Normally, my day to day is the same of most students: buried in my office with a lot of reading and writing to do. However, currently my everyday life is pretty extra-ordinary. I am in the fieldwork section of my research - which is the data gathering period for anthropologists - which means I get to spend 7 months in French Guiana. Here, I spend my day exploring the territory - learning about its history; speaking to people from various backgrounds on their thoughst of the future; diving into the archives of the Centre Spatial Guyanais and watching rocket launches!

The road to space is one I did not expect to take. During my four year's bachelor in anthropology, outer space was not mentioned once and on top of that, I never had an interest in it. However, I have always been fascinated by experiences outside of our own comfortable environments (from visiting different countries, learning new skills, you name it!), which brought me to writing about scuba diving. From the alien world of the oceans, it was only a small step to take it to the extreme of outer space. I ended up writing my master thesis about potential synergies between space exploration and anthropology and since then, have been sucked into the wondrous and bizarre world of the space industry.

While presenting at the IAC (an annual large space conference) together with my colleague on social scientific approaches to outer space, someone interrupted us midway to ask: “what are you doing here if you want to talk about social issues?”. Three months later, while talking to a historian and teacher in Kourou, I got asked the same question: “what are you doing here if you want to learn about space?”

I am used to be questioned for my presence - as an anthropologist, we are often out of place. This means you learn to be uncomfortable in situations, which comes with its challenges but mainly opens up space for very special conversations and experiences!