Anna Tsing

Published in 2015, "The Mushroom at the End of the World" uses the global trade in wild matsutake mushrooms to explore how ecological and social life persists in landscapes degraded by industrial capitalism. The book became a landmark in environmental anthropology and the environmental humanities.

Tsing is a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her interdisciplinary work bridges anthropology, environmental studies, and feminist science studies.

Tsing conducted extensive fieldwork in the rainforests of Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), particularly studying the Meratus Dayak people. Her earlier book "In the Realm of the Diamond Queen" examined marginality, gender, and politics among the Meratus.

Tsing argues that meaningful knowledge and social life can emerge from "contaminated collaborations," unforeseen partnerships that arise in damaged and precarious environments. This concept challenges the idea that scholarly or ecological work requires pristine conditions, insisting instead on the productivity of entanglement.