Dr. Helen Watson

Assistant Professor

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Biography

Helen Watson studied Anthropology at the Queen's University of Belfast and completed her PhD at Girton College, Cambridge. She has been a lecturer and teaching fellow at St John's College since 1990. Her teaching and research interests focus on the intersections of religion, conflict, gender, migration, and development, alongside the experiences of exile and political-religious conflicts in various contexts such as Egypt, France, and Ireland. Helen supervises students in the Tripos in Social Anthropology and her teaching covers Anthropology Politics, Ritual Religion, Production Reproduction Cognition, and Knowledge Belief. She has undertaken extensive fieldwork research in Egypt, Morocco, France, and Ireland, with particular interest in the relationship between ethnography and life history. Her doctoral research focused on Migration, Money, and Marriage in informal squatter settlements in Cairo. Additionally, she has written on topics like inter-communal violence, sexual harassment, and the new veiling in marginal Arab-Muslim communities. Her ongoing research interests include perceptions of the diaspora and the transmission of identities, as well as exploring the relationship between memory and belief in religious experience.

Research Interests

Experience

University Lecturer

— Present

University of Cambridge • Cambridge

Teaching and researching in the area of social anthropology.

Lecturer

— Present

University of Cambridge • Cambridge

Currently teaches and supervises students in Social Anthropology.

Requirements for University of Cambridge

Master Program
Requirements
GPA Requirement
Required:3.7
IELTS
Listening
Required:7
Reading
Required:7
Writing
Required:7
Speaking
Required:7
Overall
Required:7.5
TOEFL
Listening
Required:25
Reading
Required:25
Writing
Required:25
Speaking
Required:25
Total
Required:110
Prerequisites
UK Bachelor's Degree with good Upper Second Class Honours or international equivalent Background in international relations, politics, law, economics, security or history is a definite asset
Application Checklist
  • Two academic references
  • Official transcripts
  • CV/Resume
  • Personal statement (approx 500 words)
  • Research proposal (1-2 pages/500 words)
  • Application fee (£50)
Specialization Notes

Standard postgraduate requirements for Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) and related humanities departments.