JOANNA COOK

ANTHROPOLOGY

MY RESEARCH

Curriculum Vitae

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.

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PUBLICATIONS

Journal Articles
Edited Volumes
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

watch video

Commentary

Response to Tim Ingold’s ‘That’s Enough About Ethnography’.

Cite as:
Cook, Joanna. “Ethnography: Translation.” Correspondences, Cultural Anthropology website, May 11, 2016.

read the text