Susanna B. Hecht is an American

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

, professor of

Urban Planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

and professor of international history at the

Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (, abbreviated IHEID), commonly referred to as Geneva Graduate Institute, is a graduate-level research university in Geneva, Switzerland dedicated to international relations, dev ...

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

Life and work

Her early work on the

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...

of the Amazon led to the founding of the subfield of

political ecology Political ecology is the study of the relationships between political, economic and social factors with environmental issues and changes. Political ecology differs from apolitical ecological studies by politicizing environmental issues and pheno ...

. This subfield of geography embraces

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...

environmental studies Environmental studies (EVS or EVST) is a multidisciplinary academic field which systematically studies human behavior, human interaction with the Natural environment, environment. Environmental studies connects principles from the physical sci ...

and a wide variety of other fields in an effort to paint a more intricate picture of a particular geographic region and the influence it has on the world around it as well as how the world impacts the region. The

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...

is her primary subject of inquiry and she is the co-author of the book, ''Fate of the Forest: Destroyers, Developers and Defenders of the Amazon'' with

Alexander Cockburn Alexander Claud Cockburn ( ; 6 June 1941 – 21 July 2012) was a Scottish-born Irish-American political journalist and writer. Cockburn was brought up by British parents in Ireland, but lived and worked in the United States from 1972. Together ...

, originally published in 1990, but which has been updated and reissued by the

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the university press of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It pu ...

in 2010. In 2004, ''Fate of the Forest'' was named one of the most influential books in cultural geography by the American Association of Geography. The book has become a classic text in environmental studies, and has won numerous awards. She is widely considered a preeminent authority on

forest transition Forest transition refers to a geographic theory describing a reversal or turnaround in land-use trends for a given territory from a period of net forest area loss (i.e., deforestation) to a period of net forest area gain. The term "landscape tur ...

and

sustainable agriculture Sustainable agriculture is agriculture, farming in sustainability, sustainable ways meeting society's present food and textile needs, without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs. It can be based on an ...

. In addition to her academic work, she has also written popular articles for the Nation, ''

New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal, established in 1960, which analyses international politics, the global economy, social theory, and cultural topics from a leftist perspective. History Background As part of the emergin ...

'' and ''

Fortune Fortune may refer to: General * Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck * Luck * Wealth * Fate * Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling * Fortune, in a fortune cookie Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Fortune'' (19 ...

'' magazine. Hecht received her A.B. from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

and her Ph.D. in

Geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

from 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 ...

. She was awarded the prestigiou
John Simon Guggenheim fellowship
in 2008 and has received fellowships and grants from

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

, The

Pew Charitable Trust The Pew Charitable Trusts is an independent non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO), founded in 1948. Pew's stated mission is to serve the public interest by "improving public policy, informing the public, and invigorating civic life". ...

, the

MacArthur Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 117 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.6 billion and ...

, The

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...

, and many others. She has also been a resident fellow at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

in Princeton and the Center for the Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. In 2018, she was awarded the David Livingstone Centenary Medal of the

American Geographical Society The American Geographical Society (AGS) is an organization of professional geographers, founded in 1851 in New York City. Most fellows of the society are United States, Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows f ...

."The David Livingstone Centenary Medal"
American Geographical Society. Retrieved June 17, 2010.

Recent publications

*Susanna Hecht, 2013

Chicago: University of Chicago Press. *Susanna Hecht; Alexander Cockburn, 2010, The fate of the forest : developers, destroyers, and defenders of the Amazon, Updated Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. *Susanna Hecht, 2008, Kayapo Savanna Management: Fire, Soils and Reforestation in a Threatened Biome. W. Woods (Ed). Amazon Soils: Essays in Honor of Wim Sombroek, Berlin. Springer Verlag *Susanna Hecht, 2007, Globalization and Forest Recovery in Inhabited Landscapes. Bioscience Vol 57(8) 663-672 *Susanna Hecht, 2007, Forests, Fields and Family: Women and Children in the Extractive Economies of Acre, Brazil, Journal of Agrarian Change. Vol 7 (3) 316-347 *Susanna Hecht, 2006, Forest Resurgence, Social Process and Environmental Politics in El Salvador. World Development Vol 34 (2) 308-323. (with S. Kandel, H. Rosa, I. Gomes, N. Cuellar) *Susanna Hecht, 2005
Soybean Production, Development and Conservation on an Amazon Frontier
Development and Change, V. 36 (2) 375-404 *Susanna Hecht, 2004, The Last Unfinished Page of Genesis: Euclides da Cunha and the Amazon. Historical Geography Vol 2:43-69. *Susanna Hecht, 2004, Indigenous Soil Management and the Creation of Amazonian Dark Earths: Implications of Kayapo Practices in Johannes Lehman (Ed) Amazonian Dark Earths: Origins, Properties and Management of Fertile Soils in the Humid Tropics, Kluwer. Dorecht, pp. 355–373.

Interviews with Susanna Hecht

A Scientist Extols the Value of Forests Shaped by Humans
" Interview with Susanna Hecht in the newsletter of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies *

Notes

External links

Susanna Hecht's faculty web pageUCLA Institute for the Environment page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hecht, Susanna American geographers American expatriates in Switzerland Political ecologists UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs faculty Academic staff of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies Living people Year of birth missing (living people) University of Chicago alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni