Professor Daniel Miller

Academic position: Professor of Anthropology

Department: Anthropology

Biography:

Daniel is an anthropologist who previously mainly worked on aspects of consumption and material culture. Over the last twenty years Daniel has focused more on digital anthropology, including founding the Digital Anthropology section of UCL Anthropology. Most recently, Daniel has been shifting towards an interest in medical anthropology which began with the publication of his book: The Comfort of People (Polity 2017) which was based on a study of the social relations and communication of hospice patients in the UK. This was followed by his current ASSA project on the anthropology of smartphones and smart ageing which has tried to develop an alternative anthropological approach to mHealth. Daniel is currently developing a campaign in relation to hypertension and diet in Trinidad and Tobago.

Research Projects:

The work Daniel is doing in establishing an anthropological alternative to established perspectives on mHealth will be published as a collection of papers edited by C. Hawkins and P. Awondo. They will also have nine monographs on the way smartphones impact upon ageing, that are being published by UCL Press. In addition, the campaign in Trinidad and Tobago which Daniel has developed with Sheba Mohammid aimed at changing diet in relation to hypertension will launch in June 2022. This (the Sweethand campaign) has been entirely created on the basis of anthropological research, including empathetic work with anti-vaccination supporters. The result looks rather different from traditional health campaigns.