Email: tutor.anthropology@conted.ox.ac.uk / jl.loewenthal@gmail.com
I am a social and psychological anthropologist, working mainly on the themes of aspiration and searches for meaning in life. I am interested in adjacent research themes concerning educational and work transitions, and existential deliberations across the life course. Since 2017 I have been teaching the online course ‘Social Anthropology: An Introduction’ at the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education. I also teach Social Anthropology as an Associate Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University and am an Examiner in Social and Cultural Anthropology for the International Baccalaureate. I obtained my PhD in Education from Oxford Brookes University (150th Anniversary PhD Studentship) with a thesis entitled ‘Aspirations of university graduates: an ethnography in New York and Los Angeles’. I initially studied Archaeology and Anthropology at St Hugh’s College, Oxford (BA: First), then Anthropology and Education as a Margaret Mead Fellow at Teachers College, Columbia University (MA). I am currently (2021) a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico, where I was previously a visiting doctoral student. I am a member of the Commission on Anthropology and Education (International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences) and of the European Network for Psychological Anthropology.
https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/social-anthropology-an-introduction-online
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/John-Loewenthal
http://enpanthro.net/members-directory/name/john-loewenthal/
Publications
Broughton, J. and Loewenthal, J. 2020. Youth Culture. In Cook, D. (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies. London: Sage Publications Ltd, pp. 1711-1716.
Alexander, P., Loewenthal, J., and Butt, G. 2019. ‘F*ck It, Shit Happens (FISH)’: a social generations approach to understanding young people’s imaginings of life after school in 2016-2017. Journal of Youth Studies. 23 (1). pp. 109-126.
Loewenthal, J., Alexander, P., and Butt, G. 2019. Fateful aspects of aspiration among graduates in New York and Los Angeles. International Studies in Sociology of Education. 28 (03-04). pp. 345-361.
Loewenthal, J. and Broughton, J. 2019. Travel imaginaries of youth in New York City: history, ethnicity and the politics of mobility. In Habib, S., and Ward, M. R. M. Youth, Place and Theories of Belonging. London: Routledge, pp. 66-79.
Loewenthal, J. 2019. Review of Aspiring adults adrift: tentative transitions of college graduates by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa. Educational Review. 71 (6). p. 800
Loewenthal, J. 2018. Review of The art of life and death: radical aesthetics and ethnographic practice by Andrew Irving. Anthropology and Aging. 39 (1). pp. 112-114.
Loewenthal, J. 2018. Talking about race in text and in person: Is hiding behind a screen helpful? – Teaching Anthropology: A Blog of The Royal Anthropological Institute.
Loewenthal, J. 2017. Solitude in NYC [Snapshot]. North American Dialogue. 20 (2). p. 31.
Loewenthal, J. 2017. Between Categories and Cosmopolitanism: On the Subtleties of Voters’ Persuasions – The Sociological Review – UK General Election 2017 Blog Series.
Loewenthal, J. 2017. Dismantling a Bedroom of Youth: How Space and Material Culture Mediate the Life Course – Association for Anthropology, Gerontology, and the Life Course – Life Course Blog.
