Julia Modern

Julia Modern is a Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at SOAS University of London. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge (2021) and has taught undergraduate courses in economic and political anthropology, with a focus on environmental and ecological themes.

• ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow
• PhD, University of Cambridge (2021)
• Research on disability, social movements, and resource distribution in East Africa

Research interests include:

• Disability justice and community belonging in Uganda
• Intersections of labor, disability legislation, and bodily-mental capacity
• Deaf Studies and sign language interpretation
• Non-normative body-minds and embodiment
• Resource extraction and economic precarity

Her recent publications address methodological challenges in sign language research, legal-relational approaches to disability, and financial barriers to academic access for disabled researchers. Julia also explores the creation of Deaf Space in Ugandan markets and the role of interdependence in disability activism.

Teaching experience includes undergraduate courses on the political and economic anthropology of environment and nature. She actively investigates disability experiences in plantation agriculture and contributes to debates on academic knowledge creation and accessibility.