Mathilde Morin

Mathilde Morin is a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography of the University of Oxford. She works under the supervision of Dr Dace Dzenovska and Prof. Denis Laborde (Directeur d’études, EHESS – Médaille d’argent du CNRS 2020).

Mathilde’s ethnographic research is on a mountain valley in the Basque Pyrenees called Xiberoa (Soule), where pastoral rhythms still structure collective life. Mathilde is interested in thinking about continuity and change in this valley that "modernized" late compared to other rural regions in France. For decades, Xiberoa was indeed left behind from economic and cultural modernization processes, explaining why traditions were kept alive in this small valley situated at the confines of the French Republic. Compellingly, in an epoch of crisis, Xiberoa, with its shepherds speaking a rare non-Indo-European language, has never seemed so modern. Mathilde analyzed this reversal of matters by conducting extensive fieldwork in this region. Through ethnographic storytelling and writing ploys, her dissertation aims to hold together continuity and change as they appear in the discourses and practices of people in the valley. Ultimately, it interrogates what makes a place over time. More deeply, Mathilde’s work is an attempt to examine reflexively the problem of continuity and change in anthropology, which she sees as an underlying discursive matrix that has structured the discipline since its dawn.

Apart from her academic work, Mathilde has worked as a consultant for various organizations, using ethnographic inquiry methods to help solve a variety of social issues. During her DPhil,  she worked part-time for two years, assisting Brune Poirson, Chief Sustainability Officer for the French multinational hospitality company AccorHotels, to make tourism practices more sustainable worldwide. As such, Mathilde is committed to making anthropological knowledge present outside of academic institutions.

Mathilde has taught anthropology to undergraduate and graduate students at the Stanford University Program in Paris and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University. She is currently a lecturer at Sciences Po’ Paris, and supervises impactful ethnographic research projects led by graduate students at the institution’s new Impact Studio.

Education-wise, Mathilde was first trained as a classe préparatoire student in the humanities at Lycée Henri IV, before receiving an East Asian Studies master’s degree (Mention Très Bien) from Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in France. Subsequently, Mathilde studied Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford (Master of Science, Distinction).

Mathilde has earned several awards and grants for her work, from the School of Anthropology & Museum Ethnography of the University of Oxford, St Cross College,  Fondation Hadrien Saaig, and the Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust.

Parts of Mathilde's research will soon be published in Etudes rurales, The Journal of Alpine Research and The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology. Mathilde also regularly publishes pieces based on her work in non-academic publications, such as The Preserve Journal.