Sophie Chao
Sophie Chao is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Anthropology, University of Sydney. Her research in anthropology and the environmental humanities investigates the intersections of Indigeneity, ecology, capitalism, health, and justice in the Pacific. Sophie is author of In the Shadow of the Palms: More-Than-Human Becomings in West Papua (Duke University Press, 2022), which received the Duke University Press Scholars of Color First Book Award in 2021, and Land of Famished Beings: West Papuan Theories of Hunger (Duke UP, 2025). She is also co-editor of The Promise of Multispecies Justice (Duke University Press, 2022) with Karin Bolender and Eben Kirksey.
Sophie previously worked for the human rights organization Forest Peoples Programme in Indonesia, supporting the rights of forest-dwelling Indigenous peoples to their customary lands, resources, and livelihoods. She has also undertaken consultancies for United Nations bodies including the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the United Nations Working Group on the Issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations. Her personal website is at www.morethanhumanworlds.com.