Dr Paloma Gay Blasco

Dr Paloma Gay Blasco

Senior Lecturer

Researcher profile

Phone
+44 (0)1334 46 2950
Email
pgyb@st-andrews.ac.uk
Office
Room 3
Location
United Colleges
Office hours
Monday 2-4pm

 

Research areas

I am a feminist anthropologist with a particular interest in gender violence, the marginalisation of ethnic minorities, and the development of innovative research methods (autoethnography, collaborative writing with participants, multimodal ethnography, online ethnography). Much of my work attempts to find ways to make anthropology more accountable and accessible to the people whose lives we study.

I have worked extensively on Romani issues, but also on ageing, wellbeing and the good life, COVID-19, the oppression of minorities by the state (particularly through housing and education policies), gender and sex, women’s lives, migration, religion and kinship.

Recent publications include two edited volumes: Gender and Violence in Romani and Traveller Lives (2024, Routledge, with Iliana Sarafian and Raluca Roman),  and Romani Chronicles of Covid-19: Testimonies of Harm and Resilience (2023, Berghahn, with Martin Fotta). With Liria Hernández I co-authored Writing Friendship (Palgrave, 2020), a reciprocal ethnography/autoethnography co-authored where we examine our intertwined lives as non-Romani academic and Romani street vendor. With Huon Wardle I am currently working on the third edition of our textbook, How to Read Ethnography (Routledge).

At the moment, I am working on two research projects. The first investigates the different kinds of violence that shape the lives of Romani women and asks about the ethics and politics of research on gender violence within minority communities. This project was developed through dialogue with Spanish Roma NGOs and supported by the British Academy/Leverhulme. The second one focuses on the ways older people in Scotland and Spain sustain their wellbeing during and after the pandemic, and conceptualise the good life.

PhD supervision

  • Hannah Fitchett
  • Luke McGinty
  • Tamika McLay
  • Jing Liu
  • Shanay Cowan

Selected publications

 

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