Dr Laura Haapio-Kirk

I am a social anthropologist and artist whose work focuses on the intersection of wellbeing, ageing, and digital technologies. I received my Ph.D. from University College London in 2022 and am currently a Junior Research Fellow in Anthropology at Christ Church, University of Oxford. I was a Leach Fellow in Public Anthropology at the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI).


My first book, Ageing with Smartphones in Japan; care in a visual digital age (UCL Press 2024), provides a critical overview of how experiences of later life are changing in Japan in the context of an ageing society, internal migration, and the uptake of the smartphone. 


My current project, ‘Feeling at Home in a Digital World’, explores how older adults craft spaces of wellbeing both online and offline, highlighting the reciprocal relationships of care between people, technologies, and the natural world that shape experiences of ageing. The project investigates the embodied, social, and environmental dimensions of ageing, focusing on how technologies impact the wellbeing of older adults and wider ecosystems. I am conducting fieldwork in various sites in Finland, including Lapinlahden Lähde, an old psychiatric hospital which has been turned into a cultural centre for wellbeing in Helsinki.



Laura Haapio-Kirk looking at a map

I am working on a graphic book that will tell the stories emerging from my research through a mix of text, drawings, paintings, and collage. Through the art of my research participants and my own illustrations, the book unravels the multi-layered nature of wellbeing and the intimate connection between the wider societies and environments we live in and our inner lives. 

I am sharing this research journey through illustrated newsletters and I hope you’ll join me on the adventure!


Contact me: laura.haapio-kirk (at) chch.ox.ac.uk

Photos taken in the Christ Church College Library by Ian Wallman, featuring Audubon's Birds of America and other library collections.