Students & Researchers

Prospective DPhil Students

We welcome enquiries from prospective students who are interested in contributing to our collaborative projects, using methods as diverse as ethnographic fieldwork, carefully controlled experiments in both lab and field, field surveys, online surveys, database construction and analysis, semantic network analysis, brain imaging, and agent based modeling. Many of our students now have permanent academic positions (e.g. at the University of Oxford, Royal Holloway University of London, Brunel University, Bath Spa University, Queen’s University Belfast, Auckland University, Aarhus University, the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris) while others have tenure-track positions at a broad range of universities across North America and postdoc positions around the world.

For more information on the structure of the doctoral degree in Anthropology and details of how to apply, follow the links at the bottom of the page. 

Prospective Researchers

Opportunities for postdoctoral research at CSSC are regularly posted on the University of Oxford School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography website.

CSSC postdoctoral researchers undertake a wide range of research.  Recently, this has included: using electronic survey techniques to the existence of universal rules in human morality; collaborating with the Twinning Project to inform its work bringing prisons and professional football together to reduce reoffending; undertaking psychometric testing of the structure of Burmese Theravada Buddhism; carrying out field research into Japanese fire-walking festivals.

Additionally, many of our projects require research assistants. Please follow the links below for job vacancies or contact Dr Pieter François for more information.

 

Emma Cohen

2005 – 2006 (Professor at the University of Oxford)
Joel Mort 2004 – 2006 (Visiting Scholar, University of South Africa)
Jesper Sorensen  2004 – 2005 (Associate Professor at University of Aarhus)
Rebekah Richert  2004 – 2005 (Associate Professor at UC Riverside)
Paulo Sousa  2005 – 2006 (Director of the ICC, QUB) 
Nicola Knight

2006 – 2007 (Deceased)
Justin Barrett 2006 – 2011 (Professor of Psychology, Fuller Seminary)
Ryan McKay 2007 – 2010 (Full Professor, RHUL)

Nicolas Baumard

 2009 – 2010 (Research Scholar, Ecole Normale Supérieure)
Quentin Atkinson 2007 – 2010 (Associate Professor, University of Auckland)
Yvan Russel

2009 – 2010 (Lecturer, Dept of Psychology, Middlesex University)
Florian Keissling 2009 – 2010 (Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Salzburg)

Adrian Murzac

 2009 – 2010 (ke Solutions, Weston, Florida)
Claire White 2009 – 2010 (Assistant Professor, California State University, Northridge)
Jonathan Lanman 2011 – 2010 (Senior Lecturer, Dep Director of the ICC, QUB)
Jonathan Jong

2012 – 2015 (Senior Researcher, University of Coventry)

Michael Buhrmester

 2013 – 2019 (Research Affiliate, University of Oxford)
Miriam Matthews 2011 – 2012 (Associate Scientist, RAND Corp., California)
Camilla Mazzucato 2011 – 2013 (Researcher, Stanford University)
Pieter François

2011 – 2014 (Associate Professor, University of Oxford)

Brian McQuinn

 2014 – 2015 (Associate Professor, Regina University)
Oliver Curry 2015 – 2019 (Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford)
Valerie van Mulukom 2015 – 2016 (Lecturer in Psychology, Coventry University)
Paul Reddish

2015 – 2016 (Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford)

Dan Mullins

 2015 – 2017 (Postgrad Administrator, University of London)
Dan Hoyer 2015 – 2017 (Postdoctoral Researcher, Evolution Institute)
Christina Collins 2015 – 2017 (Civil Servant, DEFRA)
Steph Grohmann

2015 – 2017 (Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh)
Rohan Kapitany 2016 – 2019 (Lecturer in Psychology, Keele University)

Ben Johannes

 2016 – 2019 (Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford)
Patrick Savage 2017 – 2018 (Postdoctoral Researcher, Keio University)
Aiyana Willard 2017 – 2018 (Lecturer in Psychology, Brunel University)
Yo Nakawake 2017 – 2018 (Postdoctoral Researcher, Kyushu University)
Robert Ross 2017 – 2018 (Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford)
Emily Burdett 2017 – 2019 (Assistant Professor, University of Nottingham)
Martha Newson 2017 – 2020 (UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, University of Kent)

Mark Stanford

 2017 – 2020 (Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford)
Adam Baimel 2018 – 2019 (Lecturer, Oxford Brookes University)
Selin Nugent 2018 – 2020 (Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford)
Barbara Muzzulini 2019 – 2020 (Research Associate, Anthrologica)
Hugh Turpin 2020 – 2023 (Postdoctoral Researcher, Brunel University)
Rhea Arini 2022 – 2023 (Lecturer, University of Lincoln)
Julia Ebner 2024 – present
Lukas Reinhardt 2024 – Present 

 

 
Jonathan Lanman 2007 – 2009 (Senior Lecturer and Assistant Director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture, Queen’s University Belfast)
Peter Rudiak-Gould 2008 – 2011 (Assistant Professor Status-Only, University of Toronto)
Jean-Luc Jucker 2009 – 2012 (Research Associate, Durham University) 
Brian McQuinn 2009 – 2015 (Associate Professor, University of Regina, Canada) 
Daniel Mullins 2010 – 2015 (Research Support, University of London)
Rachel Watson-Jones 2010 – 2013 (Principal User Experience and Service Design Engineer, Dell Technologies)
Michael Gantley 2011 – 2017 (Postdoctoral Researcher, Exeter University)
Christopher Kavanagh

2011 – 2017 (Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford)
Veronika Rybanska 2011 – 2017 (Research Affiliate, CSSC)
Ben Johannes 2012 – 2018 (Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford)
Justin Lane 2012 – 2019 (Senior Researcher, Center for Modeling Social Systems, Kristiansand Norway)
Martha Newson 2013 – 2017 (Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford)
Tara Tasuji 2014 – 2020
Lucy Baehren 2017 – 2023
Kiran Basava     2019 – 2023
Julia Ebner     2019 – 2023
Robert Jagiello 2019 – Present
Christopher Osborne 2022 – Present 

 

Researcher Spotlight

Dr Martha Newson

Bio

Dr Martha Newson focuses on the rituals underlying social cohesion and the ensuing cooperation and conflict emerging from tightly bonded groups. Martha works with many populations, including football fans and ‘hooligans’, rave participants, and more recently Islamist fundamentalists, to answer questions on group identity, violence, cooperation, and peace.

Her research has appeared in a range of media including expert interviews for BBC News, Sky News, BBC Radio 4’s World at One and PM programmes, BBC Radio 5, BBC World Service, Sky Sports News, the Freakonomics podcast, and Speilberg’s documentary ‘Why We Hate’. Martha’s football research has received international attention from many newspapers and online platform including The Telegraph, the International Business Times, the Daily Mail, Haaretz, and the New York Post.