1.
1
Mr.
Jamie
Wallis
Barnes
28
Tisbury
Road,
Hove,
East
Sussex,
BN3
3BA;
Email:
jb368@sussex.ac.uk;
mobile
07763
961
254
Higher
Education
• DPhil
candidate
in
Social
Anthropology
(Economic
and
Social
Research
Council
funded).
University
of
Sussex,
submitted
March
2015;
Supervisors:
Professor
Jane
Cowan,
Dr.
Jon
Mitchell.
• MSc
(with
Distinction)
in
Comparative
&
Cross-­‐Cultural
Research
Methods
(Anthropology).
University
of
Sussex,
2010;
Supervisors:
Professor
Jane
Cowan,
Professor
Simon
Coleman.
• BA
in
Social
Anthropology
(Upper
Second
Class
Honours).
University
of
Cambridge,
1995;
Supervisors:
Dr.
Anita
Herle,
Dr.
Barbara
Bodenhorn.
Publications
Barnes,
Jamie
(2015)
“‘Hitting
a
Waypoint’:
a
Story
of
Faith
Transition”
in
Panagakos,
Anastasia
(Ed.)
Religious
Diversity
Today:
Experiencing
Religion
in
the
Contemporary
World.
Volume
2:
Ritual
and
Pilgrimage.
Santa
Barbara,
CA:
Praeger
Publisher.
Presentations
• April
2015
–
“‘As
a
Dove
out
of
Heaven’:
Negotiating
Anthropological
and
Christian
Metaphorical
Landscapes”
at
ASA
Annual
Conference:
Symbiotic
anthropologies:
theoretical
commensalities
and
methodological
mutualisms,
University
of
Exeter,
UK.
• March
2015
–
“Personal
Loss
and
the
‘Contamination
of
Death’”
at
Thirteenth
Engaging
Particularities
Conference:
New
Directions
in
Comparative
Theology,
Interreligious
Dialogue,
Theology
of
Religions,
and
Missiology,
Boston
College,
MA,
USA.
• June
2014
–
“‘When
the
Spirit
Speaks’:
Anthropology
from
within
Alternative
Knowledge
Systems”
at
ASA
Decennial
Conference:
Anthropology
and
Enlightenment,
University
of
Edinburgh,
UK
(Selected
for
The
best
of
‘Ideas
in
Movement’:
papers
from
the
RAI
Postgraduate
Conference
panel).
• May
2014
–
“‘Men
as
Trees
Walking’:
Jesus,
the
‘Second
Touch’,
and
Seeing
People
Clearly”
at
EASR
Annual
Conference:
Religion
and
Pluralities
of
Knowledge,
University
of
Groningen,
Netherlands.
• March
2014
–
“Meeting
around
the
Table:
‘Openness’,
Community
and
the
Self
in
a
Christian
Spiritual
Community
in
the
Southern
Balkans”
at
Departmental
Seminar,
Department
of
Religions
and
Theology,
University
of
Manchester,
UK.
• March
2014
–
“‘Ways
of
Being’:
an
Ethnographic
Exploration
of
the
Similarities
and
Differences
between
Christian
Contemplative
Prayer
and
Mindfulness
Practice”
at
Nineteenth
Joint
Postgraduate
Conference
on
Religion
and
Theology:
Spiritual
Exercises,
University
of
Bristol,
UK.

2.
2
• October
2013
–
“‘When
the
Spirit
Speaks’:
Anthropology
from
within
Alternative
Knowledge
Systems”
at
RAI
Postgraduate
Conference:
Ideas
in
movement.
Addressing
tensions
in
anthropology,
University
of
Aberdeen,
UK.
• February
2013
–
“Realizing
Selves:
Exploring
Personal
and
Social
Transformation
within
a
Christian
Ontology”
at
Global
Studies
DPhil
Lecture
Series,
University
of
Sussex,
UK.
Teaching
Teaching
in
Higher
Education
(Associate
Tutor):
• ‘Visual
Anthropology’,
University
of
Sussex,
2015
(included
teaching
qualitative
methods)
• ‘Gender
and
the
Life
Course’,
University
of
Sussex,
2015.
• ‘Sociology
of
21st
Century
Britain’,
University
of
Sussex,
2014.
• ‘Reproduction,
Self
and
Society’,
University
of
Sussex,
2012.
Other
Teaching
and
Work
Experience:
• Teacher
of
English
as
a
Foreign
Language,
Greece,
2007
–
2009
(students
aged
8
–
25
years).
• Private
Home-­‐school
Teacher,
Greece,
1999
–
2006
(students
aged
7
–
18
years).
• Mentor,
Teacher
&
Facilitator,
Southern
Balkans,
1998
–
2009
(working
with
emergent
Christian
communities,
facilitating
group
discussions,
exploring
the
dynamics
of
‘dialogic
space’,
developing
cross-­‐cultural
understanding).
• Detached
Youth
Worker,
Youth
&
Community
Service,
Cheltenham,
1995
–
1998
(dealing
with
relevant
youth
issues,
providing
advice,
organising
outdoor
pursuits,
residential
trips
etc.).
• Care
Assistant,
MenCap,
Tewkesbury,
1995-­‐1998
(Caring
for
people
with
severe
mental
and
physical
disabilities
within
a
residential
home).
Research
Interests
My
primary
research
interest
centres
on
ontology
and
embodied,
subjective
perceptions
of
reality.
I
am
interested
not
only
in
the
ways
in
which
such
perceptions
are
constituted
(for
example
through
the
complex
interplay
of
experience,
metaphors
and
stories)
but
also
the
ways
in
which
such
perceptions
shift
over
time
(for
example
through
spiritual
encounters,
religious
conversions
etc.).
My
Doctoral
Research,
carried
out
amongst
the
network
of
Christian
communities
of
which
I
have
been
a
part
since
1998,
focuses
upon
these
shifts.
As
a
member
of
a
faith
community
I
am
interested
in
stretching
and
developing
what
it
means
to
practise
anthropology
from
within
an
alternative
knowledge
system,
taking
seriously
Charles
Stewart's
(2001:328)
challenge
that
those
with
strong
“religious
convictions”
need
not
feel
that
they
must
lose
(or
hide)
those
convictions
in
order
to
be
good
anthropologists.
Further
to
this,
I
am
interested
in
what
an
anthropology
for
an
alternative
knowledge
system
might
look
like,
and
of
how
the
anthropological
method
might
be
better
employed
to
serve
alternative
knowledge
communities
in
the
making
of
better
worlds.
Languages
• Greek:
I
have
reasonable
fluency
in
spoken
Greek,
and
an
average
ability
in
reading
and
writing.

3.
3
• French:
I
have
A-­‐level
French
(A-­‐grade),
and
a
latent
ability
in
the
language.
Referees
Prof.
Jane
Cowan
–
Professor
in
Social
Anthropology,
University
of
Sussex.
J.Cowan@sussex.ac.uk
Dr.
Jon
Mitchell
–
Reader
in
Social
Anthropology,
University
of
Sussex.
J.P.Mitchell@sussex.ac.uk
Details
of
Doctoral
Research
“Stories,
Senses
and
the
Charismatic
Relation:
a
Reflexive
Exploration
of
Christian
Experience”
My
Doctoral
Thesis
considers
the
world
of
Christian
faith,
as
expressed
by
a
particular
social
group
of
which
I
have
been
a
part
since
1998,
as
an
“alternative
knowledge
system”
(Jordan
1997).
Focusing
upon
the
lives
of
a
number
of
key
agents,
including
myself,
I
argue
that
at
the
heart
of
this
knowledge
system
is
a
charismatic
relationship,
in
the
Weberian
sense
(Weber
1968,
1978),
with
a
divine
Other.
Employing
a
phenomenological
approach
sensitive
to
embodied
experience,
I
examine
how
such
a
field
of
charismatic
relations
is
constituted,
observing
how
charismatic
devotion
to
a
divine
Other
implies
both
a
sensorium
that
extends
beyond
the
corporeal
senses
(Classen
1993,
Howes
2009,
Gavrilyuk
&
Coakley
2012),
as
well
as
the
‘planting’
of
various
conceptual
seeds
that,
through
providing
concrete
metaphors
of
what
life
is
(Fernandez
1972,
1974),
shape
the
lives
of
those
willing
to
‘receive’
them.
My
original
contribution
to
knowledge
is
in
taking
a
sociological
concept,
Weber’s
notion
of
the
charismatic
relation,
and
innovatively
applying
this
framework
to
the
relation
between
humans
and
a
transcendent
or
disembodied
‘Other’.
This
employment
of
Weber’s
concept
moves
it
beyond
its
previous
use
in
understanding
the
relationship
between
humans
and
other
physically
embodied
political
and
religious
leaders
(e.g.
Lindholm
1990,
2002;
Csordas
1997;
Siegler
2002;
Kamau
2002;
Seale-­‐Collazo
2012;
Faubion
2013).
This
research
employs
an
‘ontological’
approach
which
aims,
rather
than
reducing
extraordinary
or
supernatural
experiences
to
explainable
phenomena
within
a
secularist
paradigm,
to
grapple
with
the
challenges
of
communicating
“radical
alterity”
(Fowles
2011)
within
the
anthropological
domain.
It
therefore
answers
to
the
recent
challenges
of
the
‘ontological
turn’
to
assemble
“satisfactory
description[s]”
(Henare,
Holbraad
and
Wastell
2007:6)
of
‘other’
worlds
which
are
non-­‐reductionist
in
nature.
However,
considering
that
the
proponents
of
this
movement
have
themselves
been
critiqued
for
moving
away
from
anthropology
towards
philosophy
and
abstract
thinking
and
writing
(Killick
2014),
the
author
has
sought
to
ethnographically
ground
his
work
through
the
extensive
use
of
in-­‐
depth
life-­‐story
interviews
and
descriptively
rich
thick
descriptions,
thereby
producing
an
account
which
is
deeply
ethnographic
(Killick
2014),
highly
reflexive
(Vigh
&
Sausdal
2014)
and
focused
upon
embodied
experience
(Mitchell
2015).
This
work
responds
to
the
call
for
those
with
“strong
religious
convictions”
(Stewart
2001:328)
to
practise
anthropology
without
feeling
a
need
to
lose
(or
hide)
those
convictions,
to
ongoing
debates
concerning
whether
secularism
(Stewart
2001;
Pina-­‐Cabral
2001;
Yalçin-­‐Heckmann
2001;
Gellner
2001;
Kapferer
2001)
and/or
methodological
atheism
(Ewing
1994;
Engelke
2002;
Howell
2007;
Bialecki

4.
4
2014)
have
constituted
a
hindrance
to
anthropological
research,
as
well
as
contributing
to
recent
debates
within
the
anthropology
of
Christianity
concerning
how
to
deal
with
the
agential
characteristics
of
non-­‐human/spiritual
beings
within
ethnographic
work
(Luhrmann
2012;
Cannell
2014;
Stromberg
2014;
Bialecki
2014).
Whilst
engaging
current
discourses
within
anthropology,
this
thesis
also
aims
to
be
comprehensible
and
beneficial
to
the
people
about
whom
it
is
written.
The
author
seeks
to
creatively
hold
the
tension
of
inhabiting
and
writing
from
the
‘borderlands’
(Enslin
1994:548;
Kincheloe
2001:690)
between
anthropological
and
Christian
domains,
and
in
the
process,
developing
an
anthropology
not
only
from
within
an
alternative
knowledge
system,
but
also
for
an
alternative
knowledge
system.
References
Cited
Bialecki, Jon (2014) “Does God Exist in Methodological Atheism? On Tanya Lurhmann’s ‘When God
Talks Back’ and Bruno Latour” in Anthropology of Consciousness 25(1): 32–52.
Cannell, Fenella (2014) “Imaginary Friends” in Anthropology of this Century 11. Available
at: http://aotcpress.com/articles/imaginary-friends/ (Accessed: November 2014).
Classen, Constance (1993) Worlds of Sense: Exploring the Senses in History and across Cultures.
London: Routledge.
Csordas, Thomas (1997) Language, Charisma, and Creativity: The Ritual Life of a Religious
Movement. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Engelke, Matthew (2002) “The Problem of Belief: Evans-Pritchard and Victor Turner on the ‘Inner
Life’” in Anthropology Today 18(6): 3–8.
Enslin, Elizabeth (1994) “Beyond writing: Feminist practice and the limitations of ethnography” in
Cultural Anthropology 9(4): 537-568.
Ewing, Katherine (1994) “Dreams from a Saint: Anthropological Atheism and the Temptation to
Believe” in American Anthropologist 96(3): 571-583.
Faubion, James (2013) “The subject that is not one: On the ethics of mysticism” in Anthropological
Theory 13(4): 287-307.
Fernandez, James (1972) “Persuasions and Performances: Of the Beast in Every Body... and the
Metaphors of Everyman” in Daedalus 101(1): 39-60.
Fernandez, James, et al. (1974) “The Mission of Metaphor in Expressive Culture [and Comments and
Reply]” in Current Anthropology 15(2): 119-145.
Fowles, Severin et al. (2011) “Worlds Otherwise” in Current Anthropology 52(6): 896-912.
Gavrilyuk, Paul, & Sarah Coakley (2012) “Introduction” in Gavrilyuk, Paul, & Sarah Coakley (Eds.)
The Spiritual Senses: Perceiving God in Western Christianity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gellner, David (2001) “Studying secularism, practising secularism. Anthropological imperatives” in
Social Anthropology 9(3): 337-340.
Henare, Amiria, Martin Holbraad, & Sari Wastell (Eds.) (2007) Thinking through Things: Theorising
Artefacts Ethnographically. London: Routledge.
Howell, Brian (2007) “The repugnant cultural other speaks back: Christian identity as ethnographic
‘standpoint’” in Anthropological Theory 7(4): 371-391.
Howes, David (2009) “Introduction: The Revolving Sensorium” in Howes, David (Ed.) The Sixth Sense
Reader. Oxford, UK: Berg Publishers.

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5
Jordan, Brigitte (1997) “Authoritative Knowledge and its Construction” in Davis-Floyd, Robbie, &
Carolyn Sargent (Eds.) Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge: Cross-cultural Perspectives. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Kamau, Lucy (2002) “Liminality, Communitas, Charisma, and Community” in Brown, Susan (Ed.)
Intentional Community: An Anthropological Perspective. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Kapferer, Bruce (2001) “Anthropology. The paradox of the secular” in Social Anthropology 9(3): 341-
344.
Killick, Evan (2014) “‘Whose Truth is it Anyway?’ a review of Holbraad, Martin Truth in Motion: The
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in Qualitative Inquiry 7(6): 679-692.
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Lindholm, Charles (2002) “Culture, Charisma, and Consciousness: The Case of the Rajneeshee”
in Ethos 30(4): 357-375.
Luhrmann, Tanya (2012) When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship
with God. New York: Vintage.
Mitchell, Jon (2015) “Ontology, Mimesis and Divine Intervention: Understanding Catholic Visionaries”
in Bull, Michael, & Jon Mitchell (Eds.) Ritual, Performance and the Senses. London: Bloomsbury
Publishing.
Pina-Cabral, Joao de (2001) “Three points on secularism and anthropology” in Social Anthropology
9(3): 329-333.
Seale-Collazo, James (2012) “Charisma, Liminality, and Freedom: Toward a Theory of the Everyday
Extraordinary” in Anthropology of Consciousness 23(2): 175–191.
Siegler, Gretchen (2002) “In Search of Truth: Maintaining Communitas in a Religious Community” in
Brown, Susan (Ed.) Intentional Community: An Anthropological Perspective. Albany: State University
of New York Press.
Stewart, Charles (2001) “Secularism as an impediment to anthropological research” in Social
Anthropology 9(3): 325-328.
Stromberg, Peter (2014) “Christian Charismatics, Anthropologists, and Truth: A Review Essay on
Tanya Luhrmann’s When God Talks Back” in Pastoral Psychology 63(2): 215-222.
Vigh, Henrik, & David Sausdal (2014) “From essence back to existence: Anthropology beyond the
ontological turn” in Anthropological Theory 14(1): 49-73.
Weber, Max (1968) “The Nature of Charismatic Authority and Its Routinization” in Weber, Max, &
Shmuel Eisenstadt Max Weber on Charisma and Institution Building: Selected Papers and with an
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Wittich (Eds.) Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, Volume 2. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
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334-336.