Iza Kavedžija is a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology. Her research interests include meaning in life, motivation, life choices, wellbeing, aging and the life course. She specializes in the anthropology of Japan, and her doctoral research, at the University of Oxford, examined the construction of meaning in life and the experience of aging among older people in Osaka. Highlighting the capacity of narrative to shape everyday understandings and create coherence from seemingly unconnected events, this work sought to reveal how people come to envisage a good life for themselves while making sense of their life choices and decisions in relation to wider social or cultural expectations, such as balancing obligations to others and cultivating a sense of personal autonomy. A monograph based on this work, entitled 'Making Meaningful Lives: Tales from an Aging Japan', has been published recently by the University of Pennsylvania Press.