Lisa L. Gezon is a cultural anthropologist who graduated from the University of Michigan in 1995. She has been teaching Anthropology at the University of West Georgia since 1996 and is currently a Professor in the Department of Anthropology. Her primary research area has been in Madagascar, but she has also conducted research in the state of Georgia (U.S.A.) and in Senegal, West Africa. She is interested in many facets of humans and their relationship to the material environment, including conservation and protected area management (Madagascar), management of water commons (coastal Georgia), and the contribution of peanut farming to deforestation (Senegal). She is currently interested in the commodity chains of the drug khat in Madagascar, considering land cover change, rural and urban livelihoods, and the cultural politics of drug policies and perceptions. Her research has been funded by the National Geographic Society, National Science Foundation, and a U.S. Department of Education Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad Fellowship. Significant publications include Gezon, Lisa L. 2006. Global Visions, Local Landscapes: A Political Ecology of Conservation, Conflict, and Control in Northern Madagascar, AltaMira Press; and Paulson, Susan and Lisa L. Gezon 2005. Political Ecology, Across Spaces, Scales and Social Groups (coauthored with Susan Paulson), Rutgers University Press.
