Emma Shaw Crane

Emma Shaw Crane is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Stanford University, specializing in urban and environmental anthropology. Her research focuses on war, environment, and racialization in the urban Americas. She co-directs a project investigating air quality as collective punishment at a Florida detention center.

Her current book project, Counterinsurgent Suburb, examines environmental and spatial dynamics sustaining U.S. empire via ethnographic work at a military base, migrant detention camp, nuclear plant, and Indigenous labor-linked plantations. A second project explores post-war Bogotá through fieldwork with former Colombian guerrilla combatants.

Research interests include colonialism, environmental anthropology, materiality, race studies, carceral systems, and community-engaged methods. Her work emphasizes research justice and connects scholarly inquiry to grassroots advocacy.

Grants and collaborations include projects on carceral environmental harm and post-conflict urban regeneration. Her publications (2012–2023) analyze poverty, spatial inequality, and transnational racial projects in urban contexts.