Alice Wilson

University of York, CEL

Department of Sociology, 2nd year PhD student

Thesis title: Survival through design: An examination of tiny housing as a unique and emerging sector within self-build projects

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 profession of being 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’ principle 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.