Jonathan M.

Born and raised in Bournemouth in the south of the UK, I was trained in archeology and anthropology at Cambridge University (BA, 2000), where I was one of only two students in my cohort to be awarded a distinction (starred first). After graduating, I spent two years working as a Java developer in Bristol, an experience that cemented a lifelong interest in programming and data. In 2003, I moved to Ulaanbator in the Republic of Mongolia to study the Mongolian language. During this period I won a competition for funding for a PhD on religious movements in Inner Mongolia in northern China. I completed the PhD at Cambridge University in 2007, and on the strength of the thesis I was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at St John’s College to extend the study. Between 2007 and 2020, I won funding for, and completed, another postdoc and was lecturer and then senior lecturer for the universities of Cambridge, Manchester and Kent, covering Anthropology (including economic and political theory), social science research methods, and religious studies. At Manchester and Kent I held permanent positions (the nearest equivalent to being tenured in the US). I started a consulting business with my wife in 2010, and in 2020 when the pandemic hit, I decided to dedicate myself to it full time. The business originally provided academically grounded market research and communication support for businesses working with China. In 2022, we rebranded in recognition of the fact that our area had been extended beyond China to the rest of the world. We are now based in the province of Seville in the south of Spain, and I split my time between academic and commercial activities. I maintain a visiting position at Complutense University, Madrid, mentor some of my former students, and continue to publish. I have carried out ethnographic field research in Inner Mongolia (China), Taiwan, the UK, France, Belgium and Ecuador. I have published in a wide range of top peer-reviewed journals and with leading academic presses. You can see a list of most of my publications on Google Scholar. My work focuses on virtue ethics, self-realisation, self-mastery especially in the context of religious and political movements.