Staff profile

I did my undergraduate degree in Social Anthropology at St Andrews (2010-2014), before coming to Durham to complete a PhD in Anthropology (2017-2022). I was an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow in Anthropology from 2023-24, and then a Postdoctoral Research Associate on the Wellcome Trust Reimagining Governance project. In 2025 I became a Career Development Fellow in the Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences. 

Broadly speaking, I interrogate the idea that sport can be deployed for social good. Previously, I looked at the supposed link between cricket and reconciliation in Sri Lanka. In my ethnographic research, I covered a wide spectrum of the cricket community in Colombo, thinking about cricket within the wider context of Sport for Development and Peace. Currently, I am exploring the relationship between sport and social change more widely.

International Network of Sport Anthropology

I founded and now direct the International Network of Sport Anthropology, an ECR-led group comprised of over 250 members from around the world. INSA connects scholars of sport across anthropology and related disciplines, providing a space to discuss ideas, gain feedback, and collaborate on publications.

We recently held our third international conference at Loughborough University, and we meet regularly online for our working group sessions. If you are interested in joining us, please email admin@sportanthro.org or visit our website.

Media

Examples of previous media work can be accessed here:

• Murali Pod - 'Can Cricket help Sri Lanka on it's path to Reconciliation?'
• International Day of Peace: Exploring the role of cricket in post-civil-war Sri Lanka

I welcome any media enquiries connected to my research interests and expertise.

• Cricket
• Reconciliation
• Social Change
• Sport for Development and Peace
• Sri Lanka
• Anthropology of Sport

• 2023: Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute:
• 2022: Associate Fellow (AFHEA):
• 2020: Director of the International Network of Sport Anthropology: I founded and now direct the International Network of Sport Anthropology, an ECR-led group that connects scholars of sport across anthropology and related disciplines. INSA hosts an annual conference, and provides a space to discuss ideas, gain feedback, and collaborate on publications.

Chapter in book

• 'One team, one nation': Cricket's promise of a new national identity in Sri Lanka?
  
  Hildred, B. (2024). ’One team, one nation’: Cricket’s promise of a new national identity in Sri Lanka? In S. Naha (Ed.), Cricket and Nationhood in the Twenty First Century: Identity Projects in Uncertain Times (pp. 123-149). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780191982576.003.0006

Edited book

• Anthropology in Sporting Worlds: Knowledge, Collaboration, and Representation in the Digital Age
  
  Heath, S., Neuhaus, H., Hildred, B., & Carter, T. F. (Eds.). (2025). Anthropology in Sporting Worlds: Knowledge, Collaboration, and Representation in the Digital Age. Vernon Press.

Journal Article

• The Anthropology of Sport: New Modes of Theorising Comparison, Scale & Change
  
  Hildred, B., & Crawley, M. (2023). The Anthropology of Sport: New Modes of Theorising Comparison, Scale & Change. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute: Virtual Issues.