Olatz González Abrisketa
University of the Basque Country / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea
I studied Philosophy and Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Deusto, where I graduated in Anthropology in 1997 and finished my degree in Philosophy at the UNED in 2004. That same year I obtained my PhD in the Department of Sociology 2 of the UPV/EHU with a thesis on the influence of the pelota game in the construction of Basque identity, directed by Jesús Arpal Poblador and Josetxu Martínez Montoya. The ethnography that made up the doctoral text was published in 2005 under the title Pelota vasca: un ritual, una estética.
Within this line of research, I have produced various texts, including the article “Cuerpos desplazados: Género, deporte, y protagonismo cultural en la plaza vasca” (2013), winner of the AIBR prize for the best article in Ibero-American anthropology; “La invención de los objetos: deporte, estandarización y subjetividad moderna” (Política y sociedad, 2020); and the recently published book Raquetistas. Gloria, represión y olvido de las pelotaris profesionales (Sans Soleil, 2022).
I would also highlight the film Pelota II, which I directed with Danish filmmaker Jørgen Leth and which was released in 2015 at several international festivals and in 2016 in commercial cinemas. Within my work in visual anthropology, I have also made the films Jørgen Leth on Haiti (2007); Carmen (2012), winner of the award for best short film at the festival of the Society for Visual Anthropology of the American Anthropological Association (AAA); and Pizti bat agian (2022), directed with Ainhoa Gutiérrez del Pozo, which delves into the more than human relationships in the rural areas of the Basque Country where there are incursions of large carnivores.
Interspecies studies, ecology and feminism make up another line of research that has occupied me lately and around which I participate in an interdisciplinary reading group that we call EKOFEM and that tries to find a theoretical corpus around these pillars, as well as alliances beyond the academy. Relevant publications that fit into this line are “It’s Okay, Sister, Your Wolf-Pack Is Here”: Sisterhood as Public Feminism in Spain (Signs, 2020), or “La apertura ontológica de la antropología contemporánea” (RDTP, 2016).
In addition, I am currently Deputy Director of Training at the Doctoral School (DOKe) of the UPV/EHU, President of the Basque anthropology association ANKULEGI, and I am a member of the editorial boards of the journals AIBR and Disparidades.
