Setha M. Low (born March 14, 1948) is a former president of the

American Anthropological Association The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an American organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 members, the association, based in Arlington, Virginia, includes archaeologists, cultural anthropo ...

, a professor in

environmental psychology Environmental psychology is a branch of psychology that explores the relationship between humans and the external world. It examines the way in which the natural environment and our built environments shape us as individuals. Environmental psycho ...

, and the director of the Public Space Research Group at the

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

. Low also served as a Conservation Guest Scholar at the

Getty Conservation Institute The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), located in Los Angeles, California, is a program of the J. Paul Getty Trust. It is headquartered at the Getty Center but also has facilities at the Getty Villa, and commenced operation in 1985.J. Paul Gett ...

. Low received a B.A. in psychology from

Pitzer College Pitzer College is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was founded in 1963 as a women's college in the Claremont Colleges consortium and became coeducational in 1970. Pitzer enrolls approximately 1000 students. Pitzer off ...

Claremont, California Claremont () is a suburban city in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, east of Los Angeles. It lies in the Pomona Valley at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census it had ...

in 1969 and her M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1971 and 1976. Her recent research includes an ethnography of residents in gated communities in

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

and on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

and a study of urban parks with case studies including New York City's Prospect Park, Orchard Beach in

Pelham Bay Park Pelham Bay Park is a municipal park located in the northeast corner of the New York City borough of the Bronx. It is, at , the largest public park in New York City. The park is more than three times the size of Manhattan's Central Park. The p ...

, and Jacob Riis Park in the

Gateway National Recreation Area Gateway National Recreation Area is a U.S. National Recreation Area in New York City and Monmouth County, New Jersey. It provides recreational opportunities that are not commonly found in a dense urban environment, including ocean swimming, b ...

. More broadly Low's research includes work on the anthropology of space and place,

medical anthropology Medical anthropology studies "human health and disease, health care systems, and biocultural adaptation". It views humans from multidimensional and ecological perspectives. It is one of the most highly developed areas of anthropology and appli ...

urban anthropology Urban anthropology is a subset of anthropology concerned with issues of urbanization, poverty, urban space, social relations, and neoliberalism. The field has become consolidated in the 1960s and 1970s. Ulf Hannerz quotes a 1960s remark that t ...

historic preservation Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK) is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...

, landscapes of fear, security/insecurity, and gating in Latin America, the United States, and the cities of Western Europe. Low grew up in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and currently resides in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

Publications

* 2022 ''Why Public Space Matters''. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780197543733. * 2016 ''Spatializing Culture: The Ethnography of Space and Place''. New York and London: Routledge. * 2006 ''The Politics of Public Space'' ith co-editor Neil Smith New York and London: Routledge. * 2005 ''Rethinking Urban Parks: Public Space and Cultural Diversity''. University of Texas Press. * 2003 ''Behind the Gates: The New American Dream''. New York and London: Routledge. * 2003 ''The Anthropology of Space and Place: Locating Culture'' ith co-author Denise Lawrence-Zuñiga Oxford: Blackwell. * 2000 ''On the Plaza: The Politics of Public Space and Culture''. Austin: University of Texas Press. * 1999 ''Theorizing the City: The New Urban Anthropology Reader''. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. * 1996 "Spatializing Culture: The Social Production and Social Construction of Public Space," ''American Ethnologist'' 23(4): 861–879. * 1995 ''Children of the Urban Poor: The Sociocultural Environment of Growth, Development and Malnutrition in Guatemala City'' ith co-author F. Johnston Boulder: Westview. * 1995 "Indigenous Architectural Representations: Mesoamerican and Caribbean Foundations of the Spanish American Plaza," ''American Anthropologist'' 97(4): 748–762.

References

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External links

Setha M. Low, Professor of Anthropology, The Graduate Center, CUNY

Setha Low speaks about public space at House of Speakeasy's Seriously Entertaining
1948 births Living people American women anthropologists American anthropologists 21st-century American psychologists American women psychologists Environmental psychologists 21st-century American women 20th-century American psychologists {{US-anthropologist-stub