The Romanian anthropologist Vintilă Mihăilescu believed that anthropology is first and foremost a vocation, and only then a profession and saw anthropology as the daily practice of not despising the other - a definition with which I strongly identify. I’m interested in how the stories we tell about ourselves, or about one another, can help us break out of our bubbles and expand the space in which we can practise empathy and dialogue. I’m passionate about communities. I seek to understand and strengthen people’s capacity to make things better when they become aware of their own power.

I’m interested in the anthropology of dwelling, in the intersection of heritage, architecture, urban planning and anthropology, in memory, in intellectual and social history. I believe in research that is accessible to the wider public and written in as human a language as possible. I believe in anthropology as a tool for social change. I believe there is a great need for stories about invisible communities.