N Simpson
Biographic Data
| ID | 55681 |
|---|---|
| NAME | N Simpson |
| GIVEN NAMES | N |
| FAMILY NAME | Simpson |
| SIGNATURE | SIMPSON N |
| AFFILIATIONS | London School of Economics and Political Science |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5260-3266 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 16 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
To Be "a Homeless"
The city of Birmingham acts as a microcosm for the United Kingdom’s urban housing crisis, where hostile migration policies intersect with austerity-driven divestment in public housing stock to produce insecure provisioning for Birmingham's migrant and refugee communities. Birmingham’s Somali mothers are one collective who bear the brunt of this crisis in experiences of successive evictions and cycles through various forms of temporary accommodati…
Hostile environments
The UK Government Home Office's 'hostile environment' policy is aimed at making it difficult for migrants to stay in Britain. This approach has combined securitised practices of bordering and policing, with policies which have hollowed out state provisioning at community level. The purpose of this research was to understand how the hostile environment is experienced in the lives and bodies of Somali families who inhabit temporary or precarious ac…
Fighting him
This study explores the psychological impacts of the UK housing crisis among a collective of Somali women in Birmingham. We build a framework from anthropological theories of social distress, applied through a participatory methodology consisting of housing biographies and therapeutic workshops. Research was conducted between June 2022-December 2023. Our findings reveal the cumulative forms of distress generated through poor housing, eviction and…
Introducing How We Make It
How We Make It: Disability Justice, Autoimmunity, Community is a born-digital multimedia piece that lives on the Scalar platform and that was submitted and eventually accepted into the Special Section on Autoimmunities in the Wake of COVID-19. The text below is a close reproduction of the Navigation page within the Scalar piece. While reading this text, one cracks open the door to glimpse the ten-person collective behind this project. However, we…
Securitized trust
Aesthetic politics in contemporary India
Michiel Baas. Muscular India: Masculinity, mobility & the new middle class. New Delhi: Context, 2020. Alice Tilche. Adivasi art and activism: Curation in a nationalist age. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2022. Sanderien Verstappen. New lives in Anand: Building a Muslim hub in Western India. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2022
Encountering the Dain
Outwardly, most Gaddi people refute the relevance and danger of witchcraft in present times. At another level, however, rumors of jadu (witchcraft, or spells and curses performed by a witch) and opara (black magic, or curses that may be performed by anyone) circulate in particular places, caste neighborhoods, and households. This article argues that the study of the discourses of witchcraft-anxieties, rumors, suspected afflictions-provides a wind…
Ghar ki tension
Tensionis a polysemic term used across South Asia to describe the strains and scrapes of life, like 'worry' or 'stress' in Euro-American discourse. Yet in the formerly agro-pastoralist and upwardly mobile Gaddi community of Himalayan India, it is used by women with the qualifyingghar ki - 'household' - to indicate a deeper disruption to bodily humours, intimate relations, and household materiality. This article takesghar ki tension, with a partic…
Supporting community-based mental health initiatives
Community-based mental health initiatives are uniquely positioned to understand the mental health needs of their local population and provide relevant, culturally appropriate and sustainable responses. However, at the grassroots level, mental health initiatives in low- and middle-income countries face key challenges, such as inadequate funding, barriers to demonstrating impact and difficulty engaging with stakeholders. The Ember Mental Health pro…
The most difficult time of my life’ or ‘Covid’s gift to me’? Differential experiences of Covid-19 funerary restrictions in Aotearoa New Zealand
In 2020, the government of Aotearoa New Zealand imposed some of the most stringent funerary restrictions in the world as part of its efforts to eliminate COVID-19. This article explores how people experienced this situation, asking why restrictions that some described as precipitating ‘the most difficult time of their lives’ were described by others as a ‘relief’, ‘blessing’, or ‘gift’. Much existing literature frames funerary restrictions as a d…
Community healthcare workers' experiences during and after Covid‐19 lockdown
Shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic reached Aotearoa New Zealand, stringent lockdown measures lasting 7 weeks were introduced to manage community spread of the virus. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study examining how lockdown measures impacted upon the lives of nurses, midwives and personal care assistants caring for community-based patients during this time. The study involved nationwide surveys and in-depth interviews with 15…
Kamzori
As the Gaddi community of Himalayan India transition from agro-pastoralism to waged labor, configurations of kinship and care have shifted. Such shifts have introduced relational tensions, especially between elderly women, who have labored in the house and fields, expecting care in old age, and younger generations, who experience their own pressures of class aspiration. This article examines how the myriad tensions of the post-pastoral economy ar…
The Research Imagination During Covid-19
This article explores some of the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has served as a collective critical event for anthropologists and other social scientists, examining how it has promoted new configurations of the research imagination. We draw on our own experiences of participating in a team of 17 researchers, hailing from anthropology and anthropology-adjacent disciplines, to research social life in Aotearoa/New Zealand during the pandemic, …
‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic
Dealing with excess death in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the question of a ‘good or bad death’ into sharp relief as countries across the globe have grappled with multiple peaks of cases and mortality; and communities mourn those lost. In the UK, these challenges have included the fact that mortality has adversely affected minority communities. Corpse disposal and social distancing guidelines do not allow a process of mourning …
‘Safer communities … together’? Plural policing and Covid-19 public health interventions in Aotearoa New Zealand
International media have praised Aotearoa New Zealand for its response to the coronavirus pandemic. While New Zealand Police played a fundamental role in enforcing pandemic control measures, the policing landscape remained plural. This article employs Loader [2000. Plural policing and democratic governance. Social and legal studies, 9 (3), 323–345] model of plural policing to understand responses to public health emergencies. It identifies two fo…
(Alter)narratives of ‘winning’
COVID-19 stories, especially from Aotearoa New Zealand as one of the leading nations ‘winning’ over the virus will be important historical documentation. The ‘team of 5 million’ is writing its narratives of life with/out COVID-19 – stories of ‘living in bubbles’, of ‘being kind’ and ‘being in it together.’ These are narratives of success which need to be examined alongside the narratives that have been absent from public national discourse but co…
Ghar ki tension
Tensionis a polysemic term used across South Asia to describe the strains and scrapes of life, like 'worry' or 'stress' in Euro-American discourse. Yet in the formerly agro-pastoralist and upwardly mobile Gaddi community of Himalayan India, it is used by women with the qualifyingghar ki - 'household' - to indicate a deeper disruption to bodily humours, intimate relations, and household materiality. This article takesghar ki tension, with a partic…
Kamzori
As the Gaddi community of Himalayan India transition from agro-pastoralism to waged labor, configurations of kinship and care have shifted. Such shifts have introduced relational tensions, especially between elderly women, who have labored in the house and fields, expecting care in old age, and younger generations, who experience their own pressures of class aspiration. This article examines how the myriad tensions of the post-pastoral economy ar…
The Research Imagination During Covid-19
This article explores some of the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has served as a collective critical event for anthropologists and other social scientists, examining how it has promoted new configurations of the research imagination. We draw on our own experiences of participating in a team of 17 researchers, hailing from anthropology and anthropology-adjacent disciplines, to research social life in Aotearoa/New Zealand during the pandemic, …
(Alter)narratives of ‘winning’
COVID-19 stories, especially from Aotearoa New Zealand as one of the leading nations ‘winning’ over the virus will be important historical documentation. The ‘team of 5 million’ is writing its narratives of life with/out COVID-19 – stories of ‘living in bubbles’, of ‘being kind’ and ‘being in it together.’ These are narratives of success which need to be examined alongside the narratives that have been absent from public national discourse but co…
‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic
Dealing with excess death in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the question of a ‘good or bad death’ into sharp relief as countries across the globe have grappled with multiple peaks of cases and mortality; and communities mourn those lost. In the UK, these challenges have included the fact that mortality has adversely affected minority communities. Corpse disposal and social distancing guidelines do not allow a process of mourning …
‘Safer communities … together’? Plural policing and Covid-19 public health interventions in Aotearoa New Zealand
International media have praised Aotearoa New Zealand for its response to the coronavirus pandemic. While New Zealand Police played a fundamental role in enforcing pandemic control measures, the policing landscape remained plural. This article employs Loader [2000. Plural policing and democratic governance. Social and legal studies, 9 (3), 323–345] model of plural policing to understand responses to public health emergencies. It identifies two fo…
(Alter)narratives of ‘winning’
COVID-19 stories, especially from Aotearoa New Zealand as one of the leading nations ‘winning’ over the virus will be important historical documentation. The ‘team of 5 million’ is writing its narratives of life with/out COVID-19 – stories of ‘living in bubbles’, of ‘being kind’ and ‘being in it together.’ These are narratives of success which need to be examined alongside the narratives that have been absent from public national discourse but co…
Supporting community-based mental health initiatives
Community-based mental health initiatives are uniquely positioned to understand the mental health needs of their local population and provide relevant, culturally appropriate and sustainable responses. However, at the grassroots level, mental health initiatives in low- and middle-income countries face key challenges, such as inadequate funding, barriers to demonstrating impact and difficulty engaging with stakeholders. The Ember Mental Health pro…
The most difficult time of my life’ or ‘Covid’s gift to me’? Differential experiences of Covid-19 funerary restrictions in Aotearoa New Zealand
In 2020, the government of Aotearoa New Zealand imposed some of the most stringent funerary restrictions in the world as part of its efforts to eliminate COVID-19. This article explores how people experienced this situation, asking why restrictions that some described as precipitating ‘the most difficult time of their lives’ were described by others as a ‘relief’, ‘blessing’, or ‘gift’. Much existing literature frames funerary restrictions as a d…
Community healthcare workers' experiences during and after Covid‐19 lockdown
Shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic reached Aotearoa New Zealand, stringent lockdown measures lasting 7 weeks were introduced to manage community spread of the virus. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study examining how lockdown measures impacted upon the lives of nurses, midwives and personal care assistants caring for community-based patients during this time. The study involved nationwide surveys and in-depth interviews with 15…
Kamzori
As the Gaddi community of Himalayan India transition from agro-pastoralism to waged labor, configurations of kinship and care have shifted. Such shifts have introduced relational tensions, especially between elderly women, who have labored in the house and fields, expecting care in old age, and younger generations, who experience their own pressures of class aspiration. This article examines how the myriad tensions of the post-pastoral economy ar…
The Research Imagination During Covid-19
This article explores some of the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has served as a collective critical event for anthropologists and other social scientists, examining how it has promoted new configurations of the research imagination. We draw on our own experiences of participating in a team of 17 researchers, hailing from anthropology and anthropology-adjacent disciplines, to research social life in Aotearoa/New Zealand during the pandemic, …
Aesthetic politics in contemporary India
Michiel Baas. Muscular India: Masculinity, mobility & the new middle class. New Delhi: Context, 2020. Alice Tilche. Adivasi art and activism: Curation in a nationalist age. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2022. Sanderien Verstappen. New lives in Anand: Building a Muslim hub in Western India. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2022
Encountering the Dain
Outwardly, most Gaddi people refute the relevance and danger of witchcraft in present times. At another level, however, rumors of jadu (witchcraft, or spells and curses performed by a witch) and opara (black magic, or curses that may be performed by anyone) circulate in particular places, caste neighborhoods, and households. This article argues that the study of the discourses of witchcraft-anxieties, rumors, suspected afflictions-provides a wind…
Ghar ki tension
Tensionis a polysemic term used across South Asia to describe the strains and scrapes of life, like 'worry' or 'stress' in Euro-American discourse. Yet in the formerly agro-pastoralist and upwardly mobile Gaddi community of Himalayan India, it is used by women with the qualifyingghar ki - 'household' - to indicate a deeper disruption to bodily humours, intimate relations, and household materiality. This article takesghar ki tension, with a partic…
Introducing How We Make It
How We Make It: Disability Justice, Autoimmunity, Community is a born-digital multimedia piece that lives on the Scalar platform and that was submitted and eventually accepted into the Special Section on Autoimmunities in the Wake of COVID-19. The text below is a close reproduction of the Navigation page within the Scalar piece. While reading this text, one cracks open the door to glimpse the ten-person collective behind this project. However, we…
Securitized trust
Hostile environments
The UK Government Home Office's 'hostile environment' policy is aimed at making it difficult for migrants to stay in Britain. This approach has combined securitised practices of bordering and policing, with policies which have hollowed out state provisioning at community level. The purpose of this research was to understand how the hostile environment is experienced in the lives and bodies of Somali families who inhabit temporary or precarious ac…
Fighting him
This study explores the psychological impacts of the UK housing crisis among a collective of Somali women in Birmingham. We build a framework from anthropological theories of social distress, applied through a participatory methodology consisting of housing biographies and therapeutic workshops. Research was conducted between June 2022-December 2023. Our findings reveal the cumulative forms of distress generated through poor housing, eviction and…
To Be "a Homeless"
The city of Birmingham acts as a microcosm for the United Kingdom’s urban housing crisis, where hostile migration policies intersect with austerity-driven divestment in public housing stock to produce insecure provisioning for Birmingham's migrant and refugee communities. Birmingham’s Somali mothers are one collective who bear the brunt of this crisis in experiences of successive evictions and cycles through various forms of temporary accommodati…
Political science (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Medicine (9 works) · Gender Studies (7 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Aotearoa (5 works) · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 (5 works) · History (5 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (5 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (4 works)