Paige West

Paige West is the Claire Tow Professor of Anthropology at Barnard College and Columbia University. A cultural and environmental anthropologist, her research focuses on Indigenous ecological knowledge, environmental conservation, and socio-political change in Oceania, especially Papua New Guinea, where she has conducted over 110 months of fieldwork since 1997.

Her work bridges social and environmental sciences, exploring conservation, Indigenous alternatives to environmental agendas, biodiversity, and climate change. Her current research investigates sea level rise, managed retreat, and community adaptation to climate change.

West is the author of three books, including Dispossession and the Environment (2016), which won Columbia University Press’s Distinguished Book Award. She is completing a fourth book, Aunty: A Prayer for the World. She founded and led the journal Environment and Society: Advances in Research for a decade.

She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship (2021) and other awards, and has served as chair and president of major anthropology associations. West co-founded the PNG Institute of Biological Research and the Roviana Solwara Skul, supporting Indigenous-scientific knowledge integration and biocultural revitalization in Papua New Guinea.

In Paris, West will conduct archival and museum research on Melanesian textiles and motifs at institutions like the Musée du Quai Branly and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, situating Indigenous Pacific fashion within historical and colonial contexts. She will also engage with Paris’s fashion industry networks to explore sustainable, decolonial design collaborations and build international partnerships that amplify Pacific designers. Her work aims to trace the transformation of traditional cultural expressions into contemporary fashion as a form of biocultural resilience, sovereignty, and environmental stewardship.