Penny Harvey

Penelope M. Harvey, (born 1956) is a British anthropologist and academic, who has undertaken ethnographic field work in Spain, Peru and the United Kingdom. Since 2000, she has been Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester.

Early life and education Having studied Spanish at King's College London, she then studied social anthropology at the London School of Economics. She completed her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1987; her doctoral thesis was titled "Language and the power of history: a study of bilinguals in ocongate (southern Peru)".

Academic career Harvey was a lecturer in Latin American studies at the University of Liverpool from 1985 to 1990, and then a senior lecturer in social anthropology at the University of Manchester from 1991 to 2000. In 2000, she was appointed Professor of Social Anthropology at Manchester. She was additionally Professor II at the University of Bergen (2004–2006) and the University of Oslo (2012–2019); a title given to visiting full professors in Norway. Since November 2019, she has been a member of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management which gives independent advice and scrutiny to the British Government; she currently serves as deputy chair.

Honours In 2019, Harvey was elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS). The same year, she was elected Member of the Academia Europaea (MAE).

Selected works