Dr Amanda Ravetz  

Amanda Ravetz is a visual anthropologist with expertise in the theories and practices of observational cinema; and the interdisciplinary connections between anthropology and art. Her anthropological films have been screened in the UK, Portugal, Germany, Majorca, USA and India. Her book, with Anna Grimshaw, Observational Cinema: Anthropology, film, and the Exploration of Social Life, was published by Indiana University Press in 2009. Her edited volume, with Anna Grimshaw, Visualizing Anthropology was published by Intellect Books in 2005 and investigates new collaborative possibilities between anthropology and other fields, linked to image-based work.

Amanda trained as a painter at the Central School of Art and Design, London and later completed a doctorate in Social Anthropology with Visual Media at the University of Manchester. Her doctoral research explored the possibilities of image-based media for sensory and environmental anthropology through a study of vision, knowledge and place-making in an English town.

In 2004 after teaching at the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Amanda joined MIRIAD at Manchester Metropolitan University as an AHRC Fellow to pursue research into "Contemporary Convergence of Aesthetics and Ethnography”.

Amanda’s current research projects concern artistic epistemologies; improvisation, play and reverie in art and anthropology; and the role of artists in environmental and water engineering schemes in the UK. She has contributed to several research networks including The 4 As (Art, Architecture, Archaeology and Anthropology) convened by Tim Ingold at University of Aberdeen and "Designing Environments for Life" a programme hosted by the Scottish Institute for Advanced Studies http://www.instituteforadvancedstudies.org.uk/Programmes/DesigningEnvironments.aspx

Recent Phd and MRes students include

L. Cassidy, 2005-2009, Salford 7: the representation and reconstruction of a lost working class community. (AHRC).

N. Kendrick, 2007-2009, Forming a sensorially engaged participatory arts practice. (AHRC)

H. Imai, 2005-2009, Tokyo’s contested alleyways: the role of the roji in understanding globalization, attachment and the social construction of place. (University studentship).

Lucy Wright, 2009- Performing Place: visualizing topophilia in musical performance. (University studentship)