Angela Garcia

Angela Garcia is a Professor of Anthropology and Department Chair at Stanford University. Her research spans Environmental Anthropology, Medical Anthropology, and Political Economy, focusing on violence, addiction, and care ethics.

• Violence and suffering in marginalized communities
• Addiction as a product of poverty and colonial history
• Intimate repair in kin networks

Her acclaimed books The Pastoral Clinic (2010) and The Way That Leads Among the Lost (2024) explore drug addiction in the U.S. and Mexico through ethnographic and historical lenses. She has received the Victor Turner Prize and PEN Center USA’s First Book Award for her work.

Garcia’s current research examines Mexico City’s desagüe drainage system, investigating its environmental, social, and bodily impacts amid water scarcity and chronic disease. Her work bridges academic rigor with narrative nonfiction, earning praise from New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist.