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Dr. Pamela J. Stewart (Strathern) and Prof. Andrew Strathern are a wife and husband research team with a long history of joint publications and research. They are based in the Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, and have been Visiting Research Fellow and Visiting Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Durham; Visiting Research Fellows in the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies, University of Aberdeen; and have been Visiting Research Fellows at the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan over many years. 

They have also lived and worked in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands, and presented lectures in many countries around the world They have published numerous books and articles on their research in the Pacific region, especially in Papua New Guinea; and in Europe (primarily Scotland and Ireland); and in Asia (mainly in Taiwan and China). Their research interests are wide ranging, including Anthropology, Philosophy, and Religious Studies.

A recently published biographical note for Stewart and Strathern can be found in their co-authored book Diaspora, Disasters, and the Cosmos Rituals and Images (2019) at https://cap-press.com/pdf/9781611633986.pdf.

They are the editors of:

  • the Ritual Studies Book Series;
  • the Medical Anthropology Book Series;
  • and the European Anthropology Series with Carolina Academic Press.

Also, they are editors of the Anthropology and Cultural History in Asia and the Indo-Pacific Series with Routledge Publishing. 

Stewart and Strathern Co-Edit the Palgrave Studies in Disaster Anthropology with Palgrave Macmillan Publishing

They are also the long-standing co-editors of the Journal of Ritual Studies. They have published over 50 books and over 200 articles. 

Their co-authored books include: 

  • Violence (Continuum Publishing, 2002) 
  • Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip (Cambridge University Press, 2004) 
  • Empowering the Past, Confronting the Future (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)
  • Kinship in Action: Self and Group (Prentice Hall, 2011).
  • Peace-making and the Imagination: Papua New Guinea Perspectives. (University of Queensland Press and Penguin Books Australia, 2011)
  • Working in the Field: Anthropological Experiences across the World. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).
  • Ritual: Key Concepts in Religion. (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014)
  • Breaking the Frames: Anthropological Conundrums. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017)
  • Diaspora, Disasters, and the Cosmos: Rituals and Images. (Carolina Academic Press, 2018)
  • Story of the Kuk UNESCO World Heritage Prehistoric Site and The Melpa, Western Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea: Pride in Place. (Angkemam Publishing House, 2018)
  • Sacred Revenge in Oceania. (Cambridge University Press, 2019)
  • Language and Culture in Dialogue. London, U.K.: (Bloomsbury Academic Publishing, July 2019).
  • Heritage: Tradition and Contestation. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press (2021).
  • Scotland, Wales, and Ireland: Identity and History. Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press (2021).
  • Sustainability, Conservation, and Creativity: Ethnographic Learning from Small-scale Practices. Routledge Publishing.

Their co-edited books include: 

  • Terror and Violence: Imagination and the Unimaginable (Pluto Press, 2006, with N. L. Whitehead) 
  • Asian Ritual Systems: Syncretisms and Ruptures (Carolina Academic Press, 2007) 
  • Exchange and Sacrifice (Carolina Academic Press, 2008)
  • Religious and Ritual Change (Carolina Academic Press, 2009, [Chinese Version, Linking Publishing, 2010])
  • Ritual (Ashgate Publishing, 2010)
  • Ritual. (The International Library of Essays in Anthropology), (Routledge Publishing, 2016, originally published 2010)
  • Research Companion to Anthropology. (Routledge Publishing, originally published 2015)
  • Expressive Genres and Historical Change: Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Taiwan. For, Anthropology and Cultural History in Asia and the Indo-Pacific Series, London, U.K.: (Routledge Publishing, 2017, originally published 2005)”
  • (with Riboli, Diana and Davide Torri) (eds.). Dealing with Disasters -- Perspectives from Eco-Cosmologies Palgrave Macmillan (2021).
  • The Palgrave Handbook of Anthropological Ritual Studies Palgrave Macmillan (in press, 2021).

Frequently, they are invited international speakers, discussing their current theoretical perspectives. 

In 2012 they were jointly awarded the De Carle Lectureship (University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand) to present a series of public lectures on topics, including peace-making.  Many of their books and essays are available in electronic versions, including a list of their recent writings and of their scholarly activities.


ULS LogoUse of materials in this Archive should include citation to the source of the materials as follows:
The Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew J. Strathern Archive, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh, Digital Research Library, https://www.StewartStrathern.pitt.edu

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Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew J. Strathern own the physical material presented on this website. We provide access to the digital images for personal, noncommercial, educational and research purposes only. Without written permission from Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew J. Strathern stating otherwise, prohibited uses include, but are not limited to systematic downloading of images using robots, scripts, or other software programs; commercial use and resale of the images; or redistribution, publication or retransmission of the images beyond what is allowed by the U.S. copyright code. Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew J. Strathern hold the copyright to most of the images.