Victor is Professor of Material Culture within the Material Culture Group at UCL and works on the material culture of Low Earth Orbit, architecture, domesticity, the archaeology of the recent past, and critical understandings of materiality and new technologies. Currently he is Principal Investigator of the 5 year European Research Council funded research project: ETHNO-ISS: An Ethnography of an Extraterrestrial Society: the International Space Station (ERC Advanced Grant, no. 833135) and is one of the theme leaders of the ESA_lab@UCL.

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Selected Publications

• 2025. Buchli, V. …a response. In Exploring Ethnography of Outer Space: Methods and Perspectives, edited by Gorbanenko, J., Jeevendrampillai, D., and A. Kozel. New York: Routledge
• 2025. Buchli, V. Artefacts of Attunement. In Anthropology Off Earth, edited by Praet I. and P. Pitrou. Oxford: Oxford University Press
• 2023. Buchli, V. et al. An Ethnography of an Extra-terrestrial Society: The International Space Station. In The Routledge Handbook of Social Studies of Outer Space, edited by Gorman, A. and J.F. Salazar. Abingdon: Routledge
• 2020. Buchli, V. Extra-terrestrial methods: towards an ethnography of the ISS. In Lineages and Advancements in Material Culture Studies: Perspectives from UCL Anthropology, edited by T. Carroll et al. London: Bloomsbury
• 2020. Buchli, V. Low Earth Orbit: A speculative ethnographer’s guide. In Anti-Atlas: Towards a Critical Area Studies, edited by W. Bracewell et al. London: UCL Press

Selected Talks

• 2019 ETHNO-ISS: An Ethnography of an Extra-terrestrial Society: the International Space Station, Joint Departmental Seminars, Dept. of Anthropology, University College London
• 2019 ‘To the Moon and Back’, Bloomsbury Festival, Conway Hall, October 20

Giles Bunch is a postdoctoral researcher with the ETHNO-ISS project in anthropology at University College London. His research looks at human spaceflight in the European context, focussing on the training and practices of flight controllers and instructors supporting the European Space Agency’s Columbus project.

Selected Publications

• 2025. Bunch, G. Transcendence, bodies, and estranged labour in outer space: the astronaut’s contribution to a general theory of hierarchy. In Exploring Ethnography of Outer Space: Methods and Perspectives, edited by Gorbanenko, J., Jeevendrampillai, D., and A. Kozel. New York: Routledge
• 2024. Games, work, and human spaceflight: Ethnographic encounters with flight controller training at the European Astronaut Centre. ephemera 24(3): 49-72.
• 2023. Buchli, V. et al. An Ethnography of an Extra-terrestrial Society: The International Space Station. In The Routledge Handbook of Social Studies of Outer Space, edited by Gorman, A. and J.F. Salazar. Abingdon: Routledge

Papers and Talks

• Book launch, Exploring Ethnography of Outer Space, University of Manchester, 13 March 2025.
• Conference paper, ‘Structures that make practices: Geo-return and European human spaceflight’, for the panel: Geo-return at Ethnographies of Outer Space: Unveiling the Hidden Social Worlds of Space Exploration, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, 13 Sept 2024.
• Research presentation, ‘Simulation, games, and human spaceflight: Ethnographic encounters with European Space Agency flight controller training, AnthroPlay Network, Royal Anthropological Institute, London, 8 March 2024.
• Research presentation, ‘Presentation of research findings: Ethnography at EAC and Col-CC, talk given to interlocutors involved in PhD research at the European Astronaut Centre and Columbus Control Centre, 12 January 2024.
• Conference paper, ‘Organisational ethnography of the instructor team at the European Astronaut Centre’, for the panel: ETHNO-ISS at Extra-terrestrial ethnographies: Fieldwork for the new space age, University College London, 18 September 2023.
• Workshop presentation, ‘Space Modules and Sailing Ships: The role of ambivalent Columbianism in the production of European ‘Man’ in ESA’s contribution to the ISS’, for the Off Earth Atlas, session: Cosmologies, Maison Française d’Oxford, 15 September 2023.
• Conference paper, ‘Simulation and games in flight controller training for ESA’s human spaceflight programme’, for the panel: Ethno-ISS: Ethnographies of an Extraterrestrial Society at American Anthropological Association Meeting, Seattle, 12 November 2022.
• Research presentation, ‘EAC and the world of Ground Support Personnel training and practice: Presentation of early findings after 6 months’, talk given to interlocutors involved in my PhD research at the European Astronaut Centre and Columbus Control Centre, 26 April 2022.
• Research talk, ‘Exit from Planet Earth – Giles Bunch, Sam Keogh & Kat Deerfield’, for The Centre for Cultural Studies Research in association with Antiuniversity Now presents: Culture, Power & Politics, 13 May 2020.
• Paper for the Royal Anthropological Institute student conference Where are we going? Reflections on the future of human beings and the anthropological disciplines, Bristol, 14 September 2018.

Conferences, Panels, and Events Organised

• Panel organiser with Zinaida Vasilyeva, Geo-return, at Ethnographies of Outer Space: Unveiling the Hidden Social Worlds of Space Exploration, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, 13 Sept 2024.
• Conference organiser with Kellyn Wee, The Anthropology of Play: Encounters & Emergences, University College London, 11-12 July 2024. https://anthroplay.wordpress.com/cfp-the-anthropology-of-play-encounters-and-emergences
• Event organiser with Rachel Hill, Sowing and Trekking Through Time: Science Fiction Imagines a Revolutionary 2024, University College London, 24 June 2024. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of-advanced-studies/events/2024/jun/hybrid-sowing-and-trekking-through-time-science-fiction-imagines-revolutionary-2024
• Conference organiser, Extra-terrestrial ethnographies: Fieldwork for the new space age, University College London, 18-19 Sept 2023.
• Event organiser with Kerri Jefferis and Sophie Chapman, Behavioural Training for Astronauts for Earthlings, Supernormal Festival, Braziers Park, Oxfordshire. Also delivered at The Palace Residency, Nysa, Poland and Lewisham Arthouse Open Studios, London. All during 2017. https://sophiechapman.com/behavioural-training-for-astronauts-for-earthlings
• Event organiser, Behavioural Training for Astronauts for Earthlings, Antiuniversity Now, 9 June 2016. https://cargocollective.com/antiuniversity/Behavioural-Training-for-Astronauts-for-Earthlings

Jenia Gorbanenko is a postdoctoral fellow on the ETHNO-ISS project. She specialises in the nascent field of anthropology of religion in space, and in her doctoral research she interrogates the Russian Orthodox Christian perspective on space exploration. Prior to joining the ETHNO-ISS team, Jenia researched the post-Soviet religious revival in Russia. She has co-edited an open access volume Exploring Ethnography of Outer Space: Methods and Perspectives and is currently working on turning her PhD thesis into a book.

Selected Publications

• 2025. Gorbanenko, J., Jeevendrampillai, D., & Kozel, A. (eds). Exploring Ethnography of Outer Space: Methods and Perspectives. New York: Routledge.
• 2025. Gorbanenko, J., Jeevendrampillai, D., & Kozel, A. Introduction. In Gorbanenko, J., Jeevendrampillai, D., & Kozel, A., eds., Exploring Ethnography of Outer Space: Methods and Perspectives. New York: Routledge
• 2024. Gorbanenko, J. A working typology of transcendence in anthropology. Religion and Society: Advances in Research, 15(1).
• 2023. Jeevendrampillai, D., Buchli, V., Parkhurst, A., Kozel, A., Bunch, G., and Gorbanenko, J. An Ethnography of an Extra-terrestrial Society: The International Space Station. In Salazar, J. F., & Gorman, A., (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Social Studies of Outer Space. 
• 2023. Gorbanenko, E. Cross procession in orbit: enchurching science and the planet (Krestnyǐ khod po orbite: votserkovliaia nauku i planetu), Neprikosnovennyǐ Zapas, 150 (4/2023). Russian language.
• 2022. Carroll, T., Lackenby N., and Gorbanenko, J. Apophatic love, contagion, and surveillance: Orthodox Christian responses to the global pandemic. Anthropology & Medicine.

Selected Talks

• University of Zadar, Ethnological days, An introduction to the anthropology of religion in outer space, invited lecturer, Zadar, Croatia, 28/03/2025
• University of Manchester, ‘Exploring Ethnography of Outer Space’ book launch, organiser and chair, Manchester, UK, 13/03/2025
• The Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences, ‘Inhabited cosmos’ lecture series, Icons from outer space, participant, Moscow, Russia, 16/12/2024
• Social Studies of Outer Space Network ‘Ethnographies of Outer Space’ symposium, Anthropological perspectives on religion and science in outer space, panellist, Kraków, Poland, 12/09/2024
• Arizona State University Interplanetary Initiative ‘Space Intersections’ symposium, Orthodox icons in the Space Age: saints and cosmonauts, panellist, hybrid, Washington DC, USA 05/2024
• American Anthropological Association & Canadian Anthropology Society 2023 Annual Meeting, panel ‘Transcending Earth: ethnographies of religion and spirituality in space exploration’, Space as an icon: Christian virtues in translation, panellist and panel organiser, Toronto, Canada, 11/2023
• International Research Network for the Study of Science and Belief in Society online PhD workshop ‘Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Science & Belief in Society’, participant, virtual, 01/2024
• Dutch Association for the Study of Religion ‘Religion in Motion: Between Borders and Belongings’ conference, Which way to Heaven?: new icons of spiritual ascent in the Space Age, participant, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, 11/2023
• Social Studies of Outer Space Network & ETHNO-ISS ‘Extra-terrestrial ethnographies: fieldwork for the new space age’ symposium, Space icons and icons in space: situating transcendence in the ethnographic field, panellist, London, UK, 09/2023
• Off-Earth Atlas ‘Cosmologies’ workshop, Celestial Buddha: A Temple in Space, participant, paper co-authored with Fabio Gygi, Oxford, UK, 15/09/2023
• British Association for the Study of Religions & Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements ‘Environmental Endings and Religious Futures’ conference, panel ‘Exploring Beginnings, Endings and Futures between Anthropology and Theology: The Cambridge Anthropology-Theology Network’, Between ethnography and theology in the study of a Christian ethics for space exploration futures, panellist, Cambridge, UK, 09/2023
• UCL Institute of Advances Studies ‘Transplanetary Ecologies’ workshop, The mystics and the rationalists of Christian ethics for space exploration, participant, London, UK, 06/2023
• UCL School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies ‘Shifting Priorities, Changing Perspectives: Researching Religion in Russia after the War’ symposium, participant, London, UK, 29/03/2023
• American Anthropological Association 2022 Annual Meeting, panel ‘ETHNO-ISS: ethnographies of the extra-terrestrial’, Icons on the ISS: Soviet and Russian Orthodox exemplars, chair and panellist, Seattle, USA, 11/2022
• Royal Anthropological Institute ‘Anthropology, AI and the Future of Human Society’ conference, panel ‘Becoming Gods: Techno-scientific and Other Deifications’, Theosis: the Russian Orthodox ontology of transcendence, transhumanism, and space exploration, panellist, virtual, 06/2022 
• UCL Anthropology ‘An anthropological conversation about ‘Time’ and ‘Religion” workshop, Space exploration and the Orthodox temporal ontology of transcendence, participant, London, UK, 08/07/2022 
• St Petersburg Association of Sociologists ‘Anxious Society and (im)possibilities of solidarity’ conference, panel ‘Can a space (comm)unity be possible?’, Krestnyǐ khod in orbit: the limits of the scientific way of knowing in the Russian Orthodox perspective, panellist, hybrid, St Petersburg, Russia, 04/2022 
• ETHNO-ISS symposium, Krestnyǐ Khod in the Second Sky: Russian Orthodoxy in the nexus of the International Space Station, participant, virtual, 06/2021

David Jeevendrampillai (Jeeva) is a Senior Research Fellow in Anthropology at UCL. He researches emerging notions of planetary citizenship with particular reference to those who advocate for the power of seeing the earth from space. In doing so he considers the emergent notions of territory, place and universal human futures as people grapple with cosmic and planetary scale social belonging. He is the director of UCL’s Centre of Outer Space Studies, a member of the UCL Space Domain committee and the IAF’s Space Habitats Committee. He has published previous on community building at the local scale, now working at the planetary scale his work encompasses anthropology of technology, place, notions of the future, design, utopianism and fears of the end of the Earth.

UCL Staff Page

Selected Publications

• Jeevandrampillai, D. and A. Parkhurst. 2020. Towards An Anthropology of Gravity: Emotion and Embodiment in Microgravity Environments, Emotion, Space & Society, vol 35
• Nezami, A., Jeevendrampillai, D., Sucheshnadevi, P., Ip-Jewell, S., O’Farrill, O., and Coelho, T. 2022. Psychological Challenges of Spaceflight. Journal of Space Philosophy 11(1) Spring: 5-25.
• Jeevendrampillai, D. 2022. ‘Earth – Cosmic Glossary’ Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. In Press. 
• Jeevendrampillai, D., & Parkhurst, A. 2021. Making A Martian Home: Finding Humans On Mars Through Utopian Architecture. Home Cultures, 18 (1), 25-46.
• Martínez, F., Berglund, E., Harkness, R., Jeevendrampillai, D., & Murray, M. 2021. Far Away, so Close: A Collective Ethnography around Remoteness. Entanglements, 4(1), 246-283.
• Parkhurst, A., & Jeevendrampillai, D. 2020. Towards an Anthropology of Gravity: Emotion and Embodiment in Microgravity Environments. Emotion, Space and Society, 35, 100680.

Selected Talks

• ‘Making a Martian Feel at Home: Utopian Design in Building a Mars Habitat’, Collège de France, Summer 2019
• Conference Convener & Chair: Towards An Anthropology of Outer Space, UCL Institute of Advanced Studies, London, 2017. 
• ‘Building a Home on Mars: Utopian Design and making Martians’, Departmental Seminar, NTNU Anthropology

Adryon Kozel (they/she) is a postdoctoral researcher with the ETHNO-ISS project in anthropology at University College London. They research how space enthusiasm is cultivated and deployed as a social energy, drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with space enthusiast communities. This work examines how enthusiasts cultivate a multiplanetary subjectivity through large-scale social events, analog missions, and practices of self-transformation in order to shape the culture and direction of the space industry. As part of their fieldwork, they volunteered with space advocacy organisations and co-curated Archive Ad Astra, an exhibition of personal belongings of space enthusiasts. They are a Co-Director and steering committee member of UCL’s Centre for Outer Space Studies (COSS).

Selected Publications

• 2025. Gorbanenko, J., Jeevendrampillai, D., and A. Kozel (eds). Exploring Ethnography of Outer Space: Methods and Perspectives. London and New York: Routledge.
• 2023. Jeevendrampillai, D., Buchli, V., Parkhurst, A., Kozel, A., Bunch, G., & Gorbanenko, J. An Ethnography of an Extra-terrestrial Society: The International Space Station. In Salazar, J. F., & Gorman, A., (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Social Studies of Outer Space. London and New York: Routledge.

Selected Talks

• Co-organiser, Exploring Ethnography of Outer Space book launch. University of Manchester, Manchester, UK, 13 March 2025.
• Conference paper, Archive Ad Astra: mapping the space community through personal belongings. Social Studies of Outer Space Network Ethnographies of Outer Space symposium, Kraków, Poland, 12 Sept 2024.
• Conference paper, Close Encounters with Fun among the Space Community, in the panel ‘Intimacy, Relationships, and Playful Communities’. The Anthropology of Play: Encounters and Emergences conference. University College London, London, UK, 12 July 2024.
• Conference paper, Modelling sacredness and morality for the new Space Age through Jedi training, in the panel ‘Transcending Earth: ethnographies of religion and spirituality in space exploration’. American Anthropological Association & Canadian Anthropology Society 2023 Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada, Nov 2023.
• Conference paper, Becoming Multiplanetary: space enthusiasm as a social energy. Social Studies of Outer Space Network & ETHNO-ISS ‘Extra-terrestrial ethnographies: fieldwork for the new space age’ symposium, London, UK, Sept 2023.
• Conference paper, Mars is a Scottish Island: mythmaking and enthusiasm on space analog missions, in the panel ‘ETHNO-ISS: ethnographies of the extra-terrestrial’. American Anthropological Association 2022 Annual Meeting, Seattle, USA, November 2022.

UCL Profile Page

As an Associate Scholar attached to ETHNO-ISS, Dr. Carroll’s  focus within the project is on the notions of transcendence and the discourse, especially in the Russian context, between scientific progress and discovery, and theological conceptions and religious practices – both in the official discourse of Russian Orthodox Christianity and in the folk and un-orthodox expressions seen throughout the Soviet and Russian space exploration. With a research background in clothing as a technical apparatus, Timothy is also interested in space suites and other wearable tech used within off-Earth contexts.

UCL Staff Page

Paddy Edgley is a PhD candidate at UCL, researching the anthropology of outer space. His research follows amateur astronomers in and around London and investigates how these practices inform understandings of what it means to be ‘human’ in a cosmic context. His research is interested in how astronomy allows stargazers to engage with the cosmos, produce understandings of their place within it, and deploy those understandings to inform social, ethical, political, and ecological relations with the world and each other ‘down here’ on Earth, as well as imagine futures in space.

He is a Co-Director of UCL’s Centre for Outer Space Studies.

Makar Tereshin is a doctoral student at UCL, focusing on the fallout zones of Russia’s Spaceports Baikonur and Plesetsk where rocket boosters are discarded after launches to orbit. He is interested in how communities in the vicinity of the ranges inhabit and negotiate the indeterminate borders, spaces and materials of the fallout zones, and what such edgework can tell us about the larger polities to which they belong.

UCL Profile Page

Jo’s research interests and professional work lie at the intersection of organizational and design anthropology. She has over 20 years experience at NASA working in various roles from Mission Control to human factors engineering to executive leadership consulting. With continued interests in organizational culture, user experience, innovation and the future, Jo is currently working for Google, LLC as a senior researcher.

UCL Staff Page

Selected Publications

• Aiken, Jo (2021, forthcoming). “Outer Space.” Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Accepted 2021. https://www.anthroencyclopedia.com/
• Aiken, Jo and Angela Ramer (2020). “From the Space Station to the Sofa: Scales of Isolation at Work.” Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings. Redmond, WA: National Association for the Practice of Anthropology. October 2020.
• Aiken, Jo (2015). “Otherworldly Anthropology: Past, Present, and Future Contributions of Ethnographers to Space Exploration.” In Applied Anthropology: Unexpected Spaces, Topics and Methods. Sheena Nahm, Cortney Hughes Rinker, eds. Routledge.
• Aiken, Jo (2015). “Space in Space: Designing for Privacy in the Workplace.” Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings. Redmond, WA: National Association for the Practice of Anthropology. Paper accepted May 2015.
• Aiken, Jo (2012). “Integrating Organizational and Design Perspectives to Address Challenges of Renewal: A Case Study of NASA’s Post-Shuttle Workforce Transition.” Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings. Redmond, WA: National Association for the Practice of Anthropology.

Selected Talks

• Space Anthropology, Course for Masters Program in Space Studies. International Space University, Strasbourg, France, 2016.
• Privacy Needs for Long-Duration Spaceflight: An Anthropological Approach. Human Factors and Ergonomic Society Symposium, College Station, Texas, 2014.