Dr Ian Pollock

Ian is a highly experienced social researcher with an endless curiosity for how people organise themselves, express themselves, and define and pursue their values.

With anthropology’s rigorous attention to lived experience and the structures and contexts that shape that experience, Ian uncovers answers to complicated and sticky problems.

With over 15 years in the field, Ian has supported community development through qualitative research, monitoring and evaluation, and analysis. He has worked with the Work Bank conducting rapid appraisals and site visits in Java, Sumatra, and Sumba. He has worked with non-government organisations to understand the needs of farmers and artisans in Timor, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi.

At Paper Giant, Ian works with cultural institutions, federal and local government departments, academic and research institutions, and software companies, applying his ethnographic skills to understand people, problems and contexts in-depth and to improve people’s access to resources and services.

Ian holds a PhD in Anthropology, a Master of Anthropology and a Bachelor of Arts specialising in Asian history, through which he studied Indonesian and Japanese. He is the co-founder of ‘The Familiar Strange’, a multimedia public anthropology project that aims to make anthropological theory, practice and activism more accessible to both early career anthropologists and the general public.