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T e s s B i r dhuman scientist | consultant | editor | writer
DPhil Anthropology University of Oxford (2018) MSc Medical Anthropology (with Distinction) University of Oxford (2012) BA School of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Honors) University of Connecticut (2008) Arts Trainings at: Glasgow School of Art (2007) and Hyde Park Art Center (2008/09) |
I’ve spent nearly a decade as a human scientist interested in our social and evolutionary capacity to navigate the unknown. I have a PhD and MSc. from the University of Oxford, where I conducted anthropological research with households facing major life transitions in the Northeastern United States. I later conducted a study on uncertainty and wellbeing with over 80 households in the early days of the covid-19 pandemic (see: Research + Teaching).
After a series of disruptive events in my own life, I realized my ongoing research in the social/human sciences could inspire and help people outside the academic walls. I combed through countless ethnographic findings—which means insights driven by real people in real places, all over the world—as well as my own data from over a hundred households, and developed a simple system for navigating the unknown which I call “The Uncertainty Approach.” I’m currently working on a book that outlines this model and offer uncertainty coaching with individuals and organizations.
I have a BA in Gender Studies (University of Connecticut), with a focus on the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, and class. From 2018-2020 I was an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in writing for the social sciences at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where I taught courses on uncertainty, environmental change, social justice, and writing. I have also worked as a medical-legal researcher in industrial health and helped launch the Journal of Scientific Practice and Integrity (JoSPI.org). I now work as an editor in scientific publishing and remain a research affiliate at the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology and a fellow at the Oxford Unit for Biocultural Variation and Obesity (oxfordobesity.org), both at the University of Oxford.
I’m a born-and-raised New Englander with a love for the forest, mountains, and the sea. You can find me at a hot yoga class, hiking the hills (always with a thermos of tea), dreaming by the sea, or enjoying delicious food in the company friends.
Portraits by Alexandra Michel Owens.
After a series of disruptive events in my own life, I realized my ongoing research in the social/human sciences could inspire and help people outside the academic walls. I combed through countless ethnographic findings—which means insights driven by real people in real places, all over the world—as well as my own data from over a hundred households, and developed a simple system for navigating the unknown which I call “The Uncertainty Approach.” I’m currently working on a book that outlines this model and offer uncertainty coaching with individuals and organizations.
I have a BA in Gender Studies (University of Connecticut), with a focus on the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, and class. From 2018-2020 I was an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in writing for the social sciences at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where I taught courses on uncertainty, environmental change, social justice, and writing. I have also worked as a medical-legal researcher in industrial health and helped launch the Journal of Scientific Practice and Integrity (JoSPI.org). I now work as an editor in scientific publishing and remain a research affiliate at the Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology and a fellow at the Oxford Unit for Biocultural Variation and Obesity (oxfordobesity.org), both at the University of Oxford.
I’m a born-and-raised New Englander with a love for the forest, mountains, and the sea. You can find me at a hot yoga class, hiking the hills (always with a thermos of tea), dreaming by the sea, or enjoying delicious food in the company friends.
Portraits by Alexandra Michel Owens.