Dr Timothy Clack
Research Interests
Culture and conflict; Heritage and identity; East African pastoralists; Evolution of human behaviour; Cultural hybridity; Ritual and religion; Experiential approaches to landscapes; Media and performance; Archaeological and anthropological theory.
Geographic Areas
East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia); Central Asia (Afghanistan); Caucasus
Research Activities
Drawing on archaeological, historical and anthropological perspectives, my research explores the ways in which the past is choreographed in the present and, correspondingly, how the present is legitimised by the past. Recent projects have included: changing understandings of heritage amongst cattle-herding nomadic communities (Omo Valley, Ethiopia); missionary activity and mutable religious identities in colonial settings (Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania); and the past as a driver of contemporary conflict (Northern Kenya and South-Central Somalia). A range of funders have supported my research, including: Arts and Humanities Research Council; British Academy; British Institute in Eastern Africa, Nairobi; Christensen Fund, San Francisco; Fell Fund, Oxford; McDonald Institute, Cambridge; Royal Anthropological Institute; and various UK government departments.
- Co-Director of the Mursiland Heritage Project (with Marcus Brittain, University of Cambridge and Juan Salazar Bonet, Florida State University Valencia)
- Co-Director of the Roots of Divided Societies in the Horn of Africa Project (with Simon Mabon, Lancaster University)
- Co-Director of the Heritage, Information and Conflict Project (with Robert Johnson, University of Oxford)
- Co-Director of the Ethiopian Middle Stone Age Project (with Huw Groucutt, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology and Marcus Brittain, University of Cambridge)
- Co-Director of the Contextualising Cultural Property Protection Project (with Karl Harrison, Cranfield University and Suzanna Joy, ARUP)
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Before military intervention: Upstream stabilisation in theory and practice
Clack, T, Johnson, RSeptember 2018|c-book© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019. All rights reserved. This book explores the natures of recent stabilisation efforts and global upstream threats. As prevention is always cheaper than the crisis of state collapse or civil war, the future character of conflict will increasingly involve upstream stabilisation operations. However, the unpredictability and variability of state instability requires governments and militaries to adopt a diversity of approach, conceptualisation and vocabulary. Offering perspectives from theory and practice, the chapters in this collection provide crucial insight into military roles and capabilities, opportunities, risks and limitations, doctrine, strategy and tactics, and measures of effect relevant to operations in upstream environments. This volume will appeal to researchers and practitioners seeking to understand historical and current conflict. -
Introduction: Anticipating future stabilisation
Johnson, R, Clack, TSeptember 2018|Book -
Anticipating future stabilisation
Clack, T, Johnson, REdited by:Clack, T, Johnson, RJanuary 2018|Chapter|Before military intervention: Upstream stabilisation in theory and practiceThis book explores the natures of recent stabilisation efforts and global upstream threats. This book explores the natures of recent stabilisation efforts and global upstream threats. As prevention is always cheaper than the crisis of state collapse or civil war, the future character of conflict... -
Bodi sacrificial platforms
Clack, T, Buffayand, LEdited by:Clack, T, Brittain, MJanuary 2018|Chapter|The River: Peoples and Histories of the Omo-Turkana Area
Undergraduate course lecturer for:
- Honour Moderations paper 3: Perspectives on Human Evolution
Director of Studies for undergraduates at St Peter’s College.