Rachel Tough
Member since 2024
I hope to use this platform to improve the profile of anthropology in public debates.
Bio
Rachel is currently a Lecturer in Economic Anthropology and Development in the Department of International Development at King’s College London.
In 2025, she was awarded her PhD by the University of East Anglia. Her doctoral thesis presents an ethnography of the COVID-19 pandemic in Vietnam and draws on 18 months of fieldwork that she conducted in Ho Chi Minh City between 2021 and 2023. For this research, she was awarded the Development Studies Association 2026 Best Thesis Prize.
Alongside her Ph.D. research, she also led two collaborative projects documenting endangered cultural heritage in Vietnam to completion, one funded by the British Museum and one by the UK Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).
Before entering academia, Rachel led a team of researchers supporting elected politicians to campaign for social and environmental justice at City Hall, London.
