Lecturer in Social Anthropology of the Environment
Office: Room 121, UCL Anthropology
Email: l.daly@ucl.ac.uk
Twitter: @tea_assembly
⌲ UCL Profile • UCL Anthropocene • LinkedIn • TEA: The Ethnobotanical Assembly
- DPhil in Anthropology, University of Oxford (2015)
- ESRC 1+3 PhD Studentship (ES/I903887/1) (2010–14)
- MSc in Anthropological Research Methods, University of Oxford (2011)
- MSc in Social Anthropology, University of Oxford (2009)
- BSc in Anthropology, University College London (2007)
Research Interests
- Anthropology of Amazonia, lowland South America, and Latin America
- Animism, perspectivism, shamanism, ontology, cosmology
- Multispecies ethnography in the Anthropocene
- Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous rights
- Historical ecology of tropical rainforests
- Anthropology of plants, ethnobotany, phytoethnography
- Anthropology of birds, birding, ethno-ornithology
- Agriculture, food processing, and fermentation technologies
- Sensory ecology (chemosensation, olfaction, taste, bioacoustics)
- The politics of conservation, ecotourism, and sustainable development
- Oil development and extractive frontiers in Latin America and the Caribbean
Recent Publications
Lewis has published in a wide range of anthropological and interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journals, as well as various edited volumes, academic blogs, and magazines. He is currently writing his ethnographic monograph, The Spectral Forest: Indigenous Ecologies on Amazonia's Oil Frontier.
- Whitaker, J.A. and L. Daly (2025) On Amazonian Magical Darts. Folklore (under review).
- Daly, L. (2025) “The Spirits Drink Cassava Beer”: The More-than-Human Politics of Self-Help in Amazonian Guyana. Medical Anthropology, Special Issue: Self-Care (under review).
- Daly, L. (2025) Cassava Stories: Cultivating Landscapes of Memory in Indigenous Amazonia. In O. Angé and D. Nally (eds.) Tuberous Worlds: Vegetal Politics and More-Than-Human Relations. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press (in press).
- Daly, L. and G.H. Shepard Jr. (2024) Toxicity and Plant Animacy in Amazonia: Cosmology, Chemosensation, and Ecosemiotics. Journal of Ethnobiology 44(4): 381–391.
- Whitaker, J.A., V. Tamboli, L. Daly, and M. Lewy (2024) Plant Agency in the Guianas: Attraction, Assault, and Animacy. Journal of Ethnobiology 44(4): 347–359.
- Daly, L. (2024) Fragrant Ecologies: Aroma and Olfaction in Indigenous Amazonia. In L. Stafford (ed.) Smell, Taste, Eat: The Role of the Chemical Senses in Eating Behaviour, pp. 141–163. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Shepard Jr., G.H. and L. Daly (2023) Sensory Ecology, Bioeconomy, and the Age of COVID-19: A Parallax View of Indigenous and Scientific Knowledge. Topics in Cognitive Science 15(3): 584–607.
- Marchini, S., A.R. Cummings, B.M. Arisi, C. Argudin-Violante, F. Süssekind, G.H. Shepard Jr., L. Daly, L.J. Bordones, L. Guiata, and M. Arias (2022) Multidisciplinary Team Highlights the Importance of Indigenous and Local Communities for Jaguar Conservation. Oryx 56(2): 5–6.
- Shepard Jr., G.H. and L. Daly (2022) Sensory Ecologies, Plant-Persons, and Multinatural Landscapes in Amazonia. Botany 100(2): 83–96.
- Daly, L. (2021) Cassava Spirit and the Seed of History: On Garden Cosmology in Northern Amazonia. Anthropological Forum 34(4): 377–395.
- Gibbon, S., L. Daly, A. Parkhurst, C. Ryan, G.D. Salali, and A. Tasker (2020) Biosocial Medical Anthropology in the Time of COVID-19: New Challenges and Opportunities. Medical Anthropology at UCL, 29 April 2020.
- Daly, L. and G.H. Shepard Jr. (2019) Magic Darts and Messenger Molecules: Toward a Phytoethnography of Indigenous Amazonia. Anthropology Today 35(2): 13–18.
- Daly, L. (2019) The Nature of Sweetness: An Indigenous Fermentation Complex in Amazonian Guyana. In K. Hockings and R. Dunbar (eds.) Alcohol and Humans: A Long and Social Affair, pp. 130–146. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Daly, L. and K. Lewis-Jones (2018) Plant Worlds: Assembling the Ethnobotanical. TEA: The Ethnobotanical Assembly, Issue 1: Winter 2018.
- Daly, L., L. Nic Eoin, K. French, and T. Miller (2016) Integrating Ontology into Ethnobotanical Research. Journal of Ethnobiology 36(1): 1–9.
- Van Andel, T., S. Ruysschaert, K. Boven, and L. Daly (2015) The Use of Amerindian Charm Plants in the Guianas. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 11: 66.
- Daly, L. (2015) What Kind of People are Plants? The Challenges of Researching Human-Plant Relations in Amazonia. Engagement, 8 December 2015.
Teaching
Lewis has taught across a range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules in Social and Environmental Anthropology, including:
- ANTH0003/0004/0208: Introduction to Social Anthropology (UG)
- ANTH0210: Multispecies Ethnography in the Anthropocene (PG)
- ANTH0188: Environmental Anthropology (UG)
- ANTH0105: Resource Use and Impacts (PG)
- ANTH0106: Anthropology of Development (PG)
- ANTH0069: Ethnography of Forest Peoples (UG)
- ANTH0015: Being Human (UG)
- ANTH0209: Biosocial Medical Anthropology (PG)
- ANTH0127: Critical Issues in Social Anthropology (PG)
- ANTH0013: Theoretical Perspectives in Anthropology (UG)
- ANTH0236: Theory, Ethnography, and Professional Practice (PG)
Lewis is currently the Programme Director for the MRes in Anthropology Master's degree (2022—). He convened our flagship undergraduate module ANTH0003: Introduction to Social Anthropology from 2019–24, as well as our second-year core module ANTH0015: Being Human from 2018–20.
Teaching Awards
UCL Student Choice Awards | Nominations:
- 2023 ⌲ Inspiring Teaching Delivery
- 2019 ⌲ Outstanding Feedback
- 2018 ⌲ Outstanding Feedback
- 2017 ⌲ Outstanding Teaching
PhD Supervision
Lewis's current PhD students are the following:
- Sylvie Planel ⌲ Seed-Sharing Practices in France (2024—)
- Roy Ashton ⌲ How Does the Forest Speak? Tracking and Sensory Awareness Among Forest-Dwelling Hunter-Gatherer Peoples (2022—)
- Catherine Clarke ⌲ Conservation Politics and Indigenous Rights in the Colombian Amazon: The Negotiation and Implementation of Area-Based Conservation Targets (2021—)
- Bo Yang ⌲ Symbiotic Species, Symbiotic Relationships: Pursuing More-Than-Human Liveability on the Tibetan Plateau (2021—)
- Jack Jenkins-Hill ⌲ The Making, Remaking, and Unmaking of Tanintharyi Region's Revolutionary Forest, Myanmar (2020—)
- Sahib Singh ⌲ The Reluctant Forest: Resource Extraction, Dispossession, Resistance, and Ontological Conflicts in Central India (2020—)
- Sonia Dhandha ⌲ Conservation Prioritisation of Wild Orchids in International Trade (2020—)
- Matthew French ⌲ Drift Kelp and Multe Gold: Contemporary Human Foraging Amongst Edible Seaweed and Berries in Ireland and Norway (2020—)
- Sarah Fischel ⌲ Multispecies Care and Coral Restoration in Bonaire, the Leeward Antilles (2019—)
- Juan Mejía Lopez ⌲ Pesh Becomings: Sasal Translations in Northern Honduras (2020–24)
- Julián Riveros Clavijo ⌲ A Tale of Development and Migration: An Ethnography of Pacific African-Colombian Migrants in Antofagasta, Chile (2019–24)
- Alice Vittoria ⌲ Sharing the Forest: Bayaka Mobility and Dwelling in a More-Than-Human Landscape in the Congo (2018–24)
Research Positions, Groups, and Collaborations
- Guest Lecturer in Ethnobiology ⌲ Institute of Human Sciences, University of Oxford
- Visiting Scholar and Research Associate ⌲ School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography (SAME), University of Oxford
- Member ⌲ Human Ecology Research Group (HERG), UCL
- Founder and co-editor ⌲ TEA: The Ethnobotanical Assembly
- The Sensory Ecology of Shamanic Plants in Indigenous Amazonia ⌲ Museu Emílio Goeldi Paraense (MPEG), Belém, Brazil
- The Role of Local Bird Knowledge in Avian Conservation ⌲ Ethno-ornithology World Atlas (EWA), University of Oxford and BirdLife International
- Consultancy work with NGOs, media, and business
Editorial Roles
- Founder and co-editor (2018—) ⌲ TEA: The Ethnobotanical Assembly, open-access online magazine about people-plant relationships
- Editor-in-chief (2016–2023) ⌲ Anthropolitan, annual magazine and blog of UCL Anthropology
- Editorial board member ⌲ Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford
- Advisory board member ⌲ Critical Plant Studies, Lexington Books
- Guest editor ⌲ Botanical Ontologies, Special Issue of the Journal of Ethnobiology, 2016, 36(1): 1–149.
Conference and Workshop Organisation
- 2024 ⌲ Rights of Nature Workshop with Paul Powlesland, UCL Anthropology
- 2017 ⌲ Plant Worlds, Centre for Biocultural Diversity (CBCD), School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent
- 2014 ⌲ Botanical Ontologies, The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH), University of Oxford