Staff profile
| Affiliation | Telephone |
|---|---|
| Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology | |
| Fellow of the Institute for Medical Humanities | |
| Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing |
Biography
I joined Durham University's Anthropology Department as Assistant Professor in 2020 (PhD 2019) after positions at the University of Edinburgh's Social Anthropology department, and the Centre for Biomedcine, Self and Society. Through three interlocking research areas I seek to understand the stories we tell about selves, persons, bodies and environments, and the role biomedical knowledges play in models of functioning and flourishing across these scales.
The first focuses on autism, neurodivergence, embodiment, disability, empathy, and sensory experience. My forthcoming monograph on autistic ways of being and more than human sociality is under contract with Universtiy of Minnesota Press. The second strand is motivated by a fascination with the social lives of hormones and I currently co-lead The Hormones Hub - an interdisciplinary network of hormones researchers. My co-edited book on the topic entitled Hormonal Theory: A Rebellious Glossary is now available with Bloomsbury. Nonhuman animals are the third strand of my research, including more-than-human sociality and health, with a particular emphasis on multispecies communication and animal assisted therapies.
I have taught a range of courses across social and medical anthropology including the anthropology of reproduction, kinship and relatedness, and a research-led course on the anthropology of hormones.
I am open for new PhD students and keen to supervise candidates in the research areas below.
Research interests
- anthropology of autism and neurodivergence
- disability studies
- embodiment
- empathy
- gender and the body
- human-animal studies
- posthumanism
- social lives of hormones
- substance and relatedness
Publications
Chapter in book
- Erikainen, S., Ford, A., Malcolm, R., & Raeder, L. 'Telling Hormonal Stories'. In So Hormonal: Essays About Our Hormones. Monstrous Regiment
- Malcolm, R. (2024). Cortisol. In A. Ford, R. Malcolm, S. Erikainen, L. Raeder, & C. Roberts (Eds.), Hormonal Theory: A Rebellious Glossary (37-45). Bloomsbury
- Malcolm, R., Erikainen, S., Ford, A., Raeder, L., & Roberts, C. (2024). Hormonal Cascades: An Introduction. In A. Ford, R. Malcolm, S. Erikainen, L. Raeder, & C. Roberts (Eds.), Hormonal Theory: A Rebellious Glossary (1-13). Bloomsbury Academic
Edited book
Journal Article
- Erikainen, S., Ford, A., Malcolm, R., & Raeder, L. (2024). Hormonal stories: a new materialist exploration of hormonal emplotment in four case studies. BioSocieties, https://doi.org/10.1057/s41292-023-00317-8
- Malcolm, R. (2021). Milk’s Flows: Making and Transmitting Kinship, Health, and Personhood. Medical Humanities, 375-379. https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2019-011829
- Malcolm, R. (2021). “There’s No Constant”: Oxytocin, Cortisol, and Balanced Proportionality in Hormonal Models of Autism. Medical Anthropology, 40(4), 375-388. https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2021.1894558
- Malcolm, R., Ecks, S., & Pickersgill, M. (2018). ‘It just opens up their world’: autism, empathy, and the therapeutic effects of equine interactions. Anthropology and Medicine, 25(2), 220-234. https://doi.org/10.1080/13648470.2017.1291115
Other (Digital/Visual Media)