Anna Tsing

Tsing received her B.A. from Yale University and completed her M.A. (1976) and PhD (1984) at Stanford University.[2]

On receiving her doctoral degree, she served as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder (1984–86) and as an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (1986–89). She then, joined UC Santa Cruz.[2]

She has contributed, and written several articles and books on a broad range of anthropological subjects. In 2010, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship.[2]

In 2013, Tsing was bestowed the Niels Bohr Professorship at Aarhus University in Denmark for her contribution to interdisciplinary work in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, and the arts. She is currently developing a transdisciplinary program for exploring the Anthropocene.[3] Tsing is director of the AURA: Aarhus University Research on the Anthropocene at Aarhus University.[4][5] The project was funded by the Danish National Research Foundation for a five-year period until 2018.

Some of Tsing's notable work comprise the following books:

• In the Realm of the Diamond Queen: Marginality in an Out-of-the-way Place (1993)

Anna Tsing's first book centers around individuals from Meratus Dayak, from South Kalimantan, Indonesia.[6] Tsing's key informant is Uma Adang, who provides her insight into shamanism, politics and the mythology in relation to ethnic identity.[7] The book focuses on the topic of marginality within a state and the context of community within a gendered framework.[8]

• Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection (2004)

Tsing’s ethnography is based in the Meratus Mountains of South Kalimantan, a province in Indonesia.[9] The term friction is described as, "the awkward, unequal, unstable, and creative qualities of interconnection across difference."[9] This ethnography was based on short-term, consecutive instances of field work; the methods are based on "ethnographic fragments".[9] The book is a study on human dominated landscapes, running themes include corporate exploitation, globalization, environmental activism, and environmental degradation.[10] Friction has become a standard text in graduate seminars in geography, sociology, critical theory, feminist studies, environmental studies, and political economy, among other areas.[2]

• The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins (2015)

Tsing's ethnographic account of the matsutake mushroom gives the readers a look into this rare, prized and expensive fungi, much appreciated in Japan.[11] The mushroom sprouts in landscapes that have been considerably changed by people, in symbiosis with certain species of pine trees.[12] Tsing's account of the matsutake contributes to the field of anthropology in her ability to study multi-species interactions, using the non-human subject to glean more about the human world.[13]

Tsing follows matsutake fungi's international journey in order to give the reader insight into the mushroom's complex commodity chain connecting to meditations on capitalism.[11] She uses the matsutake to shed light on broader themes about how ecology is shaped by human interference.[11] The book was awarded the Gregory Bateson Prize[14] and the Victor Turner Prize.[15]