Katy Fox, Ph.D.
Artist · Writer · Anthropologist
I work at the intersection of art, ecology, and systems. Through my art and writing practice, I document and disturb. My practice is collaborative, embodied, and low-tech.
Writing & Speaking
I write non-fiction, mostly about the activism I am involved in, as well as speculative fiction that is lyrical and rooted in the real.
My bibliography offers a selection of texts, drawings, and collaborative works.
I give invited keynotes and public talks on the concerns that shape my work: ecological collapse, degrowth, more-than-human futures, feminist and decolonial practices, and the role of the arts in reimagining the possible.
I speak from the ground I walk, as a practitioner embedded in community processes, as an artist drawing live in the thick of it, and as a researcher of resilience.
Graphic Recording
Graphic recording is live visual facilitation: listening, synthesising, and drawing conversations in real time. At fora, assemblies, and gatherings, I hold space by translating complex discussions into images that map ideas, emotions, tensions, and possibilities.
Why do I do it? Because drawing makes things visible that spoken words alone cannot. Because collective memory is fragile and often unspoken. Because visual language can hold contradiction, nuance, and emergence, especially in moments of rupture or transition.
It's not just about summarising. It's about sensing the pulse of a group and rendering it visible, live, with care.
Katazome
Katazome is a traditional Japanese stencil-dyeing technique that uses hand-cut resist patterns and natural pigments to shape textiles into stories. I was drawn to it for its patience, for its silence, and for the way it weaves intention into every layer. The process is tactile, slow, and intimate: cutting the stencil (katagami), applying the rice paste resist, dyeing, and washing.
My drawing practice runs parallel, not in sketchbooks, but in movement. I draw to hold gestures, to slow down speech, to trace what's just beyond words. Both katazome and drawing are, for me, practices of listening: to material, to memory, to the more-than-human world. I am also interested in more-than-human artistic collaborations.
- i.cutting the stencil
- ii.applying the resist
- iii.dyeing
- iv.washing
Publications
An incomplete list of texts, drawings, and collaborative works. Last updated November 2026.
Single-authored or Edited Books
- Collected Short Stories (3 volumes): Stitching the Night Skies (I), Bombing the Light House (II), Tending the Fireflies (III)
- 2 novels, titles withheld
- Äerdschëff: Building, Learning and Shaping a Habitable World (English edition), editor and contributor.
- Äerdschëff : Construire, apprendre et façonner un monde habitable (édition française), directrice d'ouvrage et contributrice.
- Published as hardcover (2026) and EPUB (2027).
- Peasants Into European Farmers? EU Integration in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania. Freiburger Sozial-anthropologische Studien / Freiburg Studies in Social Anthropology / Etudes d'Anthropologie Sociale de l'Universite de Fribourg. Lit Verlag.
Scientific Contributions
- (contributor) Luxembourg 2050: Prospects for a Regenerative City-Landscape, Report Phase 2. PDF Download
- 'A Portrait of a Chaord: A Breathing, Living Organisation' in Designing the World We Want: Permaculture Perspectives 2015. Reclaiming Diversity and Citizenship Occasional Series, forthcoming... hopefully... one day...
- (contributor) Permaculture and Climate Change Adaptation: Inspiring Ecological, Social, Economic and Cultural Responses for Resilience and Transformation. Thomas Henfrey and Gil Penha-Lopes. Permanent Publications.
- 'Putting Permaculture Principles to Work: Progress, Hope and Commons Thinking' in: Joshua Lockyer and James Veteto (eds) Localizing Environmental Anthropology: Bioregionalism, Permaculture, and Ecovillage Design for a Sustainable Future. Oxford: Berghahn.
- 'India Travels and Transitioning Luxembourg: Appropriate Thresholds and Scales of Change' Regions & Cohesion 3(2): 102-106. Berghahn Books.
- 'Commentaries on Drengson's Shifting Paradigms' Anthropology of Consciousness 22(1): 37-38. Link to text
- 'The Mailat Case and Being European' Slovo 22(1): 5-20.
- 'Despre autopoiesis si angrenajul structural' ('Autopoiesis and Structural Machinery') in: Stelu Serban (ed) Teme in antropologia sociala din Europa din Sud-Est. Bucharest: Paideia, 21-44.
- 'The Principle of Hope: Relating to the European Union in Rural Romania' in: Janette McDonald and Andrea Stephenson The Resilience of Hope. Oxford: Rodopi.
- 'Confusion, Secrecy and Power: Direct Payments and European Integration in Romania' Annuaire Roumain d'Anthropologie 46, special issue edited by Thomas Sikor and Stefan Dorondel.
- 'Mind the Gaps! Power, Politics and a Space for Anthropology' Antropologija 3: 22-39.
- 'Belonging to the EU from the Perspective of Smallholder Farmers and Food Producers in Romania: How to Conceptualise the EU, Power and Agency' Journal for Studies in Ethnology and Anthropology / Caiete de Etnologie si Antropologie 2006: 53-69.
General Publications
- Collaboration with Paroles nouvelles asbl
- '21st Century Earthships' Permaculture Magazine issue 124.
- (contributor) Économie circulaire dans la construction: Lycée Michel Lucius Luxembourg, un projet pilote edited by Administration des bâtiments publics Luxembourg.
- (contributor) Les jardins communautaires du Luxembourg, ISBN 9789995906146.
- 'Sustainability and Social Cohesion in Luxembourg: By Design or Disaster' Caritas Sozialalmanach, edited by Robert Urbé, 237-250.
- (with Rodrigo Vergara & Marc Schmitz) Indoor Air Quality in Earthships: A Study.
- 'Kleine Ethnographie der Ökonomie des kooperativen Lebens' forum 358: 31-34.
- Fictional Book Review 'The Making of Regenerative Culture' forum 342: 13-15.
- 'Achieving Sustainable Living Spaces and Post-Fossil Neighbourhoods in Luxembourg?' Caritas Sozialalmanach Logement, edited by Robert Urbé, 313-324.
- (with Norry Schneider) 'Resilienz und Hoffnung' forum 320: 54-55.
- 'Vom Taumeln zum Tanzen der Verhältnisse: Décroissance als willkommener Paradigmenwechsel für eine lebenswerte Zukunft' Forum für Politik, Gesellschaft und Kultur in Luxemburg (March edition).
- Collaboration with Queesch magazine.
- Collaboration with IUEOA asbl, featuring a regular column in their magazine on learning and practising sustainability, plus occasional topical articles.
- 'Permakultur: Die Kunst des Möglichen' Forum für Politik, Gesellschaft und Kultur in Luxemburg (June edition).
- 'Society, Sexuality and Gender Relations: A Perspective from Social Anthropology' Forum für Politik, Gesellschaft und Kultur in Luxemburg.
Book Reviews
- Franz Clément (2023) Les légendes de la Vallée de l'Attert. Memory Books. In: Land.
- Henfrey, T. & G. Maschowski (eds) (2015) Resilience, Community Action and Social Transformation. Lisbon: FFCUL and Transition Research Network.
- Amit Desai and Evan Killick (eds) (2010) The Ways of Friendship: Anthropological Perspectives. Oxford: Berghahn. In: Anthropological Notebooks.
- The Turbulence Collective (2010) 'What Would It Mean to Win?' In: Queesch 14.
- Christina Grasseni (2009) Developing Skill, Developing Vision: Practices of Locality in the Italian Alps. Oxford: Berghahn. In: Social Anthropology.
- Chris Hann (2006) Not the Horse We Wanted: Postsocialism, Neoliberalism and Eurasia. Münster: Lit Verlag. In: Sibirica.
- Parkins, Wendy & Geoffrey Craig (2006) Slow Living. Oxford: Berg. In: Anthropological Notebooks XIII(2): 153-155.
- Wilson, Thomas M. (ed) (2006) Food, Drink and Identity in Europe. Amsterdam and New York: Editions Rodopi. In: Social Anthropology 15(3): 409-411.
- Inda, Jonathan Xavier (ed) (2005) Anthropologies of Modernity: Foucault, Governmentality and Life Politics. Oxford: Blackwell. In: Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 13: 235-236.
- (with Andrew Whitehouse) 'Sound and Anthropology: Body, Environment and Human Sound Making. Conference hosted by the University of St Andrews, 19th-21st June 2006' Anthropology Today 22(6): 25-26.
Lyrics
Written on occasion with my brother, the drummer and composer Paul Fox. The tracks appear on the following albums:
Selected Invited Keynotes and Presentations
- Keynote speaker at the symposium Shifting Ruralities, Brussels.
- Speaker at the HOPE conference in Dublin, Ireland.
- Invited speaker at the International Permaculture Conference, London.
- TEDx Luxembourg speaker: Courage and Connection.
- Initiator of a series of talks in cultural centres in Luxembourg on social and ecological transition.