Branwen Spector

I am a social anthropologist whose research focuses on settler-colonialism, mobility, and infrastructures in Palestine. For my doctoral work I carried out 3 years of ethnographic fieldwork in the West Bank where I explored how road, internet, and human infrastructures shape mobilities for both Palestinian refugees and Israeli settlers. I am now developing this material into a monograph, advancing theorising on mobility to include its social and virtual forms. I also work on social media, and am particularly interested in how they mediate mobility, allowing local users to navigate, map, and surveil. I am particularly interested in the use of dating applications as a research method, on which I recently co-edited a Special Issue in Ethnoscripts journal.

I also work on qualitative research methods and am the co-founder of The New Ethnographer, a project and teaching consultancy that writes and teaches on challenges in contemporary fieldwork. Our first textbook, Inclusive Ethnography: Making Fieldwork Safer, Healthier & More Ethical was published by Sage in 2024. We are now researching and developing teaching materials for a trauma-informed methodology for ethnographers. I am also developing, with colleagues, the first survey of trans ethnographers to develop trans-inclusive teaching materials for ethnographic methods training.