2003-present

PhD. Candidate in Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge. (Expected 2010).  Dissertation: Making Relations: idioms of ‘the network’ and ‘connection’ in UK university-industry relationships and bioscience policy. (Supervisor: Prof. Marilyn Strathern)

2005:

Certificate of Proficiency in French (Intermediate), Cambridge University Language Program, University of Cambridge.

2005:

MPhil. in Social Anthropology, Social Science Research Methods Course, University of Cambridge (High Pass) Dissertation: Intangible Technologies: an exploration of networking in the UK biotech sector. (Supervisor: Prof. Marilyn Strathern)

2002:

B.A. in Anthropology, U.C. Berkeley (High Honors in Anthropology, Highest Distinction in General Scholarship: 3.94/4.0 GPA) Honor’s Thesis: Academics and infidels : conceptual constructions of science, democracy, and the other in U.S. Creation/Evolution debates. (Supervisor: Dr. Alexei Yurchak.)

1999:

A.A. in Behavioral Sciences, Modesto Junior College

Current research projects:

• Social Networking as a folk model of social relations
• The lived experience and social dimensions of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) as a category of the self.
• Anthropology as a resource for innovative program evaluations

Research Experience:

2004-present

Making Relations – PhD fieldwork

• Conducted multi-sited fieldwork on the cultural meaning and social significance of the idea of ‘social networks’ in the Cambridge high-tech cluster and beyond. 
• Managed and executed a three year long program of fieldwork based in multi-sited, phenomenological and actor-network approaches.
• Engaged in participant observation at conferences, continuing professional development courses, student groups, and sponsored ‘networking’ events.
• Ethnographically examined a range of documentary materials including policy reports, business and management literature, handouts, and academic articles on social networking.
• Conducted ethnographic interviews with individuals and groups.
• Employed historical, archival and oral history techniques to examine the roots of the origin stories told about the Cambridge Phenomenon.

2007-present

ADHD and the contradictions of contemporary personhood

• Investigating the experiences and socio-cultural context of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in the US and the UK. and how ADHD both resists and enables different kinds of personhood.
• Conducting ongoing, multi-sited, ethnographic research based in part on my dual positions as an anthropologist and a person diagnosed with ADHD.
• Investigating narratives of ADHD as a ‘deficiency’, a ‘gift’ or both.
•  
• Exploring the role of digital technology and social networking in online and offline ADHD communities.

2007-2009

Naked Ambition – Ethnographic evaluation

• Conducted an ongoing, critical evaluation of a publicly funded initiative to encourage the adoption of new digital technologies among UK arts organizations. 
• Addressed problematic assumptions in the design and execution of the project by employing ethnographic and rapid assessment methodologies grounded in anthropological approaches to knowledge and social networks.
• Provided the evidential basis for a fundamental evolution in the project’s approach to organizational change in the arts sector.
• Disseminated research findings as a series of public-facing reports.

2001-2002

Academics and infidels : conceptual constructions of science, democracy, and the other in U.S. Creation/Evolution debates. – Senior Honors Thesis

• Conducted six months of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork with anti-evolutionist student groups and as a volunteer at the pro-evolution National Center for Science Education.
• Conducted archival research analyzing letters to the editor and other media representations of various Creation/Evolution controversies.

Teaching interests:

• Introduction to social and cultural anthropology
• Magic, witchcraft and religion
• The anthropology of science, technology and medicine
• The history of anthropological thought
• Fieldwork and ethnographic methods
• Social Networks and Kinship
• Reciprocity and exchange / gifts and commodities

Teaching Experience:

2007

Guest Lecturer – Participant Observation and Ethnographic Interviewing.

MPhil.(SAR) program. Deptartment of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge:

Designed, organized and taught a series of lectures for post-graduate students on the Joint Schools in Social Science Research Methodology Course. (Overseen by Dr. Sian Lazar - MPhil SAR Tutor)

2006-2007

Dissertation Supervisor – Undergraduate Honours Thesis.

Deptartment of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge:

Supervised a 3^rd year undergraduate dissertation student.  The student received a starred first (the highest possible mark, very rarely given) for his dissertation and has since published it as an article. (Overseen by Dr. Maryon McDonald – Director of Studies, Archaeology & Anthropology, Robinson College)

2004-2005

Tutor – Essay Writing and English as a Second Language. 

Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge:

Tutored a non-native English speaking undergraduate to improve her essay and exam writing skills. Specifically focused on English grammar, writing structure, and forms of rhetorical argument, particularly those expected in the ‘Cambridge essay’.  (Overseen by Dr. Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov – Director of Studies, Archaeology & Anthropology, Sidney Sussex College)

Ethnographic Consultant for Amb:IT:ion (Manchester Digital Development Authority, Arts Council East, Arts Council Northwest), Cambridge and Manchester, England. 2007-2009.

• Evaluated a £1,200,000 (approx.US$2,000,000) publicly funded Arts Council England project encompassing 18 arts organisations in the East and Northwest regions, to encourage the adoption of new digital technologies and Web 2.0 approaches to doing business among not-for-profit arts organizations.
• Managed and executed a one and a half year-long program of qualitative research and analysis.
• Developed and executed a rapid assessment methodology aimed at generating participatory, iterative and ground-up evaluations of large programs in the not-for-profit sector.
• Enabled the project team to swiftly respond to problems and flawed assumptions as they emerged.
• Provided an ethnographic and anthropological perspective on the issues and goals of the project.
• Ensured continuous feedback on project activities and conditions and highlighting problems as they arose.
• Established a ground-up flow of critique by including target organization members in the revision of our reports.
• Drafted interim and final reports for internal and public distribution.
• Amb:IT:ion continues today as part of the Arts Council of Scotland.
• Provided an unprecedented level of transparency for an experimental project involving public money.

Archives Project Director at the National Center for Science Education, Oakland, California. 2002-2003.

• Transformed the collected organizational records, donated materials, and collection of books at the NCSE into the largest collection of Creation/Evolution related archival materials in the United States.
• Hired and supervised all Archives Project positions including assistant staff, volunteers and student interns.
• Oversaw cataloging and documentation of 25+ years of collected Creation/Evolution news clippings archival records, videos and library materials.
• Organized, managed and fulfilled requests for back issues of NCSE’s publications.
• Transcribed and preserved recordings of Creation/Evolution debates.
• Made selected materials available through the organization’s web site.

Special Project Coordinator at the Center for Genetics and Society, Oakland, California. 2002. 

• Coordinated outreach to scientists and healthcare professionals on issues surrounding the appropriate medical applications of new biotechnologies. 
• Organized, publicized and executed events, meetings and symposia. 
• Built and maintained a network of interested and active scientists and healthcare professionals in the San Francisco Bay Area as the basis of a ‘rapid response’ resource.

Leitner, David S., and Lee Wilson

(In Preparation) ‘Art, Innovation and Networks: The virtual subjects of “change” in a publicly funded technology initiative’. Economy & Society. [Expected Submission: January 2011]

Leitner, David S.

2012 (submitted for review) ‘Evoking Ignorance: Knowing and un-knowing network others in a UK biocluster’. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. [Part of a shortlisted collection proposed for publication as a special issue on Ignorance and Unknowing.]

Leitner, David S.

2010 ‘Conference Review: The 108th American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting: The End/s of Anthropology’. Anthropology Today.

Leitner, David S., and Lee Wilson

2009  ‘Naked Ambition: Final Report of the Critical Ethnographic Evaluation of Amb:IT:ion’. Getambition.com (http://www.getambition.com/resources/final-report-naked-ambition/)

Leitner, David S., and Lee Wilson

2008 ‘Whose Amb:IT:ion? First interim evaluation report of the Amb:IT:ion project’. Getambition.com  (http://www.getambition.com/resources/first-interim-report-whose-ambition/)

Leitner, David S.

2007 ‘Fisher, Melissa S. and Downey, Greg (eds.). 2006. Frontiers of capital: ethnographic reflections on the new economy.’ Book review. Cambridge Anthropology. 26(3): 80-82

Leitner, David S., and Lee Wilson

2005  ‘Ethics at Home - a non-conference report’. Anthropology Today. 21(2):24-25.

Academic Papers:

“Reckoning the Familiar: Social Networks, Social theory and explaining the Social.” Presented at Theory in Dialogue: When our informants read the same books we do. AAA Annual Meetings 2009, 2 December 2009, Philadelphia, PA

“Evoking Ignorance: Knowing and unknowing network others in a UK biocluster.” Paper presented at Anthropology of Ignorance and Unknowing, 22 September 2009, St. John’s College, Cambridge, UK

“Deficient Brain, Extraordinary Self: Triangulating subjective experience, social persons and biological selves in para-ethnographic accounts of ADD and ADHD – an exploratory study.” Paper presented at Vital Politics III, 16 September 2009, London School of Economics, UK

“Reflexive Scepticism and Ethnographic Familiars: Finding something to say in the network.” Paper presented at the 10^th European Association of Social Anthropologists Biennial Conference, 27 August 2008, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

“The Network Never Fails, People Fail to Network.” Paper presented at Technologies of Surveillance: Fear, Faith and Expertise in U.S. Context, AAA Annual Meetings 2007, 9 December 2007, Washington, D.C.

“Exchanging Relations and Public Good: ‘Social networking’ in the bioeconomy.” Paper presented at Public Knowledge, 29 June 2007, CRESC, University of Manchester, UK.

 “Concealing Connections: Networks and purification in UK biotechnology policy.” Paper presented at Locating Technoscience: Spaces of Secrecy and Transparency, 29 March 2007, University of Sussex, Falmer, UK.

“Teaching Anthropology as ‘Troublesomeness’: Notes on instruction and the notion of Threshold Concepts.” Co-authored with Lee Wilson, Paper presented at Transforming Perspectives Seminar Series B: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Threshold Concepts, 15 January 2007, St. John’s College, Cambridge, UK

“Making Health and Wealth in the Bioeconomy: Innovation, knowledge, and public good.” Paper presented at 9^th European Association of Social Anthropologists Biennial Conference, 17 September 2006, University of Bristol, UK.

“The Effect of Effects: Questioning causal assumptions in the analysis of innovation based bioscience health policies in the UK.” Paper presented at Innovative Healthcare Initiatives and Their Effects, AAA Annual Meetings 2005, 1 December 2005, Washington, D.C.

 “A Successful Future: Networking, innovation, and the market as a moral agent in Cambridge bioscience (Notes from the Field).” Invited seminar paper delivered at Chimera Institute for Socio-Technical Innovation and Research, 12 April 2005, Ipswich, UK.

Other Presentations:

“Self Interest / Public Good.” Paper presented at Dark Places – Corporate Personae. Sponsored by the Arts Catalyst and SCAN, 30 May 2007, SPACE Gallery, The Triangle, London, UK. This paper was delivered as part of an artistic experiment in corporate ‘identity correction’ through artistic practice. Organized and performed by Lucy Panesar. (http://www.artscatalyst.org/projects/detail/corporate_personae/)

2003-2006 Overseas Research Studentship (ORS), Overseas Research Students Awards Scheme (ORSAS), Higher Education Funding Commission of England: £14,400 (approx. US$25,200) competitive award for the difference between home and international student fees for the duration of an MPhil/PhD course.

2003-2006 Cambridge Overseas Trust (COT) Fees Bursary Award, The Cambridge Trusts, Trinity College, Cambridge: £8,610 (approx. US$15,498) competitive award for total cost of University fees not covered by the ORS for the duration of an MPhil/PhD course.

2002 High Honors in Anthropology / Highest Distinction in General Scholarship (Top 3% of graduating class). U.C. Berkeley

2001 Summer Research Apprenticeship, Office for the History of Science and Technology (OHST), U.C. Berkeley, Berkeley, California: US$2,000 to conduct archival research for an OHST study of the history of research funding and administration at U.C.Berkeley.

Skills & Training:

Joint Schools of Social Science Research Methods Course, University of Cambridge (2003-2004):

One-year research methods course satisfying the Economic and Social Research Council’s 1+3 postgraduate research degree requirements for methodological training. Requirement for the MPhil in Social Anthropology Research.  Included intensive coursework in: 

• Designing, conducting and analyzing surveys.
• Advanced statistical methods for the social sciences.
• CAQDAS training on Atlas.ti, SPSS, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access.
• Ethnographic and participant observation methods.
• Structured and semi-structured interview techniques with individuals and groups.
• Grounded theory.

Languages:

English – Native speaker

French – High-intermediate level.