Olivia Harris
Sad News:We are extremely saddened to report the sudden death of Professor Olivia Harris on 9 April 2009 after a brief illness. Olivia had been working until late March, shortly before her death.
A specialist in the anthropology and history of highland Bolivia, Olivia Harris worked at Goldsmiths for 25 years where she helped to establish the Department of Anthropology. She recently served a term as chair of the Department of Anthropology at the LSE, which she joined in 2005 having been a postgraduate student there in the 1970s. For many years she taught on a highly popular Master's course at the University's Institute of Latin American Studies. Amongst her wide-ranging editorial work, she served as Chair of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Latin American Studies from 1996 to 2007.
Olivia was an inspired and inspiring teacher as well as an exceptionally gifted researcher, probably best known for the essays collected in her monograph 'To make the earth bear fruit: essays on fertility, work and gender in highland Bolivia' (London, 2000). Her personal warmth, intellectual powers, and dedication to the vocation of scholarship persuaded many to follow her path. She will be sorely missed as a teacher, friend and colleague as well as a brave and original social scientist.
One of Olivia's last thoughts, as she felt wonderfully cared for in a marvellous hospital equipped with all the best that modern medicine has to offer, concerned the dreadfully poor and inadequate medical help available in Ramallah. It is for this reason that donations to MAP are preferred to flowers. Donations can be made at https://www.bmycharity.com/OliviaHarris
Olivia's funeral will take place at 2.30 pm on Tuesday 28 April at Southwark
Cathedral (Anglican Cathedral, Montague Close, London SE1; by London
Bridge station).