The School is delighted to welcome Dr Claudio Sopranzetti as Associate Professor in Social Anthropology.
Claudio joined the team in January 2025 from the Central European University, he received his PhD in Social Anthropology from Harvard University in 2013 and held a postdoctoral research fellowship at All Souls College 2013-2019.
It is a great honour to join a department that had such a significant impact on my intellectual trajectory. It is a rather difficult historical time to commit to a discipline that, at its best, fosters deep listening, mutual aid, and the cultivation of alternative ways of life. Yet this makes it all the more important. I look forward to contribute to that project here in Oxford.
Research Interests
Claudio Sopranzetti’s research focuses on developing deeper understandings of the links between capitalism, urbanism, environmental transformation, and social movements, in Southeast Asia and Southern Europe. His current project, in southern Italy, explores the aftermath of a phytopathological epidemic that has killed more than 21 million olive trees in the last decade.
He is the author of two monographs: Red Journeys: Inside the Thai Red Shirts Movement (Silkworm and Washington University Press, 2012) and Owners of the Map: Motorcycle Taxi Drivers, Mobility, and Politics in Bangkok (University of California Press 2018) that was awarded the 2019 Margaret Mead Award.
In 2021, in collaboration with visual artist Sara Fabbri and editor Chiara Natalucci, he published The King of Bangkok (Toronto University Press) his first anthropological graphic novel. The book was translated in to Italian, Thai, German and French (forthcoming) and received the the 2020 Thai Editor Choice Award, The 2021 PROSE award Best Non-fictional Graphic Novel, the 2022 INDIES Award for Best Humanities Graphic Novel, the 2023 ICAS Best Read for the General Public Accolade, and the 2024 Kate Browne Creativity in Research Award and GAD New Directions in Anthropology Award.
Claudio also writes regularly for international media outlets, magazines, and activists’ publications.
