Luke is a senior lecturer in anthropology and global challenges at Brunel University London. He is trained in anthropology at the University of Edinburgh (PhD 2015) and was a Fellow at the London School of Economics prior to joining Brunel as a Lecturer in Anthropology. He has worked for many years in Sri Lanka and the Maldives and his research is centred on current trends in development and anthropology around markets, kinship, infrastructure, work and labour. His ethnographic work engages with the lived experience of macroeconomic and political change and global challenges in emerging economies. He specialises in trade, mobility, and the social life of work in South Asia. More recently, his research has focused on the financialisation of development, the transformation of modes of aid, and the relationship between entrepreneurship and advice.
He is Co-host and Producer of the hit podcast series The Migration Menu.