ProfAnna Cristina Pertierra

Professor Anna Cristina Pertierra is an anthropologist and cultural studies scholar with international expertise in urban ethnography, consumption and material culture, digital media, and popular culture. Regionally, her expertise is in Southeast Asia (Philippines) and Latin America (Cuba and Mexico), with an attention to the connections between these regions.

From 2019-2024, Anna was the lead Chief Investigator of the Australian Research Council project New Consumers of the Global South, a transnational ethnography of the former urban poor in Metro Manila, Mexico City, Guangzhou and Rio de Janeiro. She is also a Chief Investigator of the Australian Research Council project Transborder Electricity Infrastructures and Geopolitics, working with a team of researchers from Australia, Asia and Europe to understand the transregional political implications of energy grids connecting Australia and Southeast Asia.

From 2022-25, Anna was Associate Dean Research in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building (DAB). A recognised academic leader, she has played a key role in establishing research programs for the UTS x Powerhouse partnership, the UTS Green Infrastructure Lab and the 2025 Creative Places initiative.

After gaining her PhD in Anthropology from University College London in 2007, Anna joined the University of Queensland (2008-2014) where she was awarded two competitive ARC-funded fellowships and focused on building her research and leadership skills. Prior to joining UTS in 2021, Anna held several research leadership positions at Western Sydney University (2015-2021), in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts, and at the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS). 

Anna has published widely in top tier journals and has authored and edited seven books. Her collaborative monograph New Consumer Cultures in the Global South is under contract to de Gruyter for publication late 2025. Previous books include Media Cultures in Latin America (with Juan Francisco Salazar, Routledge 2020); Media Anthropology for the Digital Age (Polity 2018); and Locating Television: zones of consumption (with Graeme Turner, Routledge 2013). She is a passionate advocate of Philippines studies and Latin American cultural research.

Anna is a Co-Editor of International Journal of Cultural Studies, and is on academic journal advisory boards in the Philippines and the Netherlands, She is a member of the Australian Anthropological Society and the Cultural Studies Association of Australia.

To date, Anna has engaged in externally funded research with a total project value of over $1.5 million AUD through various funding bodies and has supervised six PhD students and three Honours students to completion. Anna has received numerous grants, awards and fellowships for her research including the Australian Anthropological Society Article Prize for best scholarly article in 2018.

Committed to making research accessible to broad audiences, Anna has contributed to non-academic publications including the Inside Story newspaper supplement and The Conversation website. In 2023, she curated a series of Industry Breakfasts in Design, Architecture and Built Environment. Diverse topics have included urban green infrastructures, the future of fashion technology and creative circular economies. In 2021, she co-convened several community and industry engagement forums hosted by Western Sydney University, including the online event Living With Border Closures: Western Sydney Migrant Stories.