Dr Beth Cullen

I am an anthropologist and part-time visiting lecturer at the School of Architecture and Cities at the University of Westminster. I was a postdoctoral research fellow with the ERC funded project Monsoon Assemblages from 2016 to 2021. My work explores human-environment relations using ethnographic and participatory visual and spatial research methods. Following my PhD research with semi-nomadic pastoralists in the Rift Valley, I spent three years working on applied natural resource management and sustainable farming projects in Ethiopia. After returning to the UK, I worked at the Organic Research Centre on agroecology and organic farming initiatives. My research interests include environmental anthropology, more-than-human ethnography and participatory approaches for working with complex socioecological systems.

I recently completed a five year post-doctoral research fellow position (2016 - 2021) with Monsoon Assemblages, ERC Starting Grant no. 679873, led by Professor Lindsay Bremner. The project is an interdisciplinary design-driven inquiry into the impacts of changing monsoon climates in three of South Asia’s rapidly growing cities: Chennai, Delhi and Dhaka (see http://www.monass.org and http://exhibition.monass.org/).

I am interested in more-than-human and multi-species ethnography and how participatory approaches might be extended to non-humans. I am currently carrying out ethnographic research around allotment gardens in London. 

Research students

I co-supervised Monsoon Assemblages PhD Researcher, Anthony Powis, “Unsustainable Abstraction - Reading Chennai through Groundwater” (2021).

I currently co-supervise Central Saint Martins PhD Researcher, Christina Skarpari, 'Tangible Changes in Intangible Cultural Heritage Preservation: Using experience-based co-design to inform cultural policy-making practice' (2024).

For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.