Their Sessions

In the early 2000s, Magdalena Kazubowski-Houston returned to her native Poland to conduct ethnographic research on Romani women. During the project, the York University anthropologist grew close to Randia, a fortune teller who, “over time, became a significant presence” in her life. “Randia and I came back to the moment we met many times,” she writes. “It sparked a two‑decade-long friendship.”

Randia’s Quiet Theatre is a record of their collaborative relationship, which blurred the line between ethnographer and participant. Kazubowski-Houston structures the book around her field notes, interviews, and transcriptions of their “dramatic storytelling sessions.” What unites these forms is “intimate ethnography,” a mode of research that “takes up emotional experiences as an anthropological subject.” Such an approach demands extraordinary commitment. From 2010 to 2019, Kazubowski-Houston made frequent trips to Elbląg, the small northern city where she grew up...