DPhil Student
St Cross College
Email: mathilde.morin@stx.ox.ac.uk
Mathilde Morin is a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford, where she works under the supervision of Dr Dace Dzenovska. She also benefits from the external advisory of Prof. Denis Laborde (Directeur d’études at EHESS and recipient of the CNRS Silver Medal, 2020).
Mathilde’s ethnographic research focuses on a mountain valley in the Basque Pyrenees known as Xiberoa (Soule), where pastoral rhythms continue to structure collective life. Her work examines questions of continuity and change in this valley, which modernized later than many other rural regions in France. For decades, Xiberoa remained largely peripheral to broader processes of economic and cultural modernization, which partly explains the persistence of traditions in this small valley located at the margins of the French Republic. Yet, in a time marked by ecological, social, and economic crises, Xiberoa—with its shepherds speaking a rare non-Indo-European language—has never seemed so modern. Through extensive fieldwork, Mathilde explores this apparent reversal. Combining ethnographic storytelling with careful analytical reflection, her dissertation seeks to capture how continuity and change are articulated in the discourses and practices of people in the valley. More broadly, her work reflects on how places endure and transform over time, while also engaging reflexively with the longstanding anthropological problem of continuity and change as a conceptual framework structuring the discipline.
In addition to her academic research, Mathilde has worked as a consultant for various organizations, applying ethnographic methods to address a range of social and economic challenges. During her DPhil, she worked part-time for two years assisting Brune Poirson, Chief Sustainability Officer at the French multinational hospitality company Accor, on initiatives aimed at making tourism practices more sustainable worldwide. Through this work, Mathilde remains committed to bringing anthropological knowledge beyond academic institutions.
Mathilde has taught anthropology at the Stanford University Program in Paris and at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. She is currently a lecturer at Sciences Po Paris and HEC Paris, where she teaches economic anthropology to undergraduate and graduate students.
Mathilde first studied in the humanities in the Classe Préparatoire at Lycée Henri IV in Paris. She then obtained a Master’s degree in East Asian Studies (Mention Très Bien) from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). She subsequently completed a Master of Science in Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford, graduating with Distinction.
Her research has received several awards and grants from the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford, St Cross College, the Hadrien Saiag Fondation, the University of Nevada Center for Basque Studies, and the Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust.
Mathilde’s work has been published in Études Rurales, the Journal of Alpine Research, and the Cambridge Journal of Anthropology. She also regularly publishes essays based on her research in non-academic outlets in both French and English, including The Preserve Journal, Études – Revue de culture contemporaine, and Regain Magazine.
