JOANNA COOK
ANTHROPOLOGY
MY RESEARCH
I am a Reader in Medical Anthropology at University College London. My research interests focus primarily on the UK and Thailand, and extend across a range of different theoretical questions: mental health, preventative healthcare, self-cultivation; mindfulness, politics and well-being in the UK; monasticism, gender and ethics in Buddhist Thailand; power in Southeast Asia; detachment as an ethnographic object and as a theoretical tool; democracy, subjectivity and sociality.
PUBLICATIONS
Monograph
2010 Meditation in Modern Buddhism: Renunciation and Change in Thai Monastic Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Journal Articles
- 2018 Cook, J. ‘Paying attention to attention’. In Anthropology of This Century, 22.
- 2016 Cook, J. ‘Mindful in Westminster: The politics of meditation and the limits of neoliberal critique’. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 6 (1): 69-91.
- 2016 Cook, J. “Ethnography: Translation.” Correspondences, Cultural Anthropology website, May 11, 2016. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/874-ethnography-translation
- 2014 ‘Oppose: Non-dualism is philosophy not ethnography’. General Debate in Anthropological Theory. In, Critique of Anthropology, Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 300-360.
- 2009 ‘Hagiographic narrative and monastic practice: Buddhist morality and mastery amongst Thai Buddhist nuns’. In, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, No. 15, pp. 349-364.
- 2008 ‘Alms, money and reciprocity: Buddhist nuns as mediators of generalized exchange in Thailand’. In, Anthropology in Action Special Edition: Gift Exchange in Modern Society, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 8-21.
- 2008 ‘Tattoos, corporeality and the self: dissolving borders in a Thai monastery’. In, Boundary Crossings: a Festschrift in memory of Sue Benson, Special Issue of Cambridge Anthropology, Vol. 27, No. 2, pp.20-35
Edited Volumes
- 2016 J. Cook, N. Long & H. Moore (eds), The State We’re In: Reflecting on Democracy’s Troubles. New York, Oxford: Berghan Books.
- 2015 M. Candea, J, Cook, C. Trundle & T. Yarrow (eds), Detachment: Essays on the Limits of Relational Thinking. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- 2012 L. Chua, J. Cook, N. Long & L. Wilson (eds), Power: Southeast Asian Perspectives. Oxon: Routledge.
Book Chapters
- Accepted and forthcoming Cook, J. ‘Self-cultivation as ethical practice: Navigating a path between determinism and self-making’. In, J. Laidlaw (ed), Cambridge Handbook of the Anthropology of Ethics and Morality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (anticipated 2021).
- Accepted and forthcoming Cook, J. ‘The skilful means of the mindful advocate’. In, M. Candea & P. Heywood (eds), Daring to Explain: Ethnographies of explanation and the explanation of ethnography. Cornell University Press (anticipated 2021).
- 2020 Cook, J. ‘Mindfulness in Westminster: The All-Party Parliamentary Group’s Mindful UK (2015)’. In, P. Salguero (ed), Buddhism and Medicine: An anthropology of modern and contemporary sources. New York: Columbia University Press.
- 2018 ‘Remaking Thai Buddhism through International Pilgrimage to South Asia’. In, A. M. Pinkney & J. Whalen-Bridge (eds), Religious Journeys in India: Pilgrims, tourists, and travellers. New York: SUNY, pp. 37-64.
- 2017 Cook, J. ‘’Mind the Gap’: Appearance and reality in Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy’. In, D. McMahan & E. Braun (eds) Meditation, Buddhism, and Science. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 114-132.
- 2016 Cook, J. ‘Mindful in Westminster: The politics of meditation and the limits of neoliberal critique’. In, I. Kavedžija & H. Walker (eds), Values of Happiness: Towards an anthropology of purpose in life. Chicago: Hau Books, pp. 163-190.
- 2016 Cook, J., Long, N., & H. Moore, ‘Introduction’. In, J. Cook, N. Long & H. Moore (eds), The State We’re In: Reflecting on Democracy’s Troubles. New York, Oxford: Berghan Books, pp. 1-26.
- 2015 Cook, J. ‘Detachment and engagement in Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy’. In, M. Candea, J, Cook, C. Trundle & T. Yarrow (eds), Detachment: Essays on the Limits of Relational Thinking. Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 219-235.
- 2015 Candea, M., Cook, J., Trundle, C., & T. Yarrow, ‘Introduction’. In, M. Candea, J, Cook, C. Trundle & T. Yarrow (eds), Detachment: Essays on the Limits of Relational Thinking. Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 1-34.
- 2013 Cook, J. ‘Directive and Definitive Knowledge: Experiencing achievement in a Thai Meditation Monastery’. In, N. Long & H. Moore (eds), The Social Life of Achievement. New York, Oxford: Berghan Books, pp. 103-119.
- 2012 Chua, L., Cook, J., Long, N., & L. Wilson, ‘Introduction: Power and orientation in Southeast Asia’. In, L. Chua, J. Cook, N. Long & L. Wilson (eds), Power: Southeast Asian Perspectives. Oxon: Routledge, pp. 1-15.
- 2012 Cook, J. ‘Power, protection and perfectibility: Aspiration and materiality in Thailand’. In, L. Chua, J. Cook, N. Long & L. Wilson (eds), Power: Southeast Asian Perspectives. Oxon: Routledge, pp.37- 50.
- 2010 Cook, J. ‘Ascetic practice and participant observation, or, the gift of doubt and incompletion in field experience’. In, J. Davies & D. Mihavlova (eds), Emotions in the Field: Surviving and Writing-Up Fieldwork Experience. Stanford University Press, pp. 239-265.
- 2009 Cook, J. Laidlaw, J. & J. Mair, ‘What if there is no elephant? Towards a conception of an un-sited field’. In, M. Falzon (ed), Multi-Sited Ethnography: Theory, Praxis and Locality in Contemporary Social Research. Ashgate Publishing, pp. 47-72.
APPEARANCES
Mindfulness
Creating a Mindful Nation – RSA Panel discussion
Here is the audio for a panel discussion about the mindfulness in parliament research at the RSA.
“mindfulness in public discourse ” round table – soas university
As part of a Round Table on “Mindfulness in Public Discourse” held at the Centre of Buddhist Studies, SOAS University of London on 8 December 2018, I asked “If mindfulness is the answer, what is the question?” Taking political interest in mindfulness as my ethnographic focus I examined the broader cultural value of ‘metacognition’. I argued that cultivating a relationship with one’s own mind, learning to think about thinking in a peculiarly committed way, is increasingly being incorporated into understandings of the good life, mental health and governance.
Debate
In a panel discussion with writer Will Self and philosopher Stephen Cave, I was asked to consider the question ‘If a fuller life requires a deeper acceptance of death, what stops us facing up to the inevitable?’ Chaired by Jonathan Rowson, director, Social Brain Centre, RSA.
A shorter exert from that event, in which we consider the value of ritual and belief can be viewed here
Commentary
Response to Tim Ingold’s ‘That’s Enough About Ethnography’.
Cite as:
Cook, Joanna. “Ethnography: Translation.” Correspondences, Cultural Anthropology website, May 11, 2016.