The MA in Visual Anthropology has been central in shaping my theoretical, methodological and practical work as an anthropologist.Sarah Pink - MA Visual Anthropology 1989-90 - Professor of Media and Communication, RMIT University
I really appreciate how you've given us not only the building blocks, but also the theoretical grounding to be good visual anthropologists.Karlia Campbell - MA Visual Anthropology 2009-10, EDF pathway - Visual Anthropologist at VIA Pictures
The MA is possibly the most fun bit of education I have ever done. Aside from learning the basics of hands-on film-making, it is a very different way of doing anthropology.Gavin Searle - MA Visual Anthropology 1993-94 - BAFTA award winning documentary director
It was provocative and challenging to work out how I could use filmmaking as an analytical tool to shape, not just reflect, my research process.Alyssa Grossman - PhD Social Anthropology with Visual Media 2004-10 - Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Gothenburg
The MAVA was one of the most inspiring educational and creative experiences of my life. Aside from making deep friendships, I grew tremendously during this period.Jana Carrey - MA Visual Anthropology 2006-07, EDSEM Pathway - Freelance documentary photographer
I was very satisfied with how fast I progressed with my filming skills, since when I started, I did not even know how to switch on a video camera!Andre Cicalo - PhD Social Anthropology with Visual Media, 2005-10 - Marie Curie IOF Research Fellow, King's College London
My experience in Manchester made possible an old dream: to incorporate a new language – the audiovisual – in the anthropological discourse.Sylvia Caiuby Novaes - Postdoctorate 1993-95 - Professor of Anthropology at the Universidade de São Paulo
Here is what makes the Granada Centre the best place for visual anthropology
For over 20 years, the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology has been widely recognised as the world’s leading centre for Visual Anthropology. Its graduates have produced more than 300 ethnographic documentary films seen around the world and it is now at the forefront of the emergent dialogue between art and anthropology, including sensory ethnography, experimental and practice-based methods, sound, photographic and digital media, and art/museum installations.
Our MA and PhD programmes combine anthropology with training in film-making, editing, photography and sound. Students are provided with professional equipment and supported by an internationally renowned staff comprising the largest visual anthropology faculty in Europe. We welcome students from across the social sciences and humanities and the course is tailored to meet the needs of different levels of anthropological and film-making experience.
Manchester is a creative, energetic and cosmopolitan city noted for its music scene, media links and industrial past. An advantage of studying in Manchester is the cheap cost of living and accommodation in that rents are approximately half the cost of London.
He who never fails, never risks anything. What is the most interesting thing in life? Very probably to run risks. That for me is our profession.Jean Rouch 1967
Updates, events and work in progress from our students and staffView All →
We’re happy to report that Ten by Ten, Jami Bennett’s MA Visual Anthropology graduation film (2021), has been scooping awards and selections at festivals around the world. Like all MAVA students, Jami developed her film project during the whole…
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The 2024 short course in ethnographic filmmaking (10-21 June) is now fully booked. All places were taken by members of the waiting list. Please use the form below to get on a waiting list and be offered a place in…
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This year’s MA Visual Anthropology Film Screenings will take place on October the 21st and 22nd at Submerged Spaces in Manchester. Titled ‘The Unfamiliar Everyday’, the showcase will feature 24 film projects on themes such as migration, dance, identity, climate…
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The 2022 GCVA studentship awarded a fee waiver to Daniel Bustos Echeverry, who has enrolled on the MA Visual Anthropology programme 2021-22. This is Daniel’s statement on his experience: It is an honour being the first recipient of the Granada…
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We are pleased to announce that the Cucusonic project won one of the University of Manchester’s ‘Making a Difference’ awards. See more details at this link. The video clip is of Manchester band Fingathing at the 2022 BIME festival in Bogota,…
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We are delighted to share this opportunity and invite you to be part of the Visual Research Network’s 2022 Residency and Conference… Call for applications, films and papers: “Encounters with the Urban Night: multisensory ethnographies of shadow and alterity” Deadline…
Read more →We're happy to host a lecture by @pinkydigital on 24 May: "The Edge and the Future: and Doing Social Science Forward". Free and open to all, please book here: eventbrite.com/e/sarah-pink-t… with @UoMAnthropology
The Teaching and Technical Staff involved in running the courses at the Granada Centre
GCVA Director.
My regional specialism is Japan: I conducted fieldwork in the Kansai area, Kyushu, Tokyo and Okinawa. Some of my research interests include Zen art, art practice as ethnographic research, visual and sensory studies, the political ecology of military systems, soundscape studies and sound art practice.
Director of MA in Visual Anthropology.
My area of studies ranges from indigenous politics, through transnational migration to postcoloniality (Brazil, Portugal). The research project I’m currently developing, Emerging Urban Convivialities: Everyday interactions between foreigners and long-term residents in a pacified favela in Rio de Janeiro, brings together my previous work with middle-class migration and a recent interest in processes of neo-liberal urban renewal and gentrification.
Professor of Anthropology.
My regional specialisations are Kampala, Uganda and New York, USA. I do research on experiences of illness, death and dying (especially from HIV/AIDS), in relation to the aesthetic appreciation of time, existence, and otherness; I am also interested in phenomenology, art, performance and creativity, time, comparisons of personhood, religious change, gender and urban experiences.
Lecturer in Social and Digital Anthropology.
Dr Jolynna Sinanan has conducted extensive fieldwork in Trinidad, Nepal, Australia and Cambodia and has published widely on digital and data practices, digital visual communication, intergenerational mobilities, work and gender. Her books include Social Media in Trinidad (2017, UCL Press), Visualising Facebook (with D. Miller 2017, UCL Press) and Digital Media Practices in Households (with L. Hjorth et al. 2021, Amsterdam University Press). Jolynna’s current research focuses on mobile media and mobile livelihoods in the Everest tourism industry.
Lecturer in Social and Visual Anthropology.
My research interests include hunting, perception, the senses, visual anthropology, sound, phenomenology and embodiment. I worked on donso hunters in Burkina Faso, West Africa, looking at their relationship with a changing environment and embodied knowledge. I make documentary films, photography and sound recordings.
Part-Time Senior Lecturer in Visual Anthropology.
I make documentary films on subjects relating to anthropology and experiment with new methods and technologies for filmmaking as research. I am interested in the uncertainty that surrounds momentous life changing experiences. I have made films about childbirth, death, adolescence, old age, adventure and identity in the UK, India and Peru.
Lecturer in Visual Anthropology
I am a visual anthropologist, documentary film director and community arts facilitator. I first completed my BA in Social Anthropology at SOAS in 2004, and since then have accompanied my academic trajectory with training and working as a community arts and storytelling facilitator, with a particular focus on creative practices adopted from Theatre of the Oppressed, PhotoVoice and Participatory Video.
In 2017 I obtained my PhD in Anthropology Media and Performance (AMP) at the University of Manchester, one of the very first practice-based PhD programmes in Anthropology, on experiences of illegal crossings in the Mediterranean combining theatre, storytelling, photography, documentary filmmaking and animation as co-creative research methods with a group of Egyptian men. I am particularly interested in exploring the existential spaces between imagination, memory and experience in the context of migration and critical events.
Guest Lecturer.
My research interest and sound art practice focuses on soundscape, perception and expectation, sound design, field recording, sound preservation and immersive audio. My interest lies in sonic storytelling around soundscapes of isolation, infrastructure, decay and liminal edgelands spaces. I specialise in spatial field recording and building and designing immersive soundscape simulators, which have been used on a number of large scale EPRSC projects.
Media Coordinator
I worked as an editor at ITV Granada and BBC News, with around 600 on screen credits, then moved onto camera work starting in 16mm film and then digital. I have worked on animations such as Bob the Builder and Postman Pat as well as on the world’s longest running TV soap opera Coronation Street. I offer technical support to the students at the GCVA as well as give away TV secrets of how to make a good film. I’m interested in popular culture, the queer scene and all things Manchester.
