Goldsmiths - University of London

Dr Mark Lamont

Research interests

Mark Lamont's ethnographic focus has been East Africa and the western Indian Ocean (Kenya and Tanzania). In Kenya, Mark's interests cover the politics of generational succession, age-set formation, and ageing (supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation). His Tanzanian research focused on livelihood, mobility, and mortality, with specific reference to road deaths and drowning (supported by the AHRC). My latest research project investigates the rapid popularization of ‘agony aunts’, self-help books and psychological counselling in Kenya. Based on ethnographic research in Nairobi, this project delves into notions of ‘aspiration’ and ‘self improvement’ among young urban Pentecostal Kenyans. Twisted together under a concern for 'well-being', stated generally, this project reflects a continuum of interests in medical and psychological anthropologies, as well as work on the cultural history of emotions in Africa, kinship and friendship, religious identities, and social theories of the person and self.

Selected publications

In press, 'Decomposing pollution? Corpses, burials, and affliction among the Meru of central Kenya', in The Living and the Dead in Africa, Jindra, Michael and Joel Noret (eds.). Berghan: New York & London.

2009 'Interroger les morts pour critiquer les vivants, Ou éxotisme morbide?' Encounters with African funerary practices in Francophone anthropology, a review. Africa