Dr Nora Wuttke

Nora holds an architecture degree from the Technical University of Munich (TUM). She went on to complete an MA in Social Anthropology of Development at SOAS in 2010. In 2024 she received her PhD in Social Anthropology at SOAS.

Following her studies, Nora spent 10 years in China and Myanmar. She was based in Shanghai (2011-2015), where she worked for local and international architecture firms, including two and a half years as project architect at David Chipperfield Architects. In 2015, Nora moved to Yangon to work for Article 25, a London-based NGO, on the Reinvigoration of Yangon General Hospital and developed the masterplan for the hospital campus. In 2018, she returned to SOAS for her PhD in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology. Currently, Nora is a postdoctoral researcher at Durham University and a research associate at SOAS.

Nora was SOAS’ anthropology department’s first artist in residence. In 2022/23 she was the artist in residence at UCL's Thomas Coram Research Unit. Currently, she is artist in residence at the Durham Energy Institute, where is also a fellow.

Nora ‘s scholarship sits at the intersection of infrastructure, health and energy. She maintains a multidisciplinary practice that combines ethnography, architecture, and arts-based sensory/visual methodologies.

Broader research interests include material culture; anthropology of space, place and architecture; anthropology of infrastructure; anthropology of the built environment, medical anthropology, anthropology of energy futures; collaborative and multidisciplinary approaches; methodology and writing. Her regional interest is Myanmar (Burma) and its neighbours.