I began my studies in 2000, in archaeology and earned a DEUG in archaeology (and art history) and a licence in prehistory at Paris I.
Studying paleo-anthropology gave me a grounding in anatomy and the physical particulars of men and women, while courses in ethnology, sociology and social psychology raised my awareness of issues such as gender roles and social construction. Following these initial studies and having taken part in many digs, I embarked on a master’s degree in Andean archaeology at Paris 1. I supplemented that programme with courses in Quechua at the INALCO (National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations), where I enjoyed a proper initiation into socio-linguistics and the nexus of gendered vocabulary and social representation.

I joined the Master 1 programme in ethnology, ethnomusicology and prehistory at Paris X and worked on a paper on modifications of the body. With this topic, on the border between archaeology and ethnology, I began to research the body, the primary interface between self and other and a potential tool in the struggle for self-determination, emancipation and resistance. For I understood modifications of the body as gestures of engagement or commitment displays, which afford the individual membership of a group at the cost of a certain number of sacrifices or costly displays. I completed a second year of the M1 at Paris X, where I attended courses on the body and on gender and worked on pornography: participating in the production of a pornographic film, I observed during that period, could itself be understood as such a commitment display in the interest of joining a group (occasionally an emancipatory gesture and/or an instance of costly display).

Next, I enrolled in the Master 2 anthropology and sociology, politics, culture and migration at Paris VII. Although I was particularly intrigued by the Master Research programme in gender and socio-political change, I was unable to attend six months of course work in Switzerland as required. Instead I assembled a dossier (on the LGBT centre in Paris) for submission to the “cultural politics” Professional Master programme at Paris VII, where I met a thesis supervisor who understood my project and encouraged me to work on the subjects that really interested me, no matter how remote from my programme (and from my internship at a publishing house). Accordingly, I set out my findings on modifications of the body and on pornography with a focus on political uses of the body as a tool for self-determination from a libertarian point of view. My thesis was accepted and I was encouraged to adapt it for doctoral research. After all of these academic peregrinations, however, I decided instead to take a break from the university.

Having registered for doctoral studies in the anthropology of sexuality, I refused to comply with the administrative income requirement. I continue my research, however, outside the academy.

In parallel with my registration for doctoral work I assembled a dossier for submission to the University Diploma programme in Sexual Health at Paris V. I was accepted, and in 2016 defended a thesis on care for female victims of sexual violence in migration, which earned me a diploma.