Please note this seminar will now take place in 64 Banbury Road and not where previously advertised. Also on Teams at this link.
This paper revisits the intersections of anthropology and autobiography to argue for the significance of boundaries, reflexivity, and heterogeneity as analytic prisms in ethnography. Judith Okely’s work showed how gendered practices materialise social distinctions and how anthropological knowledge is inseparable from autobiography, which she argued for as a methodological resource. This presentation extends these insights through ethnographic research with Roma communities, where everyday engagements with kinship, healthcare, and education emerge as sites of creativity and agency in which people reshape obligations, reconfigure identities, and imagine alternative possibilities for social reproduction.
Introduced by Anthony Howarth
Memorial for Professor Judith Melita Okely
1-2.30pm, Lecture room of 64 Banbury Road
This event will be preceded by a memorial event for friends, students and colleagues to celebrate the life and work of Judith Okely . A sandwich lunch and tea and coffee will be provided. For catering purposes, please contact Kate Atherton if you are planning to attend the lunch by the end of 26 November - kate.atherton@anthro.ox.ac.uk
Judith very much defined herself as a social anthropologist and was best known for her work with disenfranchised communities of Travellers and Roma. She was a Research Associate of our School for many years, an avid attendee at our seminars and is sorely missed.
Obituary
Departmental Seminar Series Michaelmas Term 2025
3pm, Fridays of Weeks 1, 3-8.
Week 8 is in 64 Banbury Road and is also online on Teams.
Convened by Madeleine Reeves, Zuzanna Olszewska and Alice Millington
Week 2 is replaced by the Marett Memorial Lecture delivered by Professor Laura Bear
