Mikkel Kenni Bruun

Dr Mikkel Kenni Bruun is a social anthropologist whose work examines the intersections of public health, digital technology, and evidence-based practices. He has conducted long-term ethnographic research on various aspects of mental healthcare in the UK, with a particular focus on the provision of psychological healthcare in the NHS, community-based mental health initiatives, and the digitalisation of psychotherapy. 

Dr Bruun is a Research Associate at The Healthcare Improvement Studies (THIS) Institute in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at Cambridge University. 

He earned his PhD in Social Anthropology (2019) at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and holds an MRes in Medical Anthropology from University College London (2014). At Cambridge, he currently teaches across several courses, including ethnographic methods, medical anthropology, gender studies, and anthropological theory.

He is also an affiliated researcher at King’s College London, where he has contributed to an ERC-funded project (2021–2024) investigating contemporary forms of surveillance in Germany and Britain. His most recent research explores practices of health monitoring in the UK based on fieldwork with users of self-tracking wearables and apps designed to promote fitness and wellbeing.

His earlier research examined professional practices within the NHS Talking Therapies (formerly IAPT) and community mental health services in London, which included a study of how evidence-based psychological therapy is enacted and experienced across educational, clinical, and everyday contexts of care.

Dr Bruun’s work consistently engages with critical questions in the anthropology of science, medical anthropology, and mental health research, with a strong commitment to advancing anthropology’s contribution to healthcare improvement. 

He is the co-editor of Towards an Anthropology of Psychology: Ethnographic Studies of Psychological Healthcare (Berghahn Books, 2025) and Rhythm and Vigilance: Ethnographies of Surveillance and Time (Bristol University Press, 2025).

Affiliations:

• THIS Institute, Cambridge Department of Public Health and Primary Care
• Surveillance and Moral Community: Anthropologies of Monitoring in Germany and Britain (SAMCOM)
• Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London
• Cambridge Department of Social Anthropology

Publications:

Books

2025. Towards an Anthropology of Psychology: Ethnographic Studies of Psychological Healthcare (ed. with R. Hutten) New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books. 

2025. Rhythm and Vigilance: Ethnographies of Surveillance and Time (ed. with V. Peacock, C. Dungey, and M. Shapiro). Bristol: Bristol University Press. 

Articles and Book Chapters

2025: Introduction: Thinking Ethnographically about Psychology. In Towards an Anthropology of Psychology: Ethnographic Studies of Psychological Healthcare (eds) M. K. Bruun and R. Hutten. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books.

2025: Throwing Out the Psyche: Scientific Persuasions in British Psychotherapy. In Towards an Anthropology of Psychology: Ethnographic Studies of Psychological Healthcare (eds) M. K. Bruun and R. Hutten. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books.

2025: Watching Our Selves: Fitness and Mindfulness as Practices of Self-Monitoring in Britain. In Rhythm and Vigilance: Ethnographies of Surveillance and Time (eds) V. Peacock, M. K. Bruun, C. Dungey, and M. Shapiro. Bristol: Bristol University Press.

2023: Mental Health. The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology (ed. F. Stein). 

2023: ‘A Factory of Therapy’: Accountability and the Monitoring of Psychological Therapy in IAPT. Anthropology & Medicine, 30(4): 313–329.

2023: Surveillance (with V. Peacock, C. Dungey and M. Shapiro). The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology (ed. H. Nieber).

Reports, Media and Public Engagement

2026: When Anthropology Meets Therapy (with R. Hutten). Edgy Ideas Podcast, Episode 104.

2026: ‘Beyond Culture: Rethinking Anthropology and Mental Health’. The Bridging Mental Health Network. St John’s College, Cambridge University. 

2026: ‘Ethnographic research in complex institutions: speaking up in the NHS and the contribution of an anthropological voice’. Anthropology Beyond the Academy. Department of Social Anthropology, Cambridge University.

2025: Under Surveillance Ep.12 (with V. Peacock and C. Dungey). Podcast by ANSUR (The Anthropology of Surveillance Network).

2024: ‘On the unintended effects of “evidence-based” practice in NHS Talking Therapies’Impact in Qualitative Research Blog. Qualitative Applied Health Research Centre, King’s College London.

2023: Under Surveillance Ep.06 (with C. Dungey and R. Powell). Podcast by ANSUR (The Anthropology of Surveillance Network).

2021: ‘Anthropology, Psychology and IAPT: Some Comments on Ethnography’ Talking as Cure? Contemporary Understandings of Mental Health and Its Treatments. CRASSH, Cambridge University. 

2021: Healthcare systems and the delivery of psychotherapy. Talking as Cure Podcast, Cambridge Festival.