Judith Okely

Judith Melita Okely (born 1941) is a British anthropologist who is best known for her ethnographic work with the traveller gypsies of England. She is an Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Hull and Research Affiliate of the School of Anthropology, University of Oxford.[1] Her research interests encompass fieldwork practice, gypsies, feminism, autobiography, visualism, landscape representations, and the aged, mainly within Europe. The UK Data Service lists her as a "Pioneer of Social Research".[2]

Early life and education

Okely was born in Malta but grew up in Sussex and Lincolnshire. She attended boarding school from the age of nine at Upper Chine School for Girls on the Isle of Wight, but did not enjoy the experience, and later published work on the experience of girls in boarding schools.[2][3]

She studied for two years at the Sorbonne in Paris and then enrolled at Oxford, where she began a campaign for the Oxford Union to admit women to their debating society.[4][5] Admitting women to the Oxford Union required a 2/3 vote of its past and current members. The first vote failed, with 903 men voting to admit women and 435 voting against.[4] The second vote, on 9 February 1963, succeeded, 1,039 to 427.[6] Okely then became the first woman admitted to the Oxford Union.[7]

While at Oxford, Okely read PPE at St Hilda's College[8] of the University of Oxford, where she took a Certificate in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge (1970).[2]

An appointment with the Centre for Environmental Studies in 1970 led to her research work on gypsy-travellers, and to a DPhil from Oxford in 1977 and her 1983 book.[2]

Academic career

Okely was appointed as a lecturer at Durham University in 1976, moving to Essex in 1981, Edinburgh in 1990 and then becoming a professor at Hull in 1996. She retired from Hull in 2004, moving to become deputy director of the International Gender Studies Centre, Queen Elizabeth House, and Research Associate, School of Anthropology, University of Oxford.[2]

Her 1983 book The Traveller-Gypsies was based on extensive field work with traveller-gypsies in the 1970s and was described as "an important contribution to the scientific, as opposed to the romantic or antiquarian approach, to the study of British Travellers"[9] and "... not simply a work of scholarship however. It invites the public to understand in matters where prejudice and hostility have ruled. It deserves a wide readership".[10]

Awards

In 2011, she was awarded the Seal of the City of Pilsen in the Czech Republic, and also received a medal from the Faculty of Philosophy at Pilsen's University of West Bohemia, as a 'World Scholar.'[1][11]

Selected publications
  • 1983 The Traveller-Gypsies, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.[10][12][9]
  • 1986 Simone de Beauvoir - A Re-reading. London: Virago Press. ISBN 0860683249[13][14]
  • With Callaway, H. (eds) 1992 Anthropology and Autobiography: Participatory Experience and Embodied Knowledge, London: Routledge.
  • 1996 Own or Other Culture, London, Routledge.[15][16][17]
  • 2007 Identity and Networks :Fashioning Gender and Ethnicity across Cultures eds D. F. Bryeson, J.Okely and J.Webber Oxford : Berghahn
  • 2008 Knowing How to Know (eds) N. Halstead, E. Hirsch and J.Okely Berghahn
  • 2012 Anthropological Practice: fieldwork and the ethnographic method

References
  1. "Professor Judith Okely". www.anthro.ox.ac.uk. University of Oxford: School of Anthropology & Museum Ethnography. Retrieved 5 April 2021. Judith Okely receiving the Seal of the City of Pilsen, Czech Republic, from the mayor (2011).
  2. "Pioneer detail: Judith Okely". www.ukdataservice.ac.uk. UK Data Service. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  3. Schaverien, Joy (5 June 2015). Boarding School Syndrome: The psychological trauma of the 'privileged' child. Routledge. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-317-50659-1. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  4. Cherry, Libby (15 July 2018). "SEXIST POLITICS, SILENCING, AND PREDATORY TUTORS: OXFORD FEMINISTS' BATTLE TO BE HEARD". Isis. Retrieved 15 April 2021. Before even arriving at Oxford, Okely vowed to get women into the Union as a point of principle. And two votes later, she was successful
  5. Rowbotham, Sheila (2001). Promise of a Dream: Remembering the Sixties. Verso. p. 50. ISBN 9781859846223. Judith [Okely] embarked next on a campaign to get women into the Oxford Union -- we were still not allowed to be members. The Daily Express arrived to take pictures and Judith recruited me as the voice of the grass roots.
  6. "Centenary Women's Timeline". Oxford University. 2020. Retrieved 19 April 2021. On 9 February 1963, after years of campaigning, the Oxford Union Society – an important training ground for aspiring politicians – admitted women to full membership, after the required two-thirds majority was secured in a poll of members. Voting was 1,039 in favour and 427 against.
  7. Maclean, Ruth (14 February 2013). "Gender Equality To Be Celebrated At Hilda's Festival". OxfordStudent.com. Retrieved 19 April 2021. The 'broad' line-up includes trans activist Jess Pumphrey, who succeeded in getting the amendment passed which allows women to wear trousers as part of sub fusc. Other trailblazing speakers include Professor Judith Okely, the first female member of the Oxford Union, the Very Reverend Dean Vivienne Faull, the first female Dean of the Church of England, and Professor Hermione Lee, now head of Wolfson College.
  8. "Professor Judith Melita Okely CV" (PDF). Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  9. Nadel, Jane Hurwitz (1985). "Review of The Traveller-Gypsies". Nomadic Peoples (17): 115–117. ISSN 0822-7942. JSTOR 43124022. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  10. Moore, Robert (1983). "Review of The Traveller-Gypsies". Sociology. 17 (4): 613–614. doi:10.1177/0038038583017004026. ISSN 0038-0385. JSTOR 42852665. S2CID 220441166. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  11. "Historická pečeť města Plzně pro světově uznávanou antropoložku Judith Okely (The historical seal of the city of Pilsen for the world-renowned anthropologist Judith Okely)". Czech Radio (in Czech). 27 January 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2021.
  12. Rehfisch, F. (1984). "Review of The Traveller Gypsies". Man. 19 (2): 347. doi:10.2307/2802311. ISSN 0025-1496. JSTOR 2802311. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  13. Mot, Toril (1986). "She came to stay". Paragraph. 8: 110–120. doi:10.3366/para.1986.0016. ISSN 0264-8334. JSTOR 43151634. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  14. Robinson, Lillian S. (1987). "Simone, Our Teacher". The Women's Review of Books. 5 (2): 15–17. doi:10.2307/4020091. ISSN 0738-1433. JSTOR 4020091. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  15. Sanders, Todd (1999). "Review of Own or Other Culture". American Ethnologist. 26 (2): 528–529. doi:10.1525/ae.1999.26.2.528. ISSN 0094-0496. JSTOR 647345. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  16. Mascia-Lees, Fran (1998). "Review of Own or Other Culture". Journal of Anthropological Research. 54 (2): 258–260. doi:10.1086/jar.54.2.3631744. ISSN 0091-7710. JSTOR 3631744. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  17. Kristmundsdottir, Sigridur Duna (1997). "Review of Own or Other Culture". The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 3 (4): 792. doi:10.2307/3034051. ISSN 1359-0987. JSTOR 3034051. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
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