Prof. Trevor Marchand - The Pursuit of Pleasurable Work, an Anthropology of Craft and Craftspeople

Professor Trevor Marchand's Inaugural Lecture at SOAS, University of London.

Handiwork lends craftspeople a creative sense of agency to make, repair and transform the world in immediate, practical, hands-on ways. This lecture will discuss research on craft and apprenticeship among masons and carpenters in Yemen, Mali and the UK, and introduce emerging interdisciplinary interests in the complex relations between brain, hand and tool. Professor Marchand's studies expand popular notions of "intelligence" and champion the importance of vocational training and the spiritual pleasure to be found in skilled work.

Professor Trevor Marchand studied and practiced architecture (BSc McGill), and received a PhD in anthropology from SOAS, University of London. He has conducted fieldwork with masons in South Arabia and West Africa, and most recently with woodworkers and furniture makers in the UK. He is the author of Minaret Building & Apprenticeship in Yemen, The Masons of Djenné and The Pursuit of Pleasurable Work (forthcoming), and co-producer of the documentary film Future of Mud. He curated an exhibition on Djenné's architecture for the RIBA in London and is presently curating a show at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History.