Susan H. Lees

Susan H. Lees is a cultural anthropologist and human ecologist, and the former editor-in-chief of Human Ecology and American Anthropologist. She received her PhD from the University of Michigan and is professor emeritus of cultural anthropology, human ecology, economic anthropology, and religion at Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Susan has performed field research around the world in places such as Mexico, Peru, Brazil, and Israel on historical changes to irrigation in agriculture. More recently, her research has explored the impact of changes in social, political, economic, and environmental developments on rural fishing communities in Maine, particularly home based crab fishing in Deer Isle, Maine and how this fishing is being threatened by regulations. This research looks at things like gentrification and education, as well as labor control and governmental power.

In 2009, Lees became the editor of American Anthropologist along with Fran Mascia-Lees.

Works ed. Against the Grain: The Vayda Tradition in Human Ecology and Ecological Anthropology. AltaMira Press. 2009. The Political Ecology of the Water Crisis In Israel. University Press of America. 1999. Case Studies in Human Ecology. Plenum Press. 1998. Sociopolitical Aspects of Canal Irrigation in the Valley of Oaxaca. University of Michigan Press. 1973.