Professor Amanda Ravetz
Professor Emerita
Amanda Ravetz is a visual anthropologist with research interests and expertise in the interdisciplinary connections between anthropology and art/design; and art, arts infrastructure and social justice.
Recent research projects, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council: "Safedi - social artists for equality, diversity and inclusion' 2021 - 2022, and 'Odd: feeling different in the world of education' 2018-2021.
Amanda studied fine art at the Central School of Art and Design, London and later completed a masters in Social Anthropology and a doctorate in Social Anthropology with Visual Media at the University of Manchester. Her doctoral research explored the possibilities of image-based media for sensory and environmental anthropology through a study of vision, knowledge and place-making in an English town.
In 2004 after teaching at the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology Amanda joined Manchester School of Art on a three year full time AHRC Fellowship to pursue research into "Contemporary Convergence of Aesthetics and Ethnography”.
Post graduate research students:
Thomas Dukes 2020- Castlefield Gallery and the Curatorial Project: forming new perspectives, from the past, through ‘play’.
William Titley, 2015-2023 A critical enquiry into my personal experiences, methodologies and processes as a SEA artist
Anne-Marie Atkinson 2018-2023 Challenging Outsider Art: How are learning disabled artists informing contemporary art?
Aisling Marks 2019-2023 Reimagining relations of learning through an investigation into artist-led pedagogy in times of crisis.
L. Cassidy, 2005-2009, (practice-led) Salford 7: the representation and reconstruction of a lost working class community. (AHRC).
N. Kendrick, 2007-2009, (practice-led) Forming a sensorially engaged participatory arts practice. (AHRC)
H. Imai, 2005-2009, Tokyo’s contested alleyways: the role of the roji in understanding globalization, attachment and the social construction of place. (University studentship).
G. MacDonald, 2008-12 Moving bodies in the inhabitable map: the GPS trace in New Media Art
A. L. Cruz, 2010-2013, (practice-led) The photograph of a loved one: a practice-led investigation through writing. (Portugal, FCT)
Sian Bonnell, 2012-13 (practice-led, by publication) The Camera As Catalyst, The Photograph As Conduit: An Exploration Of The Performative Role Of Photography.
LOkesh Ghai, 2013-14 (practice-led Masters by Research) Don't cry over spilt milk: apprenticing with the last makers of the milkman's dress (University Studentship)
Sarbjit Kaur, 2011-14 (practice-led) A poetic and sculptural negotiation of growing up and becoming a Sikh British woman
Emily Strange, 2010-2013 (practice-led) Harnessing the Utopian Impulse in Drawing:
A practice Led Investigation (University Studentship)
Lucy Wright, 2009-13 (practice-led) Making Traditions: Practicing Folk. Contemporary folk performance and community in the North West of England – a practice-led enquiry (University studentship)
Annie Harrison, 2011-2014, (practice-led) Dissecting the site:an investigation of space, place and memories in Central Manchester Hospitals.
Réa de Matas, 2010-14, What can the Experiential Reveal about the Role of Difference in Carnival?
Ian Hartshorne 2010-16, (practice-led) How can painting convey an experience of living in a digital age? A practice-led Investigation.
Cristina Rodrigues 2011-14 (practice-led) My Country Through Your Eyes: collaborative art-ethnography as an approach to social inclusion in settings affected by human and environmental desertification.
Patrick Baxter 2013-16 (practice-led) Experiencing ‘Ghost Developments’ in Post-Crisis Ireland: An interdisciplinary and film-as-practice led investigation in land, private property and public space.
Rebecca Hartley, 2013-16, An enquiry into artist development (AD): Using Castlefield Gallery (CG) as a case study: can an understanding of AD inject a new perspective into the debate around the value of the arts? (university Studentship)
Jack Roberts, 2013-16, The Artist, the Art Object and the Market.
Caroline Dubois, 2015 - 2017, (Practice-led), "How is the question of authorship understood in collaborative and participatory art practice?"
Jenny Holt, 2010-16 (practice-led) How might a dialogue between landscape embodiment and the documentary paradigm extend the language of landscape art? A practice-led enquiry located in the Pennine Watershed
Clive Parkinson, 2017-2018 (by publication) Social Justice, Inequalities the Arts and Public Health: Weapons of Mass Happiness?
Ehi Oboh 2012- 2019, (practice-led) Materialising Cultures: narratives of West African wax cloth prints in the UK
Cj O'Neill 2010-2018,(practice-led) My, Your, Our Stories
A processual investigation of artistic interventions with
everyday ceramic objects.
Wanda Zyborska, 2012-18 (practice-led) Scarred Aged Skin and the Material Body.
Robert Dickinson, 2016-2019, Network Entelechy:How can networks help us to understand the relationship between critical writing and the art world?
Su Jones, 2015-2019, The artists and policy conundrum: the relationship of arts policies to artists’ creative practices and their livelihoods.
Frances Williams, 2016-2019, Devolution: Arts and Health as a Social Movement.
Marianna Tsionki, 2015-2021 Shifting Contemporaneities:
from multiculturalism to globalisation and the Anthropocene –
towards a critical curatorial and institutional praxis.
Dave Griffiths, 2016-2021 Microform as chronotope: narrating and transmitting events through archival gestures of photography and other data.
Projects
Analysing Artist’s Continual Professional Development (CPD) in Greater Manchester (MIRIAD funded)
The pilot study ‘Analysing Artist’s Continual Professional Development (CPD) in Greater Manchester: towards an integrated approach for talent development’ was undertaken collaboratively between MIRIAD (the Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation in Art and Design) at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) and Castlefield Gallery (CG). The primary research was gathered between June and October 2012. Details…
Co-producing legacy: What is the role of artists within Connected Communities projects? (AHRC-funded)
http://new.a-n. Details…
Connecting Anthropology and Art (AHRC funded)
In September 2006 Amanda Ravetz received a Research and Networks Award from the AHRC to run a three day intensive workshop for 14 artists, anthropologists and curators. The workshop took place in January 2007 and used a mixture of presentations, discussions and group work to explore the socially engaged practices used by participants. Details…
From Network to Meshwork: Validation for Social Practice Art and Artists
This report with . Details…
Knowing From Inside (EU finded)
Knowing from the Inside: Anthropology, Art, Architecture and Design (2013-2018) European Research Council €2.5m. Details…
Migratory Practices
The international conference Migratory Practices, part of the HAT project, was co-convened with Jane Webb and held at MMU on September 5th and 6th 2006. It explored the crossovers between anthropology, art and craft. Details…
My Recoverist Family
Directed, filmed and edited by AMANDA RAVETZ & HUW WAHL, My Recoverist Family is a film exploring the non-linearity of recovery from substance use within the LGBT+ community and beyond. Featuring David Hoyle, Jackie Haynes, Another Adele, Greg Thorpe, Justin Freeman and Mark Prest, with a performance directed by Nick Blackburn. Details…
The Business of Life – the Ruskin Studio 2012-14 (ACE funded)
Amanda acted as a "critical friend" to artists' Kate Genever and Steve Pool's on their ACE-funded Business of Life project "There is a great deal of distress just now - so many now being out of work - and it is impossible to pass through the streets without seeing it obvious in some form or other." (The words of the social visionary, Edward Carpenter, from a letter to Walt Whitman, 1877) Walking today through Sheffield’s Parson Cross estate, one of the largest social housing developments in Europe, it is once again impossible to avoid seeing ‘a great deal of distress’. Details…
Wonderland: the art of becoming human
Website: Wonderland: the art of becoming human http://www.art. Details…
Research
Exhibitions
Ravetz, A. and A. Riviere, 2013. Mr Dedman's Victory Suit: intimate stories of make do and mend, Manchester Metroplitan University Special Collections, April 15th - August 30th 2013.
O'Neill, C. J., Ravetz, Amanda, 2011. Asia Triennial Manchester, Manchester Craft and Design Centre, Manchester, UK, October 2011.
Ravetz, A., Watts, S, 2004. Clearings, Grinton Institute, Swaledale, June 2004.
Artefacts
Ravetz, A., 2017. 'Creations', 16 minute video about artist Barbara Symmons commissioned by RoaR, RoaR Archive, June 9th 2017 Barrignton Farm Art Barn.
Ravetz, A., Wahl, H., 2017. 'My Recoverist Family', Manchester.
Wahl, H., 2016. 'Action Space', UK.
Kettle, A., 2016. 'The Dog Loukanikos and the Cat’s Cradle’', Textile work, Collect with Contemporary Applied Arts, Saatchi Gallery London, VAS:t, Scottish Royal Society of Arts, invited artist, Here and Now, Circus performance Alice Kettle, Circus and CAA Gallery, London, 2015, 2015 and 2016.
Ravetz, A., 2013. 'All That Was Old Is New Again', artist video, National Film and Sound Archive, Australia 2012; Finnish Anthroplogy Conference 2013; Cine-Scapes, Riga, Latvia, 2013; MMU Special Collections, 2013;.
Ravetz, A., 2010. 'Beautiful Colour', artist video, Intuition, The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester University, UK. June 2010 – February 2011; Norwich Cultural Olympiad, BBC Big Screen, UK. 2010; Wymondham Film Festival, UK. 2010; L’outsider art arriba a Mallorca, interseccio art, Mallorca. 2010; Emot.
Ravetz, A., 2010. 'Entry', 22 minute film, AIAF, Ahmedabad; Visual anthropology panel at SIEF meeting, Lisbon April 2011., 2011.
Ravetz, A., 2007. 'Connecting Art and Anthropology', CD-ROM, http://www.miriad.mmu.ac.uk/caa/, 2007-.
Ravetz, A., 2001. 'The Bracewells', Ethnographic film, Goettingen International Film Festival; AAA Film Meeting, Washington, US, 2001/2002.
Books
Ravetz, A., 2013. 'Collaboration Through Craft', Bloomsbury Academic, London.
Webb, J. and Ravetz, A., 2009. 'Craft and Design Inquiry: Migratory Practices Vol. 1', Canberra: Craft Australia Research Center.
Ravetz, A. Grimshaw, A., 2009. 'Observational Cinema: Anthropology, Film and the Exploration of Social Life', Indiana: Indiana University Press.
Grimshaw, A., Ravetz, A., 2004. 'Visualizing anthropology', Intellect Books.
Ravetz, A. Mark Harris, Anna Grimshaw,, 2000. 'A child in the city: a case study in experimental anthropology', Prickly Pear Pamphlets.
Book Chapters
Ravetz, A., 2021. 'From documenting culture to experimenting with cultural phenomena: Using fine art pedagogies with visual anthropology students'. In Creativity and Cultural Improvisation, pp. 247-265, Berg Publishers.
Ravetz, A., Kettle, A., Felcey, H., 2020. 'In the Bee Hive: Valuing Craft in the Creative Industries'. In Blain, M., Minors, H.J. (eds.) Artistic Research in Performance through Collaboration, pp. 75-93, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Pahl, K., Escott, H., Graham, H., Marwood, K., Pool, S., Ravetz, A., 2017. 'What is the role of artists in interdisciplinary collaborative projects with universities and communities?'. In Valuing Interdisciplinary Collaborative Research: Beyond Impact, pp. 131-152.
Ravetz, A., 2016. ''Both created and discovered': The case for reverie and play in a redrawn anthropology'. In Redrawing Anthropology: Materials, Movements, Lines, pp. 157-176.
O'Neill, C.J., Ravetz, A., 2012. 'Expanded Craft, Dispersed Creativity: A South Asian Residency'. In Collaboration Through Craft, Berg.
Ravetz, A., 2011. ''Both created and discovered': The case for reverie and play in a redrawn anthropology'. In Redrawing Anthropology: Materials, Movements, Lines, pp. 157-176.
Ravetz, A. Grimshaw, A. Owen, E., 2010. 'Making Do: The Materials of Art and Anthropology'. In Arnd Schneider and Chris Wright (eds.) Between Art and Anthropology: Contemporary Ethnographic Practice, 13, 147-162, Berg: Oxford.
Grimshaw, A., Owen, E., Ravetz, A., 2009. 'Making do: The materials of art and anthropology'. In Between Art and Anthropology: Contemporary Ethnographic Practice, pp. 147-162.
Ravetz, A., 2008. 'Convivere: To Live Together'. In Roy Villevoye: Detours, 3, 39-50, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.
Ravetz, A., 2007. ''A weight of meaninglessness about which there is nothing insignificant': abjection and knowing in an art school and on a housing estate'. In Harris, M. (eds.) Ways of Knowing? New Anthropological Approaches to Method, Learning and Knowledge, Berghahn, Oxford.
Ravetz, A., 2007. 'From documenting culture to experimenting with cultural phenomena: using fine art pedagogies with visual anthropology students'. In Tim Ingold and Elizabeth Hallam (eds.) Creativity and Cultural Improvisation, 12, 247-265, Berg; ASA Monographs Series.
Ravetz, A., 2005. 'News from Home: Reflections on Fine Art and Anthropology'. In Ravetz, A., Grimshaw, A. (eds.) Visualising Anthropology, 69-80, Intellect Books, Bristol, UK and Oregon, USA.
Grimshaw, A., Ravetz, A., 2004. 'Introduction:Visualizing anthropology'. In Visualizing Anthropology, pp. 1-16.
Ravetz, A., 2004. 'News from home: Reflections on fine art and anthropology'. In Visualizing Anthropology, pp. 69-79.
Reports
de Mynn, R., 2016. 'Artist development at Castlefield Gallery: policy change through the counterpublic?', Castlefield Gallery Publications.
Ravetz, A., Wright, L., 2015. 'Validation beyond the gallery: how do artists working outside of the gallery system receive validation of their practice?', Axisweb.
Slater, A.J., Ravetz, A., Lee, K., 2013. 'Analysing Artists' Continual Professional Development (CPD) in Greater Manchester: towards an integrated approach for talent development', Castlefield Gallery.
Journal Articles
Ravetz, A., Snachez-Camus, R.M., 2023. 'Social artists and inclusive cultural policy', Journal of Cultural Management and Cultural Policy, 9 (1), pp. 173-188.
Grimshaw, A., Ravetz, A., 2021. 'Desenhar com uma câmera? Filme etnográfico e antropologia transformadora', GIS - Gesto, Imagem e Som - Revista de Antropologia, 6 (1).
Roy, A., Ravetz, A., Prest, M., 2020. 'Unsettling Narrative(s): Film Making as an Anthropological Lens on an Artist-Led Project Exploring LGBT Recovery from Substance Use', Anthropological Notebooks, 26 (1), pp. 33-54.
Ravetz, A., 2019. 'On Reverie, Collaboration, and Recovery', Collaborative Anthropologies, 10 (1), pp. 45-66.
Ravetz, A., Gregory, H., 2018. 'Black gold: trustworthiness in artistic research (seen from the sidelines of arts and health)', Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 3-4 (43), pp. 348-371.
Ravetz, J., Ravetz, A., 2017. 'Seeing the wood for the trees: Social Science 3.0 and the role of visual thinking', Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 30 (1), pp. 104-120.
Ravetz, A., Grimshaw, A., 2016. 'We'd like to agree', Social Anthropology, 24 (4), pp. 510-513.
Grimshaw, A., Ravetz, A., 2015. 'Drawing with a camera? Ethnographic film and transformative anthropology', Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 21.
Grimshaw, A., Ravetz, A., 2015. 'The ethnographic turn - and after: a critical approach towards the realignment of art and anthropology', Social Anthropology, 23 (4), pp. 418-434.
Ravetz, A., 2014. 'Entry: digital objects and the (dis)placement of knowledge', All Makers Now? Conference Journal Volume 1, 2014, 1, 129-132.
Ravetz, A., 2014. 'Flowerman', Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology, Vol 5, no 2., 29-35.
Douglas, A., Ravetz, A., Genever, K., Siebers, J., 2014. 'Why drawing, now?', Journal of Arts & Communities, 6.
Ravetz, A. Douglas, A. and K Coessens, 2012. 'Improvisational Attitudes: Reflections from Art and Life on Certainty, Failure, and Doubt', Critical Studies in Improvisation/Etudes critiques en Improvisation, 8, 2.
Ravetz, A., 2012. 'Sipping Water: Reverie and Improvisation', Critical Studies in Improvisation/Etudes critiques en Improvisation, 8, 2, 11.
Ravetz, A., 2010. 'Reflecting on water', Water and Environment Magazine, 15 (8), pp. 26-28.
Ravetz, A. and Jane Webb, 2009. 'Migratory practices: an impossible place? http://www.craftaustralia.org.au/cde/toc/2009VOL1.php'.
Grimshaw, A., Ravetz, A., 2009. 'Rethinking observational cinema', Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 15 (3), pp. 538-556.
Grimshaw, A., Ravetz, A., 2003. 'Introduction', Journal of Media Practice, 3 (2), pp. 63-64.
Grimshaw, A., Ravetz, A., 2002. 'Introduction', Journal of Media Practice, 3 (1), pp. 4-5.
Ravetz, A., 2002. 'News from Home: reflections on fine art and anthropology', Journal of Media Practice, 3 (1), pp. 16-25.
Presentations
Ravetz, A., 2017. 'Keynote: Art, Anthropology and the Margins', Ways of doing, Ways of being: artistic practices in and with anthropology, National Museum of Ethnology, Lisbon, 9-10 March 2017, in CRIA – Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia..
Ravetz, A., 2014. 'Artistic research in art and design - an overview', Annual Meeting of the UK Conservatoires Directors of Research, RNCM, May 22nd 2014.
Ravetz, A. Kettle, A., Felcey, H., 2014. 'Collaboration Through Craft', Studying Craft: Trends, Technology and Education, MMU, 18th March 2014.
Ravetz, A., 2014. 'Daydreams, stories and material thinking', Anthropology and Enlightenment, National Museums Scotland and STAR, the Consortium of Anthropology Departments of the Universities of Edinburgh, Aberdeen and St. Andrews, 19th-22nd June 2014.
Ravetz, A. Douglas, A., 2014. 'Does the world draw? A workshop', 13th EASA Biennial Conference Collaboration, Intimacy & Revolution - innovation and continuity in an interconnected world, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Estonian Institute of Humanities, Tallinn University, Estonia, 31st July - 1st August.
Ravetz, A., 2014. 'Entry: digital objects and the (dis)placement of knowledge', All Makers Now? Craft Values in 21st Centruy Production, Autonomatic Research Group, Falmouth University, July 10th - 11th, 2014.
Ravetz, A., 2014. 'Improvisation and Imagination', Fontiers of creativity: the European perspective, Universita Cattolica del Sacros Cuore, 14-15th January 2014.
Ravetz, A., 2014. 'Your thought will find the contours', Sewing lines, growing surfaces, breathing atmospheres: towards an ontogeny of things, International Research Center for Cultural Techniques and Media Philosophy (IKKM), Weimar, July 2-3rd 2014.
Ravetz, A., 2013. 'Amanda Ravetz and Mark Boulos in conversation', Factish Field: An Art and Anthropology Summer School presented by Collective and LUX, Collective Gallery, June 10 - 14th 2013.
Ravetz, A., 2013. 'Exploring Reverie', 3th RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film: New Observations, National Museums Scotland and STAR, the Consortium of Anthropology Departments of the Universities of Edinburgh, Aberdeen and St. Andrews, 13-16th June 2013.
Ravetz, A., 2013. 'Filming Social Life with Reverie', Public Domestic Symposium, RADAR - Loughborough University Arts, April 23rd 2013.
Ravetz, A., 2013. 'Mr Dedman’s Victory Suit –a study in improvisation in an archival context', Visible Evidence xix, National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra, Australia, 19-21 December 2013.
Ravetz, A., 2013. 'Panel Talk: Creative Practice as Ritual Process', Generation, GV Art Gallery, London, September 26th 2013.
Ravetz, A., 2012. 'Sipping Water; reverie and improvisation', ASA 2012 Arts and aesthetics in a globalising world, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, 3rd - 6th April 2012.
Ravetz, A., 2009. 'Observation, attention and description in drawing and filming', Redrawing Anthropology, University of Aberdeen, 22nd - 24th June.
Ravetz, A., 2009. 'Observational Cinema', Guest@Gray's, Robert Gordon University, Gray's School of Art, April 2009.
Ravetz, A., 2009. 'Public Talk to accompany "Practical Truths"', Castlefield Gallery, September 17th 2009.
Ravetz, A., 2008. 'Aesthetics of Encounter', International Student Ethnographic Film Festival, Goldsmith's College, 11th-12th November 2008.
Ravetz, A., 2008. 'The Documentary Imperative', Alchemy Project, Manchester Museum, March 3rd 2008.
Ravetz, A., 2007. 'Active Conversations: staging an art/anthropology dialogue', Beyond Text? Royal Anthropological Institute International Festival of Film, University of Manchester,, June-July 2007..
Ravetz, A., 2007. 'Tip of the tongue debate "Feeling Nostalgic"', The Photographers Gallery, June 13th 2007.
Ravetz, A., 2007. 'Why are we here? Migrations between anthropology, craft and art', Art/Ethnography: Practices of Difference and Translation, Kulturhistorisk Museum, Oslo, 31 October - 1 November 2007.
Ravetz, A., 2007. 'Working the gap: ethnography in search of a form', Rhodes Island School of Design, USA.
Ravetz, A., 2006. 'Art and Anthropology', The MIRIAD Project, MMU, 31st October 2006.
Ravetz, A., 2005. 'Aesthetic ethnography: a danger to anthropological knowledge?', 'Ways of Knowing: celebrating 25 years of anthropology at St Andrews', St Andrew's University, 2005.
Ravetz, A., 2005. 'Approaches to visual ethnography', Image, Power and Activity: new research approaches between theory and practice, ZKM/College for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, November 25/26th 2005.
Ravetz, A., 2004. 'How and why artists and social documenters say "sorry"', The Leventritt Symposium 2004, Harvard University, December 2004.
Ravetz, A., 2003. 'Box Construction: professional habitat 2003', Postgraduate and Staff Seminar Series, University of East London, April 2003.
Ravetz, A., 2003. 'Escaping with a box of gold: leaving academic anthropology', Teaching Rites of Passage, St Andrew's university, January 2003.
Ravetz, A., Grimshaw, A., Watts, S., 2003. 'Visualising Anthropology', Fieldworks: Dialogues between Art and Anthropology, Tate Modern, September 2003, in www.tate.org.uk/onlineevents/archive/fieldworks.
Ravetz, A., 2002. 'News from home', Postgraduate and Staff Seminar Series, University of Manchester, Dept of Anthropology, April 2002.
Ravetz, A., 2002. 'The ambiguous document', Art, Document, Society, University of Manchester, Centre for Labour Studies.
Other Outputs
Ravetz, A., 2016. 'Wonderland: the art of becoming human'.
Ravetz, A. Douglas, A, Genever, K. Baraclough, J. and Carney, M., 2015. 'Drawing Paper 8', Drawing Paper is distributed free to galleries around the UK. THis edition is about drawing as connecting..
Ravetz, A. and Wright, L., 2015. 'Validation beyond the gallery: How do artists working outside of the gallery system receive validation of their practice? A qualitative study', A research report conducted for Axisweb.
Slater, A., Ravetz, A. Lee, K, 2013. 'Analysing Artists’ Continual Professional Development (CPD) in Greater Manchester: towards an integrated approach for talent development', Report on pilot study conducted by MIRIAD and Castlefield Gallery.
O'Neill, C. J., 2011. 'Collaborations, Creativity and Value', Collaborative paper with Amanda Ravetz.
Ravetz, A., 2009. 'Writing Practice', 2 day intensive writing workshop for arts practitioners.
Ravetz, A., 2007. 'Connecting Art and Anthropology', Three day intensive workshop funded by the AHRC.
Ravetz, A., 2007. 'The In-betweeness of Things', catalogue essay on the work of artist Hilary Jack.
Ravetz, A., 2007. 'Visual Ways of Knowing', Masterclass: visual approaches for qualitative research.