Sarah Lyon

Research Interests:

economic anthropology

business and organizational anthropology

Latin America

gender and development

agri-food systems

Education

Ph.D. Emory University
B.A. Smith College

Biography

My work is situated at the juncture of development studies, economic anthropology and food studies. I am particularly interested in how alternative food networks such as fair trade work to create and sustain diverse economies in the United States and Latin America.

Research

My current research explores how changing labor practices, economic relations, and discourses surrounding marketable coffee qualities (e.g., organic, fairtrade) within global value chains affect cooperatives and communities. Specifically, we are investigating how these changing practices shape the gendered conditions of women's coffee production in Oaxaca, Mexico and struggles for gender equity across the value chain.

I also continue to investigate the nature of producer and consumer relations in certified commodity networks and the impact of fair trade and other consumption based development initiatives among agricultural smallholders in Mexico and Central America. Fair trade is a trading partnership based on dialogue, transparency, and respect that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers. Minimum prices and social premiums linked to fair trade certifications, which require independent audit of the environmental, economic, and social conditions of commodity production and exchange, are integral to the system.

Courses Taught

ANT 101: Introduction to Anthropology
ANT 245: Food, Culture, and Society
ANT 301: History of Anthropological Thought
ANT 311: Anthropological Perspectives on Globalization
ANT 324: Contemporary Cultures of Latin America
ANT 338: Economic Anthropology
ANT 352: Business, Culture, and Society
ANT 352: Anthropology of Tourism
ANT 480: Business and Organizational Cultures
ANT 582: Public Anthropology - Senior Seminar
ANT 601: Contemporary Theory
ANT 610: History of Anthropological Theory
ANT 680: Business and Organizational Cultures
ANT 734: Economic Anthropology
ANT 770: Globalization
ANT 770: Culture and Power in Latin America

Selected Publications:

BOOKS

2012 Lyon, S. and E.C. Wells, eds. Global Tourism: Cultural Heritage and Economic Encounters. New York: Alta Mira Press.
2011 Coffee and Community: Maya Farmers and Fair Trade Markets . Boulder: University Press of Colorado. [Winner of the Society for Economic Anthropology's Book Prize]
2010 Lyon, S. and M. Moberg, eds. Fair Trade and Social Justice: Global Ethnographies. New York: New York University Press.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

2022 Rethinking Fair Trade: Narratives and Counter Narratives of Poverty and Partnerships. Research in Economic Anthropology 41:187-215.
2021 Flynn, M., Eggerth, E., Jacobston, J., and Lyon, S. Heart Attacks, Bloody Noses, and Other “Emotional Problems”: Cultural and Conceptual Issues with the Spanish Translation of Self-Report Emotional Health Items. Family and Community Health 44(1): 1-9.
2020 Lyon, S. Assembling Fair Trade: Power and Performativity in the Global Economy. Collaborative Anthropologies 12(1-2): 24-49.
2019 Lyon, S. Business Anthropology's Lens into Gender Equity: Assessing the Impact of 'Smart Economics' in the Coffee Sector. International Journal of Business Anthropology 9(2): 33-50.
2019 Lyon, S., T. Mutersbaugh, and H. Worthen. Constructing the Female Coffee Farmer: Do Corporate Smart Economic Initiatives Promote Gender Equity within Agricultural Value Chains? Economic Anthropology 6(1).
2018 Lyon, S. Coping with Coffee Rust in Oaxaca, Mexico: Vulnerability and The Impact of Fair Trade on Smallholders' Adaptive Capacity. Research in Economic Anthropology 38:79-101.
2018 Lyon, S. The Work of Anthropology Reconsidered: Career Diversity and the Future of Doctoral Education. Anthropology of Work Review 39(1):26-39.
2016 Lyon, S., T. Mutersbaugh, and H. Worthen. The Triple Burden: The Impact of Time Poverty on Women's Participation in Coffee Producer Organizational Governance in Mexico. Agriculture and Human Values.
2015 Lyon, S. The Hidden Labor of Fair Trade. Labor. Working Class History of the Americas 12(1-2): 159-176.
2015 Venter, M. and S. Lyon. Configuring and Commoditizing the Archaeological Landscape: Heritage, Identity and Tourism in the Tuxtla Mountains. Archaeology Papers of the American Anthropology Association 25(1):74-82.
2014 Lyon, S. The GoodGuide to "Good Coffee". Gastronomica 14(4): 60-69.
2014 Lyon, S. Fair Trade Towns USA: Growing the Market within a Diverse Economy. Journal of Political Ecology 21:145-160.
2014 Lyon, S., S. Ailshire and A. Sehon. Fair Trade Consumption and The Limits to Solidarity. Human Organization 73(2): 141-152.
2013 Lyon, S. Coffee Tourism in Chiapas: Recasting Colonial Narratives for Contemporary Markets. Culture, Agriculture, Food and the Environment 35(2): 125-139.
2013 Lyon, S. Coffee Tourism and Community Development in Guatemala. Human Organization 72(3): 188-198.
2010 Lyon, S., J. Aranda and T. Mutersbaugh. Gender and Governanace in Fairtrade-Organic Coffee. Geo-Forum 41(1): 93-103.
2010 Lyon, S. What Good Will Two More Trees Do? The Political Economy of Sustainable Coffee Certification, Local Livelihoods and Maya Identities. Landscape Research 34(2): 223-240.
2008 We Want to Be Equal to Them: Fair Trade Coffee Certification and Gender Equity within Organizations. Human Organization 68(3):258-268.
2007 Maya Coffee Farmers and the Fair Trade Commodity Chain. Culture and Agriculture 29(2): 100-112.
2007 Fair Trade Coffee and Human Rights in Guatemala. Journal of Consumer Policy 30(3): 241-261.
2006 Evaluating Fair Trade Consumption: Politics, Defetishization, and Producer Participation. International Journal of Consumer Studies 30(5): 452-465.
2006 Migratory Imaginations: The Commodification and Contradictions of Shade Grown Coffee. Social Anthropology 14(3): 1-14.

BOOK CHAPTERS

2021 Lyon, S. Anthropological Perspectives on Fair Trade. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Published online October 29, 2021.
2021 Lyon, S. Fair Trade's Impact on Smallholders. Handbook on the Human Impact of Agriculture. James, Harvey S. Jr., ed. Pp. 194-217. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.
2021 Lyon, S. Business Anthropology. In Sage Handbook of Cultural Anthropology. Pedersen, Lene and Lisa Cliggett, eds. Pp. 364-382. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
2018 Lyon, S. Digital Connections: Coffee, Agency, and Unequal Platforms. In Digital Food Activism. Schneider, Tanja, et al., eds. Pp. 70-88. New York: Routledge.
2017 Lyon, S. Economics. In Perspectives: An Open Invitation to Cultural Anthropology. Brown, Nina, et al, eds. Pp. 1-27. Wasington DC: American Anthropological Association.
2015 Lyon, S. Fair Trade and Indigenous Communities in Latin America. In Handbook of Research on Fair Trade. Raynolds, Laura and Elizabeth Bennett, eds. Edward Elgar.
2012 Lyon, S. “Here The Campesino is Dead”: Can Central America’s Smallholders Be Saved? In Central America and the New Millennium: Living Transition and Reimagining Democracy. Moodie, Ellen and Jennifer Burrell, eds. Pp. 196-211. New York: Berghan Books.
2012 Lyon, S. and C. Wells. Ethnographies of Global Tourism: Cultural Heritage, Economic Encounters, and the Redefinition of Impact. In Global Tourism: Cultural Heritage and Economic Encounters. Lyon, S. and E. Christian Wells, eds. Pp. 1-20. Walnut Creek: CA: Alta Mira Press.
2010 Lyon, S. A Market of Our Own: Women’s Livelihoods and Fair Trade Coffee Markets. In Fair Trade and Social Justice: Global Ethnographies. Lyon, S. and M. Moberg, eds. Pp. 125-146. New York: New York University Press.
2010 Lyon, S. and M. Moberg. What’s Fair? The Paradox of Seeking Justice through Markets. In Fair Trade and Social Justice: Global Ethnographies. Lyon, S. and M. Moberg, eds. Pp. 1-24. New York: New York University Press.
2006 Just Java: Roasting Fair Trade Coffee. In, Fast Food-Slow Food: The Economic Anthropology of the Global Food System. Wilk, R., ed. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.

College of Arts & Sciences

Anthropology

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Sarah Lyon