitudes, policies and practices. Under these circumstances, I look at how Muslim women develop a sense of emplacement and belonging. I also look at a women-only space for refugees and asylum seekers to show how these women work within their limitations to create a space where they can be themselves, learn from one another, and reduce some of the suffering and difficulty inherent in the asylum system. Finally, I examine the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on these women, their spaces, relationships, movement and visibility. 

Having completed a Master's in Anthropology in the USA (where I am from) in 2013, I spent five years working with charity, aid and activist organisations on disaster-affected communities, post-conflict areas, homelessness and displaced persons. I also served as adjunct professor of anthropology at George Washington University (USA) lecturing on gender, development and humanitarianism. Through these experiences I solidified my desire to pursue a PhD, choosing Queen's due to its expertise in post-conflict research.

Medical anthropological concepts as the continuum of violence and the politics of victimhood are the lens through which this project is conceived. A major focus is also on the role of transgenerational trauma.

Research Interests

Medical Anthropology

Conflict and Peace Studies

Anthropology of Trauma

Transgenerational Trauma

Ethnopsychiatry, anthropology of mental illness, PTSD

Body and embodiment

Mexico, Northern Ireland

Nahuas, blood, indigenous conceptions, traditional healing

health care systems, social inequalities

residential segregation and divided space

structural and symbolic Violence, politics of victimhood, continuum of violence

Awards and Scholarships

MEIM Travel Fund 2013

MEIM Travel Fund 2014

‘Le Ragunanze’ Award 2015

Degree Plus Award 2016

EASA Travel Fund 2017

ESRC NINE DTP Doctoral Studentship 2017-2021

EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Fellowship 2017-2020 (declined)

The research objectives are to outline the diverse forms of Yorùbá verbal arts; to examine the nature of the Yorùbá indigenous political system; to understand how oral performers use verbal arts as instruments of power and control in the Yorùbá indigenous political system and the Nigerian politics at large; it as well addresses the following questions, but not limited to: How does the performance of Yorùbá verbal art organise, maintain, and transform Yorùbá lives, communities, and culture? Why are rituals and festivals so important in the political systems of the selected kingdoms? How does oral performance in the Yorùbá public sphere speak to the status and agency of women in Yorùbá socio-political affairs? And in what ways does gender influence performers’ style and emotional dynamics in conveying messages to Yorùbá society, and the Nigerian state at large? This research is an ethnographic research that employs participant observation, in-depth interviews, life histories, and focus group discussion methods for data collection.

The research is funded by the Nigerian government through her Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TetFUND) Scholarship.

The postgraduate community in the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics and at Queen’s is a citadel of excellence where both master’s and Research students are connected to one another regardless of their fields of study, and to the wider community. The community supports us to become problem-solvers and create a better world of our dream. The community does this through its research and development trainings designed and organized for the students. It also creates an avenue for cordial relationship between students and their lecturers/supervisors.