Suzana Sawyer

Suzana Sawyer is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on resource extraction, indigenous politics, and legal frameworks, particularly in Latin America. She has authored seminal works such as Crude Chronicles (2004), The Politics of Resource Extraction (co-edited, 2012), and The Small Matter of Suing Chevron (2022), which won the American Ethnologist Senior Book Prize. Her work examines how resource conflicts intersect with identity, territoriality, and global power dynamics.

• Education: Ph.D., Anthropology, Stanford University (1997); M.A., Anthropology, Stanford University (1989); B.A., Anthropology, UC Berkeley (1986).

Her research explores the legal and chemical dimensions of environmental contamination, particularly in Ecuador, analyzing how corporate and state actions shape indigenous rights and environmental justice. She currently leads the collaborative project Carbon Times, which investigates chemistry’s role in understanding societal and environmental processes.

Notable awards include the 2024 AES Senior Book Prize and multiple fellowships from ACLS and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. Sawyer’s work bridges anthropology, law, and environmental science, offering critical insights into transnational governance and resource conflicts.