AnthropoloJOY investigates the cross-cultural value, experience, and expression of joy in contexts of crisis. We ask fundamental questions: What role does culture play in how joy is experienced and expressed? How does joy support resistance, resilience, and repair in challenging times?

Our research unfolds across four rich field sites, each exploring a different dimension of joy. In Japan and Hawaii, we study joyful human-nature relationships in environmental activism. In Brazil, we examine euphoric connections to the divine through carnival, ritual, and political rallies. In Thailand, we investigate exuberant youth protest movements reshaping national politics. In the UK, we explore ecstatic self-transcendence as psychological strategy in the conscious dance movement.

We employ innovative methods combining long-term participant observation with micro-phenomenological interviews that capture the lived experience of joy in extraordinary detail. Our participatory approach includes photovoice methods, where community members document and represent their own experiences of joy through photography.