Staff profile

I did my undergraduate degree in Social Anthropology at St Andrews (2010-2014), before coming to Durham to complete a PhD in Anthropology (2017-2022). I am currently an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship in Anthropology at Durham from 2023-24.

Broadly speaking, I interrogate the idea that sport can be deployed for social good. Previously, I looked at the supposed link between cricket and reconciliation in Sri Lanka. In my ethnographic research, I covered a wide spectrum of the cricket community in Colombo, thinking about cricket within the wider context of Sport for Development and Peace. During my upcoming fellowship, I will build on these findings, and examine the relationship between sport and social change more widely.

I founded and now direct the International Network of Sport Anthropology in 2020, an ECR-focused group that currently has over 40 members from across the world, in the anthropology of sport and related sub-disciplines. We meet fortnightly on Zoom to discuss each other’s work and to run workshops on related topics. If you are interested in joining us, please email admin@sportanthro.org or visit our website www.sportanthro.org

• Cricket
• Reconciliation
• Social Change
• Sport for Development and Peace
• Sri Lanka
• Anthropology of Sport

Chapter in book

• Hildred, B. 'Re-Reflective' Knowledge: The Iterative Cycle of Digitally Mediated Embodiment. In T. Carter, S. Heath, B. Hildred, & N. Neuhaus (Eds.), Doing Anthropology in a Sporting World: Knowledge, Representation, and Collaboration in the Digital Age. Vernon Press

Edited book

• Carter, T., Heath, S., Hildred, B., & Neuhaus, H. (Eds.). Doing Anthropology in a Sporting World: Knowledge, Representation, and Collaboration in the Digital Age. Vernon Press. Manuscript submitted for publication

Journal Article

• Hildred, B., & Crawley, M. The Anthropology of Sport: New Modes of Theorising Comparison, Scale & Change. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute,