Lewis Daly

Dr. Lewis Daly is Associate Professor in Social and Environmental Anthropology at University College London (UCL), with a joint appointment at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography (SAME) and Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi (MPEG) in Belém, Brazil. He earned a DPhil in Anthropology (Oxford, 2015) through ESRC-funded research on Indigenous ecological knowledge in Amazonia, following two MSc degrees in Social Anthropology and Anthropological Research Methods from Oxford and a BSc in Anthropology from UCL.

• Specializes in human-plant relations among Makushi communities (2010-present)
• Co-PI on UCL Grand Challenges project about social insects and food security (2025)
• Co-founded TEA: The Ethnobotanical Assembly, an open-access journal

His research interests span:

• Amazonian ethnography (2010-present)
• Phytoethnography methodology
• Ontological anthropology and multinaturalism
• Environmental conservation and ecotourism
• Fermentation and food processing
• Shamanic plant knowledge and toxicity studies

Recent publications focus on:

• Plant animacy and chemosensory communication
• Amazonian garden cosmology
• Shamanic smoke rituals
• Indigenous self-help systems
• Toxic plant pharmacology
• Multispecies political ecology

Awarded UCL Student Choice Awards for teaching excellence (2017-2025) including Inspiring Delivery, Outstanding Supervision, and Exceptional Feedback. Holds editorial roles at Environmental Anthropology and Ethnobiology (Berghahn Books) and TEA, while serving on advisory boards for Critical Plant Studies (Lexington Books). Teaches core anthropology modules including Introduction to Social Anthropology (2019-2024) and Multispecies Ethnography (2025).