Before joining the School of International Development in 2010 I was a lecturer at Durham University in the Department of Anthropology.

I have a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Queensland and a Masters in the Anthropology of Art from UCL.

CV and Experience
 

Click here to download Emma's CV

Interdisciplinary and international research on resource extraction, corporate responsibility, viable development strategy, socio-economic security, sustainability, ethics and rapid social change. Qualitative, especially visual, and survey methodologies.  Area expertise: Asia Pacific.

Research Groups: Politics, Governance and the State

Research

I have worked on a number of research projects:
 

C-SAP-funded project on ‘Anthropology and Development’

This project aimed to enhance the postgraduate learning and teaching experience by providing postgraduate students with training in leadership, team working, teaching and organisation. Five postgraduate students took part in the project; they prepared one-day workshops on global issues and then delivered them to high school students from Grades 7-11 at three different schools. Data were collected, and is currently being analysed, on levels of knowledge about global issues at pre-university and university levels (1-3). A publication co-authored by all post-graduate participants is currently being developed for journal submission. 
 

British Academy-funded research on ‘The Long-Term Impact of Extractive Industry on Indigenous Livelihoods’

This project involved research in the Ok Tedi and Kutubu regions of Papua New Guinea and then drew findings into wider debates on resource extraction to identify patterns of industrial impingement. It included a one-day interdisciplinary conference, with contributions from anthropologists, geographers, geologists, lawyers and economists with case studies from South America, south-east Asia, Africa, Oceania and Russia. A forthcoming book that I will co-edit with Dr Gavin Hilson (Reading) brings these contributions together in a volume on sustainable development and resource extraction. The project also received significant in-kind funding from Oil Search Limited.
 

C-SAP-funded project ‘Integrating Video and Teaching in Higher Education’.

In this project I collaborated with Dr Stephen Lyon (Durham) and Professor Michael Fischer (Kent). The project developed a range of e-learning tools to assist students working on development related problems in the social sciences. We produced a meta description of the content of the film From the Horse's Mouth: Perceptions of Development from Papua New Guinea (Gilberthorpe 2005), and video exercises tailored around the key issues it raised – environmental destruction, cultural heritage, built environments, consumption, sustainability. The project is currently in the final stages and the output is being disseminated to major development-focussed institutions in Europe, Australia and the Americas.   
 

Royal Anthropological Institute-funded project on ‘Knowledge Transfer: Experiments in Methodology’

This project investigated the value of combining ethnographic and visual media to facilitate knowledge transfer in development contexts. Building on data collected during previous ethnographic fieldwork (2000, 2003) I used visual media to record people’s perceptions of development in two areas affected by resource extraction in Papua New Guinea – Ok Tedi and Kutubu.  The finished edited film 'From the Horse’s Mouth: perceptions of development from Papua New Guinea' (Gilberthorpe 2005) aims to show the diverse perceptions of those caught up in the process of resource extraction, by juxtaposing the views of corporate personnel with landowners and non-landowners.  As two major resource extraction industries face closure (Kutubu oil extraction and Ok Tedi copper/gold mine) in Papua New Guinea, Indigenous people and corporate representatives were asked what 'development' and 'sustainable development' meant to them and what they thought the future would bring. The issues raised in the film include: sustainable development, mining, oil extraction, Ok Tedi, Kutubu, the Papua New Guinea state, Oil Search Limited, the anthropology of resource extraction, industrial impacts, indigenous rights and transparency. NB: The views presented by Oil Search personnel are personal and do not necessarily represent the views of Oil Search Limited. 
View the film below or on YouTube.

 

Nuffield-funded research ‘Mediation and Mining’

In 2003 I worked as a Research Assistant to Professor Paul Silltioe and Dr Robin Wilson (Durham University) on a large Nuffield-funded project in Papua New Guinea’s Ok Tedi region. I compiled structured questionnaires and collected data  to compare mining royalty acquisition, measure levels of inequality in mining contexts and assess levels of mediation between the corporate sector and indigenous population. 
 

Industry-funded PhD Scholarship ‘Fasu Cosmology’

My doctorate studies were fully funded by the Joint Venture Partners (JVP) for Petroleum Development, Papua New Guinea. This involved 14 months of research in Papua New Guinea, where I lived with the Fasu language group, hosts to the Kutubu Oil Project. Research in this area is ongoing and an ethnographic monograph based on my doctorate findings is currently in development.
 

Publications

Books

Gilberthorpe, E.
Forthcoming. The Anthropology of Resource Development: Ethnographic Explorations of Rural Resource Extraction. Oxford: Berghahn: Studies in Public and Applied Anthropology Series.

Gilberthorpe, E. & G. Hilson (eds)
2013 Natural Resource Extraction and Indigenous Livelihoods: Development Challenges in an Era of Globalization. London: Ashgate. In Press.

Gilberthorpe, E.
2009 Development and Industry: A Papua New Guinea Case Study. Canterbury: CSAC.
Link to article                    

Fischer, M., E. Gilberthorpe & S. Lyon (eds)
2009 From the Horse's Mouth: A Resource for Teaching Development in Anthropology. Canterbury: CSAC.

Articles:

Gilberthorpe, E.
2013. In the Shadow of Industry: A Study of Culturization in Papua New Guinea. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 19(2): 261-278..

Gilberthorpe, E.
2013. Community Development and Mining in Papua New Guinea: the role of anthropology in the extractive industries. Journal of Community Development. In Press.

Gilberthorpe, E. & G. Banks
2012. Development on Whose Terms?: CSR Discourse and Social Realities in Papua New Guinea’s Extractive Industries Sector. Resources Policy 37(2): 185-193 (published online December 2011).

Gilberthorpe, E. & P. Sillitoe
2009 The Construction of Social Capital in the Current Economic Crisis: Lessons from Papua New Guinea. Anthropology News 50 (7): 15-16.
Link to journal article

Gilberthorpe, E.
2007 Fasu Solidarity: A Case Study of Kin Networks, Land Tenure and Oil Extraction in Kutubu, Papua New Guinea. American Anthropologist 109 (1): 109-119.
Link to journal article          

Gilberthorpe, E.
2006 ‘It’s Raining Money’: Anthropology, Film and Resource Extraction in Papua New Guinea. Anthropology in Action 13 (3): 13-21.
Link to journal article          

Gilberthorpe, E.
2003 Twin Towns of Tabubil: Measuring Development in the Star Mountains. PRIME [PNG Resources, Industry, Mining & Energy] 14 (2): 61-63.

Gilberthorpe, E.
2000 Going with the Flow: Coping with Change in Kutubu. PRIME 3 (4): 58-60.

Gilberthorpe, E.
2000 Theatre of Life and Death: Bringing Health Education to Kutubu. PRIME 4 (1): 14-16.

Reports:

Gilberthorpe, E., D. Agol & T. Gegg
2012. Socio-economic Impact Assessment of the Kagem Emerald Mine, Zambia. Report for the World Land Trust.

Gilberthorpe, E.
2011. Social Impact and Areas of High Risk in Guinea’s Kisidugo Uranium Mine. Report for Forte Energy and the Mining Ministry, Guinea.

Book Contributions:

Gilberthorpe, E.
2013. Displacing Culture: Intervention and Social Change in Papua New Guinea’s Extractive Industries. In R.H. Layton (ed.) The Anthropology of Displaced Communities. Oxford: Berghahn. In Press.


Gilberthorpe, E., S. Clarke & P. Sillitoe.
2013. Two Oil Economies and the Resource Curse. In P Sillitoe (ed.) Sustainable Development: An Introduction Focusing on the Gulf Region. Oxford: Berghahn. In Press.

Gilberthorpe, E.
2013. Urgent Anthropology and the Value of Kinship. In R. Puri (ed.) New Directions for Urgent Anthropology Research. In Press.

Gilberthorpe, E. & G. Hilson
2013. Introduction. In Natural Resource Extraction and Indigenous Livelihoods: Development Challenges in an Era of Globalization. London: Ashgate. In Press.

Gilberthorpe, E.
2013. The Money Rain Phenomenon: Papua New Guinea Oil and the Resource Curse. In Natural Resource Extraction and Indigenous Livelihoods: Development Challenges in an Era of Globalization. London: Ashgate. In Press.

Gilberthorpe, E.
2010 Burmese manuscript chest. In C. Barclay, R. Grocke and H. Armstrong (eds) Treasures of the Oriental Museum, Durham University. London: Third Millennium Publishing Ltd: 101.

Gilberthorpe, E.
2009 Pathways to development: Identity, Landscape and Industry in Papua New Guinea. In S. Heckler (ed.) Landscape, Power and Process: Re-Evaluating Traditional Environmental Knowledge. New York: Berghahn: 202-231.
Link to book


Ethnographic Films:

Gilberthorpe, E. & N. Peduzzi
2009 The Allotment. 20 minutes. Manchester: Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology.
Link to film (via YouTube)

Gilberthorpe, E.
2009 From the Horse’s Mouth: Perceptions of Development from Papua New Guinea. Re-edited film. 40 minutes. Canterbury: CSAC.
Link to film (via YouTube - available to view in 4 sections)

Gilberthorpe, E.
2005 From the Horse’s Mouth: Perceptions of Development from Papua New Guinea. Documentary Film. 55 minutes. Australia: Darkwood Films.