Rachel Harkness | University of Edinburgh (original) (raw)

I am a lecturer in Design Ecologies at Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh.

I carry out research at the intersection of the arts, humanities and social sciences. My methods of research are largely ethnographic and anthropological, though I draw from a variety of academic disciplines and their traditions. The topics that I study are connected by two main threads: the first being human-environment relations, or how people relate to, value, live within and envision future versions of their environments; the second being broadly anthropological or critical and socio-cultural engagements with art, architecture and design. In reality these two threads often intertwine.

Postdoctoral Experience:

Research Fellow, on the 'Knowing From the Inside: Art, Anthropology, Architecture and Design', an ERC-funded project at the University of Aberdeen. http://www.abdn.ac.uk/research/kfi/
October 2013 - September 2016. Full Time.

Research Associate on the Leverhulme Trust funded project 'Sorting goods from bads: how actors collaborate in marketing green chemistry' at the University of Strathclyde and the University of Glasgow.
January 2011 – March 2012. Part-Time (50%)
April 2012 - January 2013. Full-Time.

Mellon Sawyer Postdoctoral Fellow, on the Sawyer Seminar Series 'Embodied Values: Bringing the Senses Back to the Environment' at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh.
March 2010 – March 2012 Part-Time (50%)

Academic Background:

I hold a First Class BA Hons in Anthropology from Goldsmiths College, University of London and an MRes and PhD in Anthropology, both from the University of Aberdeen.

My doctoral thesis (2009) is called Thinking Building Dwelling: Examining Earthships in Taos, New Mexico and Fife, Scotland. It is a ethnographic account of and enquiry into the culture of eco-building, focusing specifically on the style of ecological architecture called the Earthship.
It is available electronically at http://abdn.ac.uk/library/ (Search for Harkness under author and choose electronic version.).
I was supervised by Prof. Tim Ingold and Dr. Alex King.
Address: www.eca.ed.ac.uk/profile/dr-rachel-joy-harkness

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