Staff profile

I am a social anthropologist specialising in the study of sport, development, self-tracking and performance enhancement. 

My doctoral thesis is the first ever ethnographic account of the emic regimes of subjectification adopted by Ethiopian runners. Its overall argument is that an awareness of the energetic quality of human existence can give rise to distinct ways of relating to oneself and others. 

My first book, 'Out of Thin Air: Running Wisdom and Magic from Above the Clouds in Ethiopia' (Bloomsbury, 2020) won the Margaret Mead Award in 2022, and was also longlisted for the Ondaatje Prize and the William Hill Sports Book of the Year. 

I have published academic papers in journals such as the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute and Ethnos, and also write for non-academic audiences, for instance by contributing to The Guardian and writing trade books for Bloomsbury. 

My second book, 'To the Limit: The Meaning of Endurance from Mexico to the Himalayas' was published by Bloomsbury in 2024. 

• Co-operation
• Competition
• Economic Anthropology
• Energy
• Ethiopia
• Migration
• Running
• Sport

• 2022: Winner of the Margaret Mead Award: The Margaret Mead Award is presented to a younger scholar for a particular accomplishment such as a book, film, monograph, or service, which interprets anthropological data and principles in ways that make them meaningful and accessible to a broadly concerned public.
• 2000:

  'Out of Thin Air' nominated for the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize. 

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Authored book

• Crawley, M. (2024). To the Limit: The Meaning of Endurance from Mexico to the Himalayas. Bloomsbury
• Crawley, M. (2020). Out of Thin Air: Running Wisdom and Magic From Above the Clouds in Ethiopia. Bloomsbury

Book review

• Crawley, M. (2023). Mains, Daniel. Under construction: technologies of development in urban Ethiopia. xii, 226 pp., illus., bibliogr. Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Press, 2019. £22.99 (paper). Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 29(3), 701-702. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.13970

Chapter in book

• Crawley, M. (in press). 'Enduring Influence': The Work of Social Media for Elite Endurance Athletes. In Contemporary Meanings of Endurance: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Routledge
• Crawley, M. (2021). "This is Business!" Ethiopian Runners in a Global Market Place. In Sport, Migration and Gender in the Neoliberal Age. Routledge

Journal Article

• Crawley, M., Dann, S., & Anusas, M. (online). "Our Electric Monitors" Theorising the Contemporary, Fieldsites. Cultural Anthropology,
• Crawley, M. (2024). ‘If there is trust there is no need for words’: embodying trust in a competitive environment. Africa, 94(3), 397-414. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0001972024000500
• Crawley, M. (2022). ‘We Are Burning Ourselves Up': Ethiopian Runners and Energetic Subjectivities. Ethnos, https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2022.2120516
• Crawley, M. (2022). Laboring bodies and the quantified self. New Genetics and Society, 41(1), 66-68. https://doi.org/10.1080/14636778.2022.2029694
• Crawley, M. (2021). Tracking selves or tracking relationships? Means of measuring time amongst Ethiopian runners. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 27(3), 653-671. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.13556