Hi, I’m Sean. Social anthropologist and water expert.
My work examines the relationship between water policy strategies, water stewardship, the senses, and more-than-human wellbeing in sport and leisure contexts, with a focus on outdoor swimming in Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the UK. I am presently a MSCA Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology. My current Horizon Europe funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) project, EcoSENSES, examines relational notions of wellbeing in blue-spaces, stewardship of water, and nature connectedness in immersive experiences outdoors through the lens of cold-water swimming in Norway’s arctic. My ongoing work as an #WaterWiseEU Ambassador for the European Commission’s Directorate General for Environment (EU Environment) features community-based solutions for maintaining water health and quality.
I received my PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Brighton, UK, in 2022 where I studied sensory embodiment, movement, and the politics of knowledge production about the body, movement, and being. This PhD thesis was a long-term ethnographic project based on the Southeast coast of the UK which explored embodiment, health, and well-being amongst competitive age-group swimmers. Through an exploration of the cultural specificities of sense experiences I examined entangled processes of becoming and belonging by focusing on the sensory politics of shaping competitive bodies, social cohesion, and young people’s enactment of social agency. Throughout this project I worked with several universities, government agencies, NGOs, and local community swim clubs to develop guidelines on the wellbeing impacts of swimming for youth.
I am Director of the International Network of Sport Anthropology (INSA, sportanthro.org), a grassroots organization promoting the study of sport, games, play, recreation, and leisure through an anthropological lens.
I continue to work as a volunteer coach and researcher for Football 4 Peace International (F4P), a Sport for Development and Peace social engagement project. Through this organization I have delivered bespoke values-based palliative and coaching programs, in both Colombia and the UK, which are designed in and for areas suffering from high levels of cross-community conflict.
I also worked as a consultant with the German Sport for Development organization Spirit of Football (SoF) evaluating Climate Action, sustainability, and gender equity programmes delivered through sport.
In addition to my research experience, I teach Anthropology and Sociology as well as courses related to my research interests at KU Leuven, the University of Brighton, and Syracuse University London (UK). I hold an AFHEA Associate Fellowship in Higher Education Teaching and a Visiting Fellow position in the Faculty of Teacher Education, Arts, and Culture at Nord University in Norway.
Sean Heath, Ph.D. 