Paige West
As climate change accelerates the unravelling of ecological and social systems, questions of knowledge, care, and responsibility become ever more urgent. In this episode, cultural and environmental anthropologist Paige West reflects on several decades of collaborative research in Papua New Guinea. Through long-term partnerships with local communities—most notably with fisheries expert and Indigenous leader John Aini—she examines how Indigenous ecological knowledge challenges dominant conservation models.
Atelier is produced by the Columbia Global Paris Center, a Columbia University initiative housed at Reid Hall.
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.
