Staff profile

I am a social anthropologist specialising in the study of sport, development and self-tracking. 

My doctoral thesis is the first ever ethnographic account of the emic regimes of subjectification adopted by Ethiopian runners. Its overall argument is that an awareness of the energetic quality of human existence can give rise to distinct ways of relating to oneself and others. 

My first book, Out of Thin Air: Running Wisdom and Magic From Above the Clouds in Ethiopia (Bloomsbury, 2020) was longlisted for the Ondaatje Prize. 

• Ethiopia
• Running
• Competition
• Economic Anthropology
• Energy
• Co-operation
• Sport
• Migration

• 2022: Winner of the Margaret Mead Award: The Margaret Mead Award is presented to a younger scholar for a particular accomplishment such as a book, film, monograph, or service, which interprets anthropological data and principles in ways that make them meaningful and accessible to a broadly concerned public. ;
• 0000: : 'Out of Thin Air' nominated for the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize. ;

Authored book

• Crawley, M. (2020). Out of Thin Air: Running Wisdom and Magic From Above the Clouds in Ethiopia. Bloomsbury.

Chapter in book

• (2022). 'Enduring Influence': The Work of Social Media for Elite Endurance Athletes. In Contemporary Meanings of Endurance: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Routledge.
• (2021). "This is Business!" Ethiopian Runners in a Global Market Place. In Sport, Migration and Gender in the Neoliberal Age. Routledge.

Journal Article

• Crawley, Michael (2022). ‘We Are Burning Ourselves Up': Ethiopian Runners and Energetic Subjectivities. Ethnos
• Crawley, Michael (2022). Laboring bodies and the quantified self. New Genetics and Society 41(1): 66-68.
• Crawley, Michael (2021). Tracking selves or tracking relationships? Means of measuring time amongst Ethiopian runners. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 27(3): 653-671.
• Crawley, Michael Dann, Stephen & Anusas, Mike (2017). "Our Electric Monitors" Theorising the Contemporary, Fieldsites. Cultural Anthropology