Dr Udi Butler

MA Fine Art (Edinburgh University), MSc International Development (University of Bristol), PhD Social Anthropology (Goldsmiths College)

Teaching Fellow in Social Anthropology Department of Archaeology and Anthropology University of Bristol 43 Woodland Road BRISTOL BS8 1UU, UK Tel: +44 (0) 117 954 6073 Fax: +44 (0) 117 954 6001 E-mail: Udi.Butler@bristol.ac.uk

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Research and Teaching interests

The emotions, the body, the senses and the person across cultures.

• Visual Anthropology, Anthropology of Media and of the Senses; Ethnographic film; Anthropology of Art and Material Culture, Visual research methods; Indigenous Media; New Information and Communications Technologies; Community Media
• Critical Approaches to Development and Globalization; Anthropological perspectives on Resistance and New Social Movements, with a focus on Latin America
• Anthropology of Science (especially neuroscience)
• Public anthropology, collaborative research approaches
• Indigenous Knowledge, science and forms of learning

Currently I am the key organizer of the MA in Social Anthropology teaching core units on ‘Research Methods’; ‘History and Theory in Anthropology’; ‘Contemporary Issues in Social Anthropology’ and an optional unit on ‘Visual Anthropology’ which is also taught at an undergraduate level. At undergraduate level I teach ‘Introduction to Social Anthropology’ and ‘Advanced Issues in Anthropology and Archaeology’.

Current and Past Research Projects

The key themes running through my research have to do with the domains of personhood and emotions and their linkages to social relations, cultural processes and historical and political contexts. My doctoral research took place in Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro, focussing on the experiences of children and young people growing up on the streets and in urban shanty-towns. Subsequently my research investigated how and why young people living in contexts of marginalization become engaged in different forms of public action and the effects this has on their day-to-day, their emotions and sense of self. More recently I have focussed my work on scientific communities across different countries comprised of neuroscientists and meditation practitioners who are themselves involved in questions concerning the emotions and the self.

• Bridging perspectives across research on the emotions: neuroscientists, Buddhists and anthropology

In this project I am exploring neuroscientific approaches to meditation and the encounter between neuroscientists and Buddhists as they investigate changes in the brain and in the subject as a result of meditation practices. Here I am interested in the different perspectives these two communities bring around their understandings of mind and the emotions and how science itself attempts to deal with first person perspectives in its enquiry. I am also keen to explore here how the notion of ‘neuroplasticity’ relates to social scientific approaches and themes.

 

• Parallel Lives, Different Worlds: Citizenship and Public Action in Rio de Janeiro

 In this research I have collaborated with Brazilian researchers and the International Center for Research and Policy on Childhood, a local action-research NGO affiliated to Rio de Janeiro’s PUC University (www.ciespi.org.br). This research was carried out as part of the ESRC’s Non-Governmental Public Action research programme. My research project, seeks to gain an understanding of how young people perceive and practice citizenship and public action in the context of a socially and economically divided city. http://www2.lse.ac.uk/internationalDevelopment/research/NGPA/Home.aspx

_{Rio de Janeiro as seen from the shanty-town of Santa Marta and young people in public space}

A particular interest within this field, and in my earlier research on young people living or who have lived on the streets in Brazil is an attention to life-histories, personhood and emotions in contexts of marginalization. This body of research situates itself at a crossroads of concerns and debates within anthropology that focus on the experiences, relationships, practices and identities of groups subject to urban poverty.

• Public Anthropology and Collaborative Research through text and film

I have been involved in a number of ongoing projects which have strengthened my interest in a more engaged and collaborative anthropology. Examples of this include a collaborative publication with young activists from Rio de Janeiro; Nós: The Revolution of the Day to Day (2007) and a photographic project and exhibition I recently coordinated with young photographers from Rio (2009). Collaboration and public engagement in anthropology has also been an important theme I have begun to write about (i.e. Butler 2009, forthcoming 2011).

_{Photograph by Francisco Valdean showing the photography exhibition in a community organization and in the PUC University in Rio de Janeiro}

Recently I have also collaborated with the Pitt Rivers museum directing and producing three ethnographic films. Two of these Travelling Ink (2011) and Henna, the plant that binds (2011) were made as part of their online Body Art collection (http://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/bodyarts/). A third film Everything was Carved (2010) was made with Dr Laura Peers and Dr Cara Krmpotich in collaboration with members of the Haida Nation from Canada during their visit to the museum (http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/haida.html).

_{Haida masks inside the Pitt Rivers Museum during the Haida visit and inside of the Pitt Rivers Museum}

Recent publications

Books and chapters

Butler, Udi Mandel (forthcoming 2011). ‘Re-imagining the fragmented city/citizen: young people and public Action in Rio de Janeiro’ in Beck, S. and Maida, C. (Eds.) Public Anthropology in a Borderless World. Berghahn Books: Oxford.

Rizzini, Irene. Butler, Udi Mandel and Thapliyal, Nisha (2009) ‘What Does Citizenship Mean for Children and Adolescents in Brazil?’. In Children as Citizens? Smith, Anne and Taylor, Nicki. (Eds.) University of Otago Press: Dunedin. (also contributed to the concluding chapter)

Butler, Udi Mandel (2007) ‘Embodying oppression: revolta amongst young people living on the streets of Rio de Janeiro’ in Livelihoods at the Margins. (Ed.) Staples, James. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, Inc.

Rizzini, Irene. and Butler, Udi Mandel (2007) ‘The Affective Citizen: childhood and belonging in the contemporary era’ in The Given Child. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

CIESPI (2007) Nós: A Revolução de Cada Dia. CIESPI/PUC: Rio de Janeiro.

Articles

Butler, Udi Mandel and Princeswal, Marcelo (2010)  ‘Cultures of Participation, Young People and Public Action in Brazil’. Special issue on ‘Learning from Latin America’. Community Development Journal, 45(3).

Butler, Udi Mandel (2009) ‘Notes on a Dialogical Anthropology’, Special issue on ‘Public Anthropology’ in Anthropology in Action, 16(3): 20-31.

Butler, Udi Mandel (2009) ‘Freedom, Revolt and Citizenship: Three pillars of identity for youngsters living on the streets of Rio de Janeiro’. Childhood, 16(1): 11-29.

Butler, Udi Mandel (2008) ‘Children’s Participation in Brazil – a brief genealogy and recent developments’. Special Issue on Participation, International Journal on Children’s Rights. Leiden, 16: 301-312.

Butler, Udi Mandel and Princeswal, Marcelo (2008) ‘Cultures of Participation: Young people’s engagement in the public sphere in Brazil’. NGPA Working Papers Series, London School of Economics: London. 

Films

Henna, the plant that binds (2011), 17 minutes. HD. Oxford. Pitt-Rivers Museum.

Travelling Ink (2011), 29 minutes. HD. Oxford. Pitt-Rivers Museum.

Everything was Carved (2010), 52 minutes. DVCAM. Oxford. Pitt-Rivers Museum.