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.

UCL Staff Page

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. Artifacts of Attunement. In Otherwhere Ethnography: An Introduction to Outer Space Studies, 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. Bunch, G. 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.
• 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 29(4): 430-445.

Selected Talks

• University of Zadar, Ethnological days, An introduction to the anthropology of religion in outer space, invited speaker, Zadar, Croatia, 28/03/2025
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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 

Dr David Jeevendrampillai is a Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. His current research examines the curation, narration and use of Earth Imagery from the International Space Station. He is interested in the anthropology of the future, technology and modernity, the politics of knowing place and emergent conceptions of the human and the body, particularly concerning technology and data. His interests encompass but are not limited to discussions on land rights, post-cosmopolitanisms and colonialism. He is interested in bringing together the wide array of academic disciplines involved in space science to engage in a critical discussion around outer space.

Selected Publications

• 2025. Gorbanenko, J., Jeevendrampillai, D., & A. Kozel. (eds). Exploring Ethnography of Outer Space: Methods and Perspectives. New York: Routledge.
• 2025. Jeevendrampillai, D. and S. Fortais. Terraforming a field site: Reflections on crafting knowledge on Mars. In Exploring Ethnography of Outer Space: Methods and Perspectives, edited by Gorbanenko, J., Jeevendrampillai, D. & A. Kozel. New York: Routledge.
• 2025. Parkhurst, A. and D. Jeevendrampillai. ‘Yesterday’s Coffee Is Tomorrow’s Coffee’: The Body, Human Waste and Off-World Living. In Matter Out of Place: Anthropological Explorations of Bodies, Dirt and Morality, edited by Lynch, R., Calabrese, J. & R. Littlewood. Berghahn Books.
• 2022. Nezami, A., Jeevendrampillai, D., Sucheshnadevi, P., Ip-Jewell, S., O’Farrill, O., and Coelho, T. Psychological Challenges of Spaceflight. Journal of Space Philosophy 11(1) Spring: 5-25.
• 2022. Jeevendrampillai, D. ‘Earth – Cosmic Glossary’ Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. In Press. 
• 2021. Jeevendrampillai, D., & Parkhurst, A. Making A Martian Home: Finding Humans On Mars Through Utopian Architecture. Home Cultures, 18 (1), 25-46.
• 2021. Martínez, F., Berglund, E., Harkness, R., Jeevendrampillai, D., & Murray, M. Far Away, so Close: A Collective Ethnography around Remoteness. Entanglements, 4(1), 246-283.
• 2020. Parkhurst, A., & Jeevendrampillai, D. 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.

Aaron Parkhurst is associate professor of biosocial and medical anthropology at UCL.  The broad scope of his research explores the dynamic human body as a nexus of social relations and social movements, with research on the human body and physiology in places of medicine, sport, urban environments, outer-space, and technological entanglements. His work in Medical Anthropology includes research conducted in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Oman on the relationship between Modernity, Urbanisation, and Chronic Illness, and he has conducted fieldwork in Britain and the USA on Cyborgs, emerging technology, health and Urban Living. His applied work involves developing new biosocial frameworks to understand and combat the rates of chronic illness, Type 2 diabetes, Obesity and Heart Disease in both the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. He currently brings together these diverse strands to conduct research on space medicine, life-science research, and the human body aboard the International Space Station.

In his role with the ERC funded project Ethno-ISS, he leads on research to study the human body off-world, on the International Space Station, and, in partnership with the UK’s and the EU’s broad Aerospace industry, the human body in future habitation on the Moon, Mars, and on Earth in the context of rapid environmental change. As an academic, he has conducted work for, and partnered with, the NHS, the European Space Agency, international design and engineering firms, governmental and health think-tanks, and the international architectural association, among other industry members.  He is currently an editor for the journal of Anthropology and Medicine.

UCL Profile Page

Selected Publications

• 2025. Parkhurst, A. and Jeevendrampillai, D. The Restaurant at the end of the world. In Otherwhere Ethnography: An Introduction to Outer Space Studies, edited by I. Praet and P. Pitrou. Oxford University Press. Oxford. 
• 2025. Parkhurst, A., and Jeevendrampillai., D. “Yesterday’s Coffee is tomorrow’s coffee”: The body, human waste, and off-world living. ‘Matter out of place: Anthropological explorations of bodies, dirt and morality’ Berghahn. (Edited by R. Lynch, J. Calabrese & R. Littlewood). 
• 2023. Jeevendrampillai, D., Buchli, V., Parkhurst, A., Kozel, A., Bunch, G., Gorbanenko, J. and Tereshin, M. An Ethnography of an Extraterrestrial Society: The International Space Station. In The Routledge Handbook of Social Studies of OuterSpace (pp. 413-426). Routledge.
• Parkhurst, A., 2022. Coffee and blood: A brief anthropological reading of Tiny Mining on and off-world. V 2 _.
• 2020. Carroll, T., Parkhurst, A. Being, Being Human, Becoming Beyond Human. In Carroll, T., Walford, A., Walton, S. (Eds.), Lineages and Advancements in Material Culture Studies: Perspectives from UCL Anthropology. Bloomsbury.
• 2016. Carroll, T., Parkhurst, A. (eds) Delimitations of the Body. New Bioethics, 22 (2), 89.
• 2024. Parkhurst, A. Response to “Dizzy Rhythms: perspectival ethnography through oceanic becomings”. Current Anthropology  65(S26), pp.S155-S176.
• 2021. Jeevendrampillai, D., Parkhurst, A. Making A Martian Home: Finding Humans On Mars Through Utopian Architecture. Home Cultures, doi:10.1080/17406315.2021.1962136
• 2020. Parkhurst, A., Jeevendrampillai, D. Towards an anthropology of gravity: Emotion and embodiment in microgravity environments. Emotion, Space and Society, 35 100680. doi:10.1016/j.emospa.2020.100680
• Selected Media:
• 2024. Parkhurst, A.  ‘Off world Living’. Together we Create Podcast. Episode 2. (Host: Lili Golmohammadi) https://mediacentral.ucl.ac.uk/Play/108089

Selected Talks

• 2025, March 4: Orion’s anatomy: an exegesis of the body in lower earth orbit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Medical Anthropology Seminar Series. London
• 2025, Feb 7: Where is Fancy Bred? The heart and embodiment in lower Earth Orbit. Medical Seminar Series, UCL
• 2024, Nov 12: 2022, Nov 7: The Biosocial Body in Lower Earth Orbit: Invited Lecture at Kings University Medical School, Aviation and Aerospace Medicine, Guys Campus.
• 2024, Sept 10-14:  Where is Fancy Bred, in the heart or in the head? Embodiment and Gravity. SSOS Symposium, Jagiellonian University, Krakow. 
• 2024, Feb 28: Living (on Earth and in Outer Space, PSL-UCL workshop. London
• 2023, Nov 17: A Light Heart Lives Long: Embodiment and Gravity in Parabolic Flights. Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. Toronto, Canada 
• 2023, Nov 10: The social Anatomy of the human body in space. Invited Lecture at Kings University Medical School, Aviation and Aerospace Medicine, Guys Campus.
• 2023, Sep 18: Orion’s Anatomy. Talk at ‘Extraterrestrial Anthropology, Fieldwork for a New Space Age. UCL, London
• 2023, Jan 30: Collaborative Social Science and the Space industry. Invited speaker for Collaborative Social Science, UCL, London
• 2022, Dec 5: Biosocial Rhythms, or, What Time is it on Mars? Invited Lecture at the Sorbonne, off-world Atlas Symposium. The Sorbonne, Paris
• 2022, Nov 12: Falling in style with Astronaut Mauss. Talk at the American Anthropological Association Annual meeting. Seattle, Washington, USA. 
• 2022, Nov 7: Medical Anthropology and the ISS: Invited Lecture at Kings University Medical School, Aviation and Aerospace Medicine, Guys Campus.
• 2022, Sep 2: It’s all in Newtons head: fieldwork and methods in Gravity and balance. Talk at Ethnographies of Outer Space, Methodological Opportunities and Experiments. University of Trento, Italy.
• 2022, May 25 Design of a Scalable Framework for Lunar Habitats. Linvited Expert Panelist. Hassell Studios
• 2022, April 19: A Brief Extraterrestrial Anthropology of the Body. Invited Lecture at the Ashton Graybiel Spatial Orientation Laboratory. Brandeis university, Boston, Massachusetts
• 2021, Nov 9 Analogues: Outer Space on Earth, and Earth in Outer Space.  Invited Lecture for UCL Space week. Nov 9.
• 2021, Nov 8 Anthropology of the Body and the International Space Station. Invited Lecture at Kings University Medical School, Aviation and Aerospace Medicine, Guys Campus.
• 2021, Oct 6 The Restaurant at the End of the World.  Paper given for the 4S Toronto, in “Rethinking Outer Space and Science: Critical Engagements with the Cosmos and the Extra-terrestrial. 
• 2020, Apr 15 Towards an Anthropology of Outer Space. Invited Lecture at the International Space University. Strasbourg France.
• 2020, Feb 4 Space Architecture: Part 2. Public lecture at the London Design Museum
• 2019, Nov 19 Embodiment and Microgravity. Invited Seminar at Roehampton University
• 2019, Jun 4-5 Making a Martian Feel at Home: Finding Humans on Mars Through Utopian Architecture. Paper given at “Anthropology off Earth”, College de France, Paris.

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.