The Wolfe Institute: Daniel Miller

Daniel Miller is professor of anthropology at University College London, where he specializes in teaching about material culture—the meanings that such things as cars, clothes, and computers assume in different cultures and the ways in which people interpret standardized objects and technologies to affirm individual and group identity. Miller is the author or editor of eighteen books, most of which are concerned with the study of mass consumption and material culture. His ethnographic work in Trinidad has been the basis for three works, most recently The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach, written with Don Slater (Berg, Oxford). Earlier volumes concern commerce and modernity in Trinidad. A Theory of Shopping (Cornell University Press) is one of three books that are based on his study of the ethnography of shopping in North London. Car Cultures, another recent volume edited by Miller, presents the first study of the car in diverse cultural contexts (Berg, Oxford).

A collection of work by Miller’s students, edited by him, was published in 1998 as Material Cultures: Why Some Things Matter (University of Chicago Press). A second volume, by his current group of students, is forthcoming. The new book, Material Culture and the Home, includes studies of mobility and of the issue of privacy and research in the home.

Miller is a founder and editor of the Journal of Material Culture (Sage) and editor, with Paul Gilroy and Michael Herzfeld, of the book series Materializing Culture.

Miller has also conducted ethnographic work in India and archaeological work in Indonesia and the Solomon Islands. He is a frequent speaker at international academic events. In 1998 he visited the United States to give the prestigious Lewis Henry Morgan Lecture at the University of Rochester. The lecture and papers discussed at related colloquia will be published by the University of Chicago Press as The Dialectics of Shopping. The book is concerned with relating micro and macro views of society by looking at kinship, community, civil society, and political economy as revealed by the study of shopping.

Miller received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge.

He is married to Rickie Burman, director of the Jewish Museum in London. They have two children, Rachel, 15, and David, 12.


The Ethyle R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities Brooklyn College of the City University of New York
Daniel Miller Robert L. Hess Scholar-in-Residence 2000-20001 related websites: Daniel Miller (http://ucl.ac.uk/anthropology/staff/miller.htm) The Internet; An Ethnographic Approach (http://ethnonet.gold.ac.uk) Daniel Miller is professor of anthropology at University College London, where he specializes in teaching about material culture—the meanings that such things as cars, clothes, and computers assume in different cultures and the ways in which people interpret standardized objects and technologies to affirm individual and group identity. Miller is the author or editor of eighteen books, most of which are concerned with the study of mass consumption and material culture. His ethnographic work in Trinidad has been the basis for three works, most recently The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach, written with Don Slater (Berg, Oxford). Earlier volumes concern commerce and modernity in Trinidad. A Theory of Shopping (Cornell University Press) is one of three books that are based on his study of the ethnography of shopping in North London. Car Cultures, another recent volume edited by Miller, presents the first study of the car in diverse cultural contexts (Berg, Oxford). A collection of work by Miller’s students, edited by him, was published in 1998 as Material Cultures: Why Some Things Matter (University of Chicago Press). A second volume, by his current group of students, is forthcoming. The new book, Material Culture and the Home, includes studies of mobility and of the issue of privacy and research in the home. Miller is a founder and editor of the Journal of Material Culture (Sage) and editor, with Paul Gilroy and Michael Herzfeld, of the book series Materializing Culture. Miller has also conducted ethnographic work in India and archaeological work in Indonesia and the Solomon Islands. He is a frequent speaker at international academic events. In 1998 he visited the United States to give the prestigious Lewis Henry Morgan Lecture at the University of Rochester. The lecture and papers discussed at related colloquia will be published by the University of Chicago Press as The Dialectics of Shopping. The book is concerned with relating micro and macro views of society by looking at kinship, community, civil society, and political economy as revealed by the study of shopping. Miller received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. He is married to Rickie Burman, director of the Jewish Museum in London. They have two children, Rachel, 15, and David, 12.