Menu Close

Alice Elizabeth Wilson

PhD Candidate in Sociology, University of York

UK based researcher funded by the ESRC to find out who lives in tiny houses, where, why, and what the effects of this lifestyle are on people and planet.

Building a tiny home alongside my research.

Interested in the future of housing and urban spaces, alternative economies, and the future of work.

* * *

I went to University as a mature student after having spent some time living in Barcelona and Korinthos, working as a science teacher and a farmer respectively. These years impressed upon me the vital importance of intercultural exchange and taught me how to listen properly and use power tools.

I chose an undergraduate joint honours degree in anthropology and sociology so that I could incorporate both evolutionary and biological sciences with social theory, and because it was the only degree that brought me one step closer to achieving my dream of becoming Indiana Jones.

I spent a year studying in Prague during my degree which was one of the happiest of my life, and completed my undergraduate degree with a Foucault-heavy dissertation on the ways in which educational institutions’ principal function is to maintain the social order.

After a short break from education I won an ESRC 1+3 scholarship to complete a PhD on the potential that Tiny Houses have to address inter-generational justice issues whilst moving us closer to achieving our environmental justice goals as a country and as a planet.

Experience

  • 2019–present
    PhD Researcher, Department of Sociology, University of York

Education

  • 2018 
    University of York, MRes
  • 2016 
    Durham University, BA joint honours Anthropology and Sociology