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Overview

Sarah Besky is Professor of the Anthropology of Work in the ILR School at Cornell. Her research uses ethnographic and historical methods to study the intersection of labor, environment, and capitalism in the Himalayas. Her work analyzes how materials and bodies take on value under changing political economic regimes and explores the diverse forms of labor that make and maintain that value.

Her first book,  (University of California Press, 2014) explores how legacies of colonialism intersect with contemporary market reforms to reconfigure notions of the value of labor, of place, and of tea itself.  Her second book,  (University of California Press, 2020) blends historical and ethnographic research on science, value, and the idea of quality in the tea industry to analyze efforts at economic reform in India.  Another book,  (SAR Press, 2019), a volume co-edited with Alex Blanchette, brings together contemporary theoretical conversations in posthumanism with classic and continually relevant questions about political economy, precarity, and the meanings of work.  

She is currently working on two projects. The first is a book tentatively titled, "After the Country: Agrarian Life and the Plantation's Outsides," which is a historical ethnography of Kalimpong, India. The second is multi-sited project on the meanings and material forms of the "estate" across the British empire.

Publications

Books 

2020. . Oakland: University of California Press.  

2019.  .  Sarah Besky and Alex Blanchette, editors.  Santa Fe, NM: School for Advanced Research (SAR) Press.  

2014.  .  Berkeley: University of California Press.   

Articles 

Forthcoming. "." Social and Cultural Geography.

2024. "" Annals of the American Association of Geographers. Essay for Forum on the "Plantatationocene," edited by Wendy Wolford.

2022. "." Environment and Planning E 5(4): 1994-2010.

2021. “.”&�Բ�����;Comparative Studies in Society and History 63(2): 433-463.

2021. “”&�Բ�����;American Anthropologist 123(1): 96-107  

2020. “.”&�Բ�����;Social Studies of Science 50(3): 398-417. 

2017.&�Բ�����;“.”&�Բ�����; American Ethnologist 44(4): 617-631.   

2017. “.”&�Բ�����;Environmental Humanities 9(1): 18-39. 

2017. “.”&�Բ�����;Science as Culture.  26(1): 11-31.  

2016. “” (co-authored with Jonathan Padwe). Environment and Society: Advances in Research 7: 9-28.  

2016. “.”&�Բ�����;Cultural Anthropology 31(1): 4-29. 

2015. “.”&�Բ�����;Antipode 47(5): 1141-1160.  

2015. “” (co-authored with Sandy Brown).  Labor: Studies of Working-Class History of the Americas 12(1-2): 19-43. 

2014. “.”&�Բ�����;Agriculture and Human Values 31(1): 83-96.  

2008. “.”&�Բ�����; Anthropology of Work Review 29(1): 1-9. 

Book Chapters 

2023. "." Oxford Bibliographies in Anthropology, edited by John Jackson. New York: Oxford University Press. 

2023. “Seaweed.” In Solarities: Inflections and Refractions, edited by Cymene Howe, Amelia Moore, and Jeff Diamanti. Pp. 277-286. Santa Barbara, CA: Punctum Books. 

2020. “Can’t Get There from Here? Writing Place and Moving Narratives.” In Writing Anthropology: Essays on Craft and Commitment, Carole McGranahan, editor. Pp. 83-86. Durham: Duke University Press. 

2020. “Monoculture.” In Anthropocene Unseen: A Lexicon. Cymene Howe and Anand Pandian, editors. Pp. 277-280. Santa Barbara, CA: Punctum Books.  

2019. “Introduction: The Fragility of Work” (co-authored with Alex Blanchette). In How Nature Works: Rethinking Labor on a Troubled Planet, Besky and Blanchette, editors. Pp. 1-22. Santa Fe: SAR Press.  

2019. “Exhaustion and Endurance in Sick Landscapes.”&�Բ�����;In How Nature Works: Rethinking Labor on a Troubled Planet, Besky and Blanchette, editors. Pp. 23-40. Santa Fe: SAR Press.  

2018. “Subnational Occupations: Managing Darjeeling Tea.” In Darjeeling Reconsidered: Histories, Politics, and Environments. Townsend Middleton and Sara Shneiderman, editors. Pp. 197-218.  New Delhi: Oxford University Press India.  

2010. “Colonial Pasts and Fair Trade Futures: Changing Modes of Production and Regulation on Darjeeling Tea Plantations.” In Fair Trade and Social Justice: Global Ethnographies. Sarah Lyon and Mark Moberg, editors. Pp. 97-122.  New York: NYU Press. 

Selected Essays and Public Scholarship 

2023. “.” Invited essay for “India in Translation.” September 11. [Republished as “” Scroll.in. October 14]  
 
2023. “Agrarian Crisis, Affect, and Accumulation.” Dialogues in Human Geography 13(2): 207-210.
 
2023. “Crisis is in the Details.” Anthropology of Work Review 44(1): 38-41
 
2023. “Teawords: Rendering Quality in the Indian Tea Industry.” Invited essay for 25, a magazine published by the Specialty Coffee Association.
 
2023. “.” Cultural Anthropology Fieldsites series on the “Plantationocene,” edited by Maan Barua, Rebeca Ibáñez Martín, and Marthe Achtnich. January 24
 
2022. “Stories of Everyday Life in the Darjeeling Hills.” Guest editorial commentary for special issue of Himalaya 41(1): 8-11.
 
2021. “” (co-written with Ilana Gershon, Alex Nading, Christopher Nelson, Katie Nelson, Heather Paxson, and Brad Weiss). Society for Cultural Anthropology “Fieldsites” essay, June 30

2021. “.” Cultural Anthropology Hot Spots series on “Majoritarian and Populist Politics in South Asia,” edited by Radhika Govindrajan, Bhoomika Joshi, and Mubbashir Rizvi. March 16

2020. “What’s in a Cuppa?”&�Բ�����;Queen’s Quarterly (Winter): 554-565        

2020. “.”&�Բ�����;Anthropology of Work Review 41(2): 129-132. 

2020. “.” University of California Press blog, May 21. 

2018.&�Բ�����;“”&�Բ�����;(co-edited with Alex Blanchette).  Collection for Cultural Anthropology’s website series “Theorizing the Contemporary.”&�Բ�����;  

2018. “.” In “The Naturalization of Work,” edited by Besky and Blanchette. Theorizing the Contemporary, Cultural Anthropology website. July 26. 

2018. “” In “The Naturalization of Work,” edited by Besky and Blanchette. Theorizing the Contemporary, Cultural Anthropology website. July 26. 

2017.&�Բ�����;“.”&�Բ�����; In “Lexicon for an Anthropocene Yet Unseen,” edited by Cymene Howe and Anand Pandian. Theorizing the Contemporary, Cultural Anthropology website. June 28. 

2017. . Chapati Mystery. May 16.  

2017. “.” Chapati Mystery. January 27. 

2016. “: An Interview with Sarah Besky”&�Բ�����;(with Ned Dostaler). Dialogues, Cultural Anthropology website. March 17.

2016.  on Allegra Laboratory. January 25.  

2015. “.” Essay on “Edge Effects.”&�Բ�����;May 19. 

2015. “.” Essay in the 

“Writer’s Workshop” Series on “Savage Minds.”&�Բ�����;March 26. 

2014. “.”&�Բ�����; For a Better World.  Fair World Project: Portland, Oregon. Issue 9 (Fall): 15-16.  

Selected Media 

“” podcast. March 15, 2024

“” podcast. April 19, 2023

“” podcast. April 20, 2022

. Issue 7 (2021)

“” podcast. June 6, 2021

“” podcast. March 12, 2021

“” podcast (with Mythri Jegathesan). March 4, 2021

BBC Radio 4. “.” December 2, 2020. 

 Interview on “Tasting Qualities.”&�Բ�����;October 23, 2020. 

“” Podcast. October 5, 2020.  

“” June 13, 2020. 

: University of Queensland MOOC module, July 13, 2017. 

Al Jazeera’s “The Stream”&�Բ�����;. December 14, 2016.  

“.” Interview and podcast on “Edge Effects.”&�Բ�����;March 29, 2016 

“.”&�Բ�����;January 14, 2015.  

BBC Radio 4. “.” October 22, 2014. 

“.”&�Բ�����;Heritage Radio News. May 22, 2014. 

“.” WCBN Ann Arbor. January 17, 2014. 

“.” KPFA Berkeley, CA. November 22, 2010.