Faculty and Staff

Lisa Arensen, PhD

Lisa Arensen, PhD

Title
Research Fellow
Location
Peru
Pronouns
She/Her
Education
PhD in Social Anthropology
University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Master of Science in Social Anthropology
University of Edinburgh, Scotland
BA in Writing & Humanities
Houghton University, New York
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about

Profile

I am a social anthropologist who worked with SFS Cambodia from 2014-2020. My interests in post-war recovery on a human and environmental level stem from many years in Cambodia. I moved to Quito in 2024 to study Spanish and explore life on my fifth continent. I am continuing to analyze and write about the social history of the Phnom Kulen National Park and its watershed, a sacred Cambodian mountain I began to visit and research with my former DR students. I am delighted to be an SFS Fellow as I begin to collaborate with former SFS students on some unpublished work about shifting geographies of birth and changes and continuities in traditional medicine use on Kulen.

Academics & Research

Research Interests

  • Traditional ecological knowledge
  • Indigenous cosmologies
  • Post-conflict recovery and resilience
  • Anthropology of aid and agencies
    • outputs

    Publications

    Emptying the land: animism and aftermath on Cambodia’s Mount Kulen. 2025

    2025. ‘Emptying the land: animism and aftermath on Cambodia’s Mount Kulen.’ Asian Ethnology (under review).

    Advocacy and “untidy solutions”: extraction and agriculture in a contested national park on sacred ground. 2025

    2025. ‘Advocacy and “untidy solutions”: extraction and agriculture in a contested national park on sacred ground.’ In Pauline von Hellerman, Clare Korsant & Sian Sullivan (Eds.) Beyond ‘People Versus Parks?’ Anthropology, Conservation and Positionality in the 21st Century. Publication pending with Open Book Publishers.

    Ungoverned landscapes: analyzing post-conflict resettlement in Sdao commune in northwest Cambodia. 2024

    2024. ‘Ungoverned landscapes: analyzing post-conflict resettlement in Sdao commune in northwest Cambodia.’ Southeast Cambodia: A Multidisciplinary Journal.

    Speaking for the spirits: a reflection on uncertainties, expertise, and methodology in ethnographic fieldwork on religion. 2023

    2023. ‘Speaking for the spirits: a reflection on uncertainties, expertise, and methodology in ethnographic fieldwork on religion.’ IAS Working Paper, No. 72.

    Living with landmines: inhabiting a war-altered landscape. 2022

    2022. Living with landmines: inhabiting a war-altered landscape. Journal of Material Culture 27(2), 91-10

    Province of thieves: an essay on violence, reflexivity, and the cross-cultural encounter. 2022

    2022. ‘Province of thieves: an essay on violence, reflexivity, and the cross-cultural encounter.’ Anthropology and Humanism 47(1), 226-234.

    The things that remain: encountering ruination and remnants in a post-conflict landscape in Western Cambodia. 2020

    2020. ‘The things that remain: encountering ruination and remnants in a post-conflict landscape in Western Cambodia.’ Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 21(3), 264-279.