I am a social anthropologist doing my PhD at the University of Oxford. My research focuses on households in London. I am looking for the next household that would like to take part in my study. It would entail taking me into your home for a few months - think of it like having an exchange student who asks a few more questions! I would be happy to repay your kindness through financial contributions towards bills and household costs, and through household duties or part time childcare.

My project looks at households and their relationships with objects in their home. For my research I will be living in homes for a few months (3-4 in each home), observing the general day-to-day goings on of household life and doing some drawings of household objects. My research is definitely not an assessment of how tidy or orderly these households are! I'm just interested in household life and the place of objects within it. I won’t be asking you to sit down with me and do hours of interviews, in fact you probably won’t even realise that I’m doing research most of the time!

Of course I realise that taking an anthropologist into your home for 3 months is quite an undertaking and so I would do all I could to make my presence in your home a positive experience. I will help out with household chores – i.e. cooking, laundry or even childcare - and contribute to household bills and the cost of food. We would schedule regular ‘break’ periods for me to take myself off and let you have your house to yourself for a few days. I do freelance paid research to help to fund my studies so this will take me out of the household now and then.

If you think that you might be open to taking me in for a few months then please drop me an email and I’ll let you know more about me and the project. I am CRB checked and can supply references from my university. I will be finishing at my current household in February so will hope to start with a new household soon after then but I’m looking for 3-4 households to take part in the study over the next year so if you think you might consider this in the future that would be great too!

Thanks for reading!

Mary