Staff profile

My name is Michael Vine. I am a social anthropologist from Devon, South West England.

My research uses ethnographic methods to explore how people respond to dramatic changes in their lives, such as those associated with climate change, urban redevelopment, deindustrialization, and illness.

I am especially interested in the place of the body and of emotion in such responses. I have worked in rural and urban settings in the US and the UK. 

I currently work as a postdoctoral researcher at The Discovery Research Platform for Medical Humanities (The Platform) at Durham University and collaborate with St. Anthony's Health Centre, a GP surgery in East Newcastle, to investigate the impact of poverty on primary care health outcomes in the city.

In the context of this collaboration, my research focuses on the interaction of persistent pain, substance use, and kinship. I am also interested in experimenting with new ways of integrating ethnography and medicine.

My research has been funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, the US-UK Fulbright Commission, the Wenner Gren Foundation, and - via the The Platform - the Wellcome Trust.