UCL Anthropology

B.Sc (Hons) Mathematics and Physics with Astrophysics
King's College London (2001)

M.A (Dist) Material and Visual Culture
University College London (2004)

M.Res Anthropology
University College London (2005)

Ph.D Working Title:
TBA

+44 20 7679 8622
+44 20 7679 8632
E-mail: o.deepwell

ucl.ac.uk

Current Research/Academic Interests

My research topic is the material culture of the Kabbalah, the ancient and esoteric branch of Jewish mysticism that has undergone a significant revival in popularity in recent years. My study focusses primarily upon the creation and consumption of magical amuletic objects, practices common in both traditional and modern Kabbalah. Using a Gellian model of distributed agency, the study will attempt to evaluate the spiritual and social relationships of such objects, and the manner in which such objects integrate mathematical and cosmological ideas in the formation of these relationships.

I am also particularly interested in the anthropology of mathematics and in studying relationships between mathematics and cosmology/cosmogony and the manner in which material culture acts in the formation and dynamic maintenance of such relationships.

Thesis Supervisors

First: Susanne Kuechler
Second: Martin Holbraad