Paige West, the Claire Tow Professor of Anthropology at Barnard College in New York City, received the Distinguished Book Award from Columbia University Press. The award is given to the author of a book that “brings the highest distinction to Columbia University and Columbia University Press for its outstanding contribution to academic and public discourse.”
Professor West was honored for her book Dispossession and the Environment: Rhetoric and Inequality in Papua New Guinea (Columbia University Press, 2016). The book explores the intersections of indigenous practices and conservation science.
Professor West joined the faculty at Barnard College in 2001. She is a past president of the Anthropology and Environment Section of the American Anthropological Association. Dr. West is the founder and co-editor of the journal Environment and Society: Advances in Research. An earlier book authored by Professor West is From Modern Production to Imagined Primitive: The World of Coffee from Papua New Guinea (Duke University Press, 2012).
Professor West is a graduate of Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in cultural and environmental anthropology from Rutgers University in New Jersey.