معرفی
Professor David Zeitlyn is a Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Wolfson College. His research focuses on the anthropology of religion, visual anthropology, West/Central African studies, sociolinguistics, and the role of technology in decision-making. He has conducted extensive fieldwork among the Mambila in Cameroon since 1985, exploring topics such as divination, kinship, and the history of photography. His work integrates multimedia and digital tools to analyze archives and museum collections, including collaborations with the Pitt Rivers Museum.
Zeitlyn has supervised numerous doctoral students, many focusing on African studies, visual repatriation of cultural materials, and the social impact of ICT. His publications include seminal works like An Anthropological Toolkit (2022) and Mambila Divination (2020). He has held prestigious roles, including the Evans-Pritchard Lectureship at All Souls College (2003-2004). His research also addresses ethical challenges in archiving and data sharing, advocating for 'Augustinian archival openness.'
Key themes in his work include the interplay between technology and culture, the documentation of endangered languages, and the analysis of photographic archives as cultural artifacts. He has received funding from AHRC and JISC for projects like 'Facing the Future' (2013), exploring digital archiving and cultural representation.
