Dr. Resto Cruz

Biography

Resto Cruz is a lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. His academic work focuses on kinship, inheritance, social mobility, and intergenerational relations, with a particular emphasis on Southeast Asia, including the Philippines and Britain. Cruz has conducted extensive ethnographic and archival research, culminating in a current book project examining the social and geographical mobility in the post-1945 central Philippines. This project reflects on parent-child ties and sibling relationships that drive aspirations for upward mobility and explores the implications of these shifts for public culture in the Philippines. He is spending the 2025-26 academic year as a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Advanced Study of Inheritance and Heritage in Transformation at Humboldt University in Berlin. His prior experience includes serving as a Research Associate at the University of Manchester, focusing on youth transitions in postwar Britain. Cruz trained in development studies and global politics at Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines and has previously taught various undergraduate and postgraduate courses in social anthropology, emphasizing concepts such as generation, inheritance, and the cultural dynamics of Southeast Asia.

Research Interests

Experience