1. Professor MELISSA LEACH
Curriculum Vitae
Date of Birth: 5 January 1965
Married, 4 children
m.leach@ids.ac.uk
Experience and Interests:
Melissa Leach is Director of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of
Sussex. She directed from 2006 – 2014 the interdisciplinary, internationally-collaborative ESRC
STEPS (Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability) Centre. As an
anthropologist she has thirty years of long-term ethnographic research experience in West
Africa, focusing on eastern Sierra Leone (Mende), Guinea, Liberia and the Gambia, speaking
four local languages. Her interdisciplinary, policy-engaged research links environment,
agriculture, health, technology and gender, with particular interests in knowledge, power and the
politics of science and policy processes. Recent research and publications focus on the politics
of green transformations; forest-climate change relations, and the anthropology and ecology of
zoonotic disease (including Ebola). She is currently vice-chair of the Science Committee of
Future Earth; a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems
(IPES-food), and co-leading the 2016 World Social Science Report.
Educational qualifications:
1990 PhD Social Anthropology, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS),
University of London
1987 MPhil Qualifying Examination, Social Anthropology (distinction), SOAS
1985 BA (Hons) Geography, class I* (distinction), University of Cambridge
Languages:
English - native speaker; French - fluent, read, write; Malinke (Guinea) - good conversational;
Mende (Sierra Leone) - conversational; Krio (Sierra Leone) - conversational; Kissi
(Guinée/Sierra Leone) - conversational.
Employment:
April 2014 - Director, Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
August 2000 - Professorial Fellow, IDS. Founder and Leader of Knowledge, Technology
and Society (KNOTS) team 2005 - 2010.
Member of Institute Strategic Management Group 2005-2010, including
responsibility for developing 2010 – 2015 institutional strategy.
Director of ESRC STEPS Centre from 2006
May 1990 - Fellow, IDS. Leader of Environment Group
Professional Activities:
Future Earth, 2013 ongoing, Vice Chair of Science Committee, steering development of agenda
around planetary futures, sustainability and post-2015 development.
International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-food), panel member, 2014
ongoing.
UN Women, Lead author of 2014 World Survey on the Role of Women in Development on
gender equality and sustainable development.

2. ISSC World Social Science Report 2016 on Inequalities and Social justice, co-leader
Trustee, Malaria Consortium, ongoing
Advisory Board member, ESRC ‘Nexus Network: New connections in food, energy, water and
the environment’, ongoing
UK Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (SAGE) Ebola, 2014 – 15.
Editorial Boards:
Editor in Chief, IDS Bulletin; member of editorial advisory boards of World Development
(current); Development and Change (current); Social Science and Medicine (current); Journal
of Modern African Studies (2005 – 2012); Critical African Studies (current); Earthscan Science
in Society Book series (2007 – 2012); Routledge Pathways to Sustainability book series (series
editor, current).
Prizes:
2012 European Association for the Study of Science and Technology Ziman Prize for
public engagement with science, for STEPS Centre ‘New Manifesto’ initiative.
1998 Amaury Talbot Prize of the Royal Anthropological Institute, for best book in African
Anthropology, for ‘Misreading the African Landscape’
Selected Recent Research Grants:
20014 – 15 Co-I, Ebola response Anthropology Platform, Wellcome/DFID/SCF R2HC
(with London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine), £219, 000.
2006-2016 Director/PI, ESRC-funded STEPS (Social, Technological and
Environmental Pathways to Sustainability) Centre, global research and
policy engagement hub with partners in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Large project cluster on zoonotic disease. £9.4 million over 10 years.
2012 - 2015 Overall PI, Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium. ESPA
funded, £3.8m. NERC/DFID/ESRC.
2010 – 2011 Co-I, From Bats to Humans. ESEI Catalyst grant. £50,000,
MRC/NERC/ESRC.
2010 – 2012 Co-I, Anthropogenic Dark Earths in Africa? Studies in Liberia, Guinea,
Ghana, ESRC. £450,000.
2010 – 2013 Anthropogenic Dark Earths in Africa? (social, historical and soil science
investigation of farmers’ carbon-enrichment knowledge and practices in
Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ghana). Co-investigator, £450,000,
ESRC, evaluated ‘outstanding’
2005-2006 Governing Science and Technology: Challenges for Poverty Reduction.
Principal Investigator, Rockefeller Foundation, $US 199,000.
2006 Environmental Policy Processes: A review. Co-leader, commissioned
study for DFID.

3. 2002-2005 The Cultural and Political Dynamics of Technology Delivery: the case of
infant immunisation in Africa. Principal Investigator, DFID, £290,000.
2002-2004 Childhood vaccination: Science and public engagement in international
perspective. Principal Investigator, ESRC Science in Society Research
Programme, £127,000. Evaluated ‘outstanding’.
2001-2005 Citizens and science in a global context. Programme co-convenor within
IDS-based, DFID-funded Development Research Centre on Citizenship,
Participation and Accountability.
2000 - 2003 Improving access to natural capital for the poor in contexts of
uncertainty: institutions, governance and policy processes. Co-
investigator, DFID Natural Resources Policy Research Programme.
1998 - 2001 Forest science and forest policy: knowledge, institutions and policy
processes. Principal Investigator, DFID/ESCOR, £219,000.
1999 Evaluation of local sustainable development programmes in Africa.
Commissioned study, UNCDF.
1998 Poverty-environment linkages: implications for research and policy.
Commissioned study, UNDP.
1998 - 1999 Institutions and Uncertainty. Co-Investigator, Ford Foundation.
1995 – 1998 Environmental Entitlements: the institutional dynamics of environmental
change.
Principal Investigator, ESRC, £219,000. Evaluated ‘outstanding’.
1996 Second Nature. Video/television programme. Co-writer, presenter and
collaborator with Cyrus Productions Ltd, ODA/DFID, £47,000.
1997 Mainstreaming gender into environmental aid. Commissioned study,
OECD/DAC.
1996 Gender and environment: a research training course. Commissioned
study to prepare teaching materials for PhD programmes. Commssioned
study, Noragric.
1994-1995 Integrating gender into environmental research and policy. Commissioned
study for EPAT/Natural Resources wing, USAID.
1994 Gender and environment. Commissioned advisor on gender and the
environment, Gender and Global Issues Programme, University of
California at Davis, USA, Ford Foundation.
1992-1994 Social dynamics of environmental change in West Africa's forest-savanna
mosaic. Principal Investigator, ODA/ESCOR, £250,000. Evaluated
‘outstanding’.

4. 1991 Gender-environment relations. Commissioned study. SIDA.
1990 Poverty-environment linkages. Commissioned overview study, Global
Environmental Change Programme. ODA/ESRC.
1990 Community development in Sierra Leone. Assessment and planning
exercise. Consultancy, Oxfam.
Teaching and training:
Programme design and convening:
Summer School on Pathways to Sustainability: 2012 ongoing, pioneered, co-designed/delivered
and fundraised for annual summer school for c. 50 international participants, combining
innovative teaching methods (interactive workshops and walkshops; world cafe sessions, media
and social media)
MA Science, Society and Development: 2007 ongoing, Co-led design and delivery of new IDS-
based MA programme. Deisgn and convenorship of course on Science, Knowledge and the
Politics of Development.
Lectures and workshop sessions in IDS Masters’ courses: Ideas in Development, Environment
and Development; Development Anthropology, Science and Policy Processes; Health and
Development.
Co-director, IDS/University of Sussex MA in Gender and Development, 1993-4, 1995-6, 1996-7.
External Examining:
• University of Cambridge MPhil Development Studies (2002-5);
• LSE MA Anthropology of Development (2006 - 2009).
• Programme design advisor, MA Energy and Development, University of Edinburgh.
• PhD examining: University of Copenhagen; University of the Western Cape, South
Africa; King’s College London; University of Kent.
PhD supervision:
Students completed:
Lyla Mehta (Commonwealth Scholarship, 1994 - 98) Contexts of scarcity: The political ecology
of water in Kutch, India.
Frank Matose (1996 – 01) Local people and reserved forests in Zimbabwe: What prospects for
co-management?
William Wolmer (ESRC studentship, 1997 – 2001) Loweveld Landscapes: Conservation,
development and the wilderness vision in South-Eastern Zimbabwe.
Colette Solomon (1997 – 2004) Giving women choices? Development interfaces: Women and
credit in Tamale, Northern Ghana.

5. Isatou Touray (Commonwealth Scholarship, 1999 – 2003) Gender and environment, land and
livelihood: Policy perspectives and local dynamics in a Gambian community.
Carol Yong (2001 – 2006) Dam-based development in Malaysia: The Temenggor and Sungai
Selengor dams and the resettlement of the Orang Asli.
Saverio Kratli (ESRC studentship, 2001 – 2007) Cows who choose domestication. Generation
and management of Domestic Animal Diversity by WoDaaBe pastoralists (Niger).
Rebecca Cassidy (MRC/ESRC studentship, 2005 – 2011) Changing understandings of HIV and
AIDS through treatment interactions.
Paul Forster (ESRC studentship, 2007 – 2011) Risk, modernity and the H5N1 virus in action in
Indonesia: A multi-sited study of the threats of avian and human pandemic influenza.
Ann Wilkinson (ESRC studentship, 2008 – 2013) The process and practice of diagnosis:
innovations in diagnostics for Lassa fever in Sierra Leone.
Birgit Habermann (FWF – Austrian Science Fund, 2009 – 2013) Ways of knowing of farmers
and scientists: Tree and soil management in the Ethiopian Highlands.
Elizabeth Mills (Commonwealth Scholarship, 2009 –2013). AIDS Biomedicine and the ‘Politics
of Life’ for Women Living with HIV in South Africa.
Publications:
Books:
Leach, M. (ed), 2015, Gender Equality and Sustainable Development. London: Routledge.
Leach, M. and I. Scoones (eds), 2015, Carbon Conflicts and Forest Landscapes in Africa.
London: Routledge.
Scoones, I., M. Leach and P. Newell, 2015 (eds) The Politics of Green Transformations.
London: Routledge.
Fairhead, J., M. Leach and I. Scoones (eds), 2013, Green Grabbing: A new appropriation of
nature. London: Routledge.
Dry, S. And M. Leach (eds), 2010, Epidemics: Science, Governance and Social Justice.
London: Earthscan
Leach, M., I. Scoones and A. Stirling, 2010, Dynamic Sustainabilities: Technology,
Environment, Social Justice. London: Earthscan
Leach, M. And J. Fairhead, 2007, Vaccine Anxieties: Global Science, Child Health and Society.
London: Earthscan.
Leach, M. and I. Scoones, 2006, The Slow Race: Making science and technology work for the
poor. London: Demos.

6. Leach, M., I. Scoones and B. Wynne (eds), 2005, Science and Citizens: Globalisation and the
Challenge of Engagement. London and New York: Zed Press.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2003, Science, Society and Power: Environmental Knowledge and
Policy in West Africa and the Caribbean. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Berkhout, F., M. Leach and I. Scoones (eds), 2003, Negotiating Environmental Change: New
Perspectives from Social Science. London: Edward Elgar.
Fairhead, J., T. Geysbeek, S. Holsoe and M. Leach, 2003, African-American Exploration in
West Africa: Four nineteenth century diaries. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1998, Reframing Deforestation: Global Analysis and Local Realities
– Studies in West Africa. London: Routledge.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1996, Misreading the African Landscape: Society and Ecology in a
Forest-Savanna Mosaic. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Leach, M. and R. Mearns, 1996, The Lie of the Land: Challenging Received Wisdom on the
African Environment. Oxford: James Currey Publishers Ltd. and New York: Heinemann
Leach, M., 1994, Rainforest Relations: Gender and Resource use among the Mende of Gola,
Sierra Leone. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press and Washington: Smithsonian
Institution
Peer-reviewed journal articles:
Leach, M., 2015, The Ebola crisis and post-2015 development. Journal of International
Development
27, 816–834
Chandler, C., Fairhead, J., Leach, M., Martineau, F., Mokuwa, E., Parker, M., Richards, P. and
Wilkinson, A. (2014), ‘Ebola: limitations of correcting misinformation’, The Lancet, Volume
385, (9975),1261-1364
Whitty, C.J.M., J. Farrar, N. Ferguson, W.J. Edmunds, P. Piot, M. Leach and S. Davies, 2014
‘Infectious disease: Tough choices to reduce Ebola transmission’, Nature 15: 7526
Wilkinson, A. & M. Leach (2014) ‘Ebola: myths, realities and structural violence’, African Affairs,
114 (454),136-14
Leach, M. and M. Tadros, 2014, ‘Epidemics and the politics of knowledge: Contested narratives
and pathways in H1N1 response’, Journal of Medical Anthropology.
Fraser, J., Leach, M. & Fairhead, J. (2014) ‘Anthropogenic Dark Earths in the landscapes of
Upper Guinea, West Africa: Intentional or Inevitable?’ Annals of the Association of
American Geographers, 10/092014.
Frausin, Victoria, Fraser, James Angus, Narmah, Woulay, Lahai, Morrison K, Winnebah,
Thomas R A, Fairhead, Jamesand Leach, Melissa (2014) ‘“God made the soil, but we

7. made it fertile”: gender, knowledge, and practice in the formation and use of African dark
earths in Liberia and Sierra Leone’. Human Ecology, 42 (5). pp. 695-710.
Leach, M. and I. Scoones, 2013, ‘Carbon forestry in West Africa: The politics of models,
measures and verification processes,’ Global Environmental Change.
Leach, M. and I. Scoones, 2013, ‘The social and political lives of zoonotic disease models:
Narratives, science and policy’, Social Science and Medicine, pp. 10-17.
Ely, A., Adrian Smith, Andy Stirling, Melissa Leach and Ian Scoones (2013) ‘Innovation Politics
Post-Rio+20 - Hybrid Pathways to Sustainability?’, Environment and Planning, C. 31.6:
1063-81
Leach, M., Rockström, J., Raskin, P., Scoones, I., Stirling, A.C., Smith, A., Thompson, J.,
Millstone, E., Ely, A., Arond, E., Folke, C. & Olsson, P. (2012) Transforming Innovation
for Sustainability, Ecology and Society, Vol. 17 (2)
Leach, M., J. Fairhead and J. Fraser, 2012, ‘Green grabs and biochar: Revaluing African soils
and farming in the new carbon economy’, Journal of Peasant Studies, 39:2.
Fairhead, J., M. Leach and I. Scoones (2012) ‘Green grabbing: A new appropriation of nature?’
Journal of Peasant Studies. 39:2, 285-307
Wood, J., M. Leach. L. Waldman, H. MacGregor, A.R. Fooks, K.E. Jones, O. Restif, D.
Dechmann, D.T.S. Haymann, K.S. Baker, A.J. Peel, A.O. Kamina, J. Fahr, Y. Ntiamoa-
Baidu, R. Suu-Ire, R.F. Breiman, J.H.Epstein, H.E. Field and A.A. Cunningham, 2012, ‘A
framework for the study of zoonotic disease emergence and its drivers: spillover of bat
pathogens as a case study’, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 19 vol. 367 no. 1604 2881-2892
Leach, M., I. Scoones and A. Stirling, 2010 ‘Governing epidemics in an age of complexity:
Narratives, politics and pathways to sustainability’, Global Environmental Change,
special issue on Governance and Resilience, 20(3): 369-377.
Ely, Adrian V. Melissa Leach, Ian Scoones and Andy C. Stirling, 2010, ‘A New Manifesto for
Innovation, Sustainability and Development – Response to Rhodes and Sulston’,
European Journal of Development Research. 22, 586-588.
Fairhead, J., M. Leach, D. Millimouno and A.A. Diallo, 2008, 'New therapeutic landscapes in
Africa: Parental engagement with infant health care in the Republic of Guinea', Social
Science and Medicine, 66(10): 2157-2167.
Cassidy, R. and M. Leach, 2009, ‘Science, politics and the Presidential AIDS 'cure'’, African
Affairs 108(433):559–580
Leach, M., A. Sumner and L. Waldman, 2008, ‘Discourses, dynamics and disquiet: multiple
knowledges in science, society and development’, Editorial introduction to DSA
conference special issue, Journal of International Development. 20, 727–738.
Waldman, L., A. Sumner and M. Leach, 2008, ‘Technology, rural dynamics and pro-poor
development’, Editorial introduction to DSA conference special issue, European Journal
of Development Research 20(3):371-376

8. Leach, M. and J. Fairhead, 2008, ‘Understandings of immunization: some West African
perspectives’, Bulletin of the WHO, June 2008.
Leach, M., 2008, ‘Pathways to Sustainability in the forest? The negotiation of knowledge, power,
and policy’, 2008, Environment and Planning A 40(8) 1783 – 1795
Rutherford ME, Dockerty JD, Jasseh M, Howie SRC, Herbison P, Jeffries DJ, Leach M, Stevens
W, Mulholland K, Adegbola RA, Hill PC, 2007, ‘Access to healthcare and under 5
mortality in The Gambia: a case control study’ Bulletin of the World Health Organization.
Hyder, A., G. Bloom, M. Leach, S.B. Syed and D. Peters, 2007, ‘Exploring health systems
research and its influence on policy processes in low income countries’, BioMed Central
Public Health, 7: 309
Leach. M., 2007, ‘Accommodating dissent’, Nature, 450, 22 November 2007, p. 483
Leach, M., 2007, 'Women as natural environmental carers: Earth mother myths and other
ecofeminist fables or how a strategic notion rose and fell', Development and Change, 38
(1) 67–85.
Leach, M., J. Fairhead, J. Cassell, M. Small and C.H. Mercer, 2006, 'The social shaping of
childhood vaccination practice in rural and urban Gambia: a quantitative survey of
mothers based on ethnography, Health Policy and Planning, 21(5):373-91.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2006, Where technoscience meets poverty: Medical research and
the economy of blood in The Gambia' Social Science and Medicine, 4.63:1109-20.
Cassell, J.A., M. Leach, M.S. Poltorak; C. H. Mercer; A. Iversen and J. R. Fairhead, 2006 'Is the
cultural context of MMR rejection a key to an effective public health discourse? (with,
Journal of Public Health, 120:783-794.
Fairhead, J., M. Leach and M. Small, 2006, 'Public engagement with science? Local
understandings of a vaccine trial in the Gambia', Journal of Biosocial Sciences, 38: 103-
116.
Poltorak, M., M. Leach, J. Fairhead and J. Cassell, 'MMR talk and vaccination choices: an
ethnographic study in Brighton', Social Science and Medicine, 61: 709-719.
Leach, M., 2004, 'Introduction to special issue: Security, socioecology, polity: Mande hunters,
civil society and nation-states in contemporary West Africa', Africa Today 50(4): vii - xv.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2002, 'Manners of contestation: "citizen science" and "indigenous
knowledge" in West Africa and the Caribbean', International Social Science Journal 173.
Leach, M., 2001, ‘Plural perspectives and institutional dynamics: challenges for community
forestry’, International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology
(IJARGE), 1 (3/4): 223-243.
Leach, M., 2000, ‘New shapes to shift: war, parks and the hunting persona in modern West
Africa’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 6(4): 577-595

9. Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2000, ‘Fashioned forest pasts, occluded histories? International
environmental analysis in West African locales’, Development and Change volume 31
no. 1
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2000, ‘Challenging neo-malthusian deforestation analyses in West
Africa’s dynamic forest landscapes’, Population and Development Review
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2000 'Desiccation and domination: science and struggles over
environment and development in colonial West Africa, Journal of African History
Leach, M., R. Mearns and I. Scoones, 1999,‘Environmental entitlements: dynamics and
institutions in community-based natural resource management’, World Development
27(2): 225-247.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1997, 'Deforestation in question: dialogue and dissonance in
ecological, social and historical knowledge of West Africa', Paideuma.
Leach, M. and C. Green, 1996, 'Gender and environmental history: from representations of
women and nature to gender analysis of ecology and politics', Environment and History
3(3): 343-70
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1996, ‘Reconsidering the extent of deforestation in twentieth century
West Africa’ Unasylva 49(192): 38-46.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1996, 'Enriching the landscape: social history and the management
of transition ecology in the forest-savanna mosaic (Republic of Guinea)’, Africa 66(1):
14-36.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1995, 'Reading forest history backwards: the interaction of policy
and local land use in Guinea, 1893-1993', Environment and History, 1 (1), March
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1995, 'False forest history, complicit social analysis: rethinking
some West African environmental narratives', World Development, 23 (6): 1023-1036
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1994, 'Les representations culturels Africaines de leur gestion de
l'environnement: éléments d'anthropologies Africaine', Politique Africaine, March
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1994,'Contested forests: modern conservation and historical land
use in Guinea's Ziama reserve' (with J. Fairhead), African Affairs, 93: 481-512
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1993, 'Whose social forestry and why? People, trees and managed
continuity in Guinea's forest-savanna mosaic', Zeitschrift fur Wirtschaftsgeographie, 37
(2): 86-101
Chambers, R. and M. Leach, 1989, 'Trees as savings and security for the rural poor', World
Development, 17 (3)
Leach, M., 1988, 'Becoming a "people sector": Indian voluntary agencies at a crossroads',
Community Development Journal, 23 (3)
Book chapters:

10. Galaz, V., I. Scoones, M. Leach and C. Stein, 2016, ‘The Political Economy of “One Health”
Research and Policy’, in Bardosh, K. (ed) (2016). One Health, Science, Politics and
Zoonotic Disease in Africa, Earthscan, London.
Bardosh, K., Leach, M. & Wilkinson, A. 2016, ‘The limits to rapid response: Ebola and structural
violence in West Africa’, in ‘One Health, Science, Politics and Zoonotic Disease in
Africa’, Bardosh, K. (ed), Earthscan
Leach, M. and I. Scoones, 2015, Political ecologies of forest carbon in Africa. In M. Leach and I.
Scoones (eds) Carbon Conflicts and Forest Landscapes in Africa. London: Routledge.
Winnebah, T. and M. Leach, 2015, Old forest reserve, new carbon interests: the case of the
Western Area Peninsular forest, Sierra Leone. In M. Leach and I. Scoones (eds) Carbon
Conflicts and Forest Landscapes in Africa. London: Routledge.
Leach, M., L. Mehta and P. Prabhakaran, 2015, ‘Sustainable development: A gendered
pathways approach’, in M. Leach (ed) Gneder Equality and Sustainable Deve;lopment,
1-34. London: Routledge
Mehta, L. and M. Leach, 2015, ‘Why do gender equality and sustainability go hand in hand?’ In
J. Hawley (ed) Why Women Will Save the Planet. London: Zed Press.
Leach, M., K. Raworth and J. Rockström, 2013, ‘Between social and planetary boundaries:
Navigating pathways in the safe and just space for humanity’, Introductory keynote
chapter, World Social Science Report. Paris: International Social Science Council.
Leach, M., 2013, ‘Pathways to sustainability: Building political strategies’, in Is Sustainability
Possible? State of the World 2013, Worldwatch Institute, Washington DC.
Leach, M., K. Raworth and J. Rockström, 2013, ‘Between social and planetary boundaries:
Navigating pathways in the safe and just space for humanity’, Introductory keynote
chapter, World Social Science Report. Paris: International Social Science Council.
Leach, M., 2012, ‘Sustainability, development, social justice: Towards a new politics of
innovation’, pp. 19-30 in Bolay, J-C. et al (eds) Technologies and Innovations for
Development: Scientific Cooperation for a Sustainable Future. Paris and Heidelberg:
Springer.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2012, ‘Environment and society: political ecologies and moral
futures’, in T. Marchand (ed) ‘Futures’, ASA Handbook of Social Anthropology. Sage
Books.
Fairhead, J., M. Leach and K.S. Amanor, 2012, ‘Anthropogenic Dark Earths and Africa: A
political agronomy of research disjunctures’, Chapter 4 in J. Sumberg and J. Thompson
(eds) Contested Agronomies. London: Routledge.
Leach, M., 2011, ‘Trees as Assets: Legacies and Lessons’, in A. Cornwall and I. Scoones (eds)
Revolutionizing Development: Reflections on the Work of Robert Chambers. London:
Earthscan.

11. Leach, M., J. Fairhead and M. Small, 2011, 'Being with MRC: Infant care and the social
meanings of cohort membership in Gambia's plural therapeutic landscapes', in W.
Geissler (ed) The Ethnography of Medical Research in Africa. Berg.
Cassidy, R. and M. Leach, 2010, ‘Mediated health citizenships: Living with HIV and engaging
with the Global Fund in The Gambia’, in J. Gaventa and R. Tandon (eds) Globalizing
Citizen Engagement. London: Zed Books.
Leach, M. and B. Hewlett, 2010, ‘Haemorrhagic fevers in Africa: Narratives, politics and
pathways’ in Dry and Leach (eds) Epidemics
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2009, ‘Amazonian dark earths in Africa’, in W. Woods et el (eds)
W.I. Woods et al (eds) Amazonian Dark Earths: Wim Sombroek’s Vision. Springer.
Leach. M., 2009, ‘Vaccinate!’, in Public Health campaigns: Getting the message across.
Geneva: World Health Organization.
Leach, M. and I. Scoones, 2009, ‘Health dynamics, innovation and the slow race to make
technology work for the poor’ Global Forum update on research for health, Geneva:
Global Forum for Health research.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2006, 'Partnerships for Sustainable Timber Production in Trinidad:
Dealing with Social and Ecological Dynamics', in Global-local partnerships for
conservation and sustainable forest use: a Latin American perspective. CEDLA Latin
America Series.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2005, 'Can globalised forest science work for the poor'? (with J.
Fairhead), in M. Ros Tongen et al (eds) African Forests between Nature and Livelihood
Resource. Edwin Mellen Press.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2003, 'Termites, society and ecology: Perspectives from West
Africa', in E. Motte-Florac and J.M.C. Thomas (eds), Insects in Oral Literature and
Traditions. Paris-Louvain, Peeters-SELAF.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2002, ‘Anthropology, culture and environment’ (with J. Fairhead) in
J. Clancy ed. Exotic no more: Anthropology on the front-lines. Royal Anthropological
Institute.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2002, ‘Practising "patrimony" and "biodiversity": the articulation of
diverse local, national and international perspectives in Guinea, West Africa' (with J.
Fairhead), in M-C Cormier-Salem et al (eds) Patrimonialiser la Nature Tropicale:
Dynamiques Locales, Enjeux Internationaux. Paris: IRD.
Leach, M., 2002 ‘Poverty and environment: Priorities for research and policy', in H. Agersnap
and M. Funder(eds), Conservation and Development: New insights and lessons learnt,
Copenhagen: Environment and Development Network.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2001, 'Reproducing locality: a critical exploration of the relationship
between natural science, social science and policy in West African ecological problems',
in V. Broche-Due and R. Schroeder (eds.) Poverty and the politics of environmental
sustainability.

12. Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2001, ‘Shaping socio-ecological and historical knowledge of
deforestation in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Togo’, in R. Cline-Cole (ed) Contested
Terrain: Forestry Issues in West Africa. UK: Ashgate Publishers.
Leach, M., 1998, ‘Culture and environmental sustainability’, in World Culture Report, volume 1.
Paris: UNESCO
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1999, ‘Termites, society and ecology: perspectives from West Africa’
in D. Posey (ed) Culture, ecology and post-modernity, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Green, C., S. Joekes and M. Leach, 1998, ‘Questionable links: approaches to gender in
environmental research and policy’, in C. Jackson and R. Pearson (eds.), Feminist
visions of development: gender analysis and policy, 259-283. London: Routledge.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1998, 'Representatives of the past: trees in historical discourse and
socialised ecology in the Republic of Guinea' in L. Rival (ed.), The Social Life of Trees:
From Symbols of Regeneration to Social Artefacts, Hendon and Oxford: VA and Berg
Publishers Ltd
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1998, 'Culturing trees: the political ecology of Kissi and Kuranko
forest islands' in K. Seeland (ed.), Nature is Culture: Indigenous Knowledge and Socio-
Cultural Aspects of Trees and Forests in Non-European Cultures, London: IT
Publications
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1998, ‘Reframing deforestation: escaping orthodoxies in West Africa’
in A. Reenberg, I. Nielsen and H.S. Marcussen (eds.), The Sahel: Sahelian perspectives
– myths and realities. SERIN (Denmark) Occasional Paper No. 6: 13-28.
Leach, M., 1997, ‘Shifting social and ecological mosaics in Mende upland farming’, in E.
Nyerges (ed) The Ecology of Practice: Food production systems in West Africa. New
York: Lynne Reiner.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1997 'Webs of power and the construction of enviornmental policy
problems: forest loss in Guinea' (with J. Fairhead) in R. Grillo and J. Stirrat (eds),
Discourse of Development: Anthropological Perspectives, Pluto Press
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1996, 'Relics of colonial science: rethinking West Africa's forest-
savanna mosaic' (with J. Fairhead) in M. Leach and R. Mearns (eds), The Lie of the
Land: Challenging Received Wisdom in African Environmental Change and Policy,
London and Bloomington: James Currey Ltd and Indiana University Press
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1996, 'Reframing forest history: a radical reappraisal of the roles of
people and climate in West Africa vegetation change' (with J. Fairhead) in G. Chapman
and T. Driver (eds), Timescales of Environmental Change, London: Routledge
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1995, 'Local agro-ecological management and forest-savanna
transitions: the case of Kissidougou, Guinea' (with J. Fairhead) in T. Binns (ed.), People
and Environment in Africa, Chichester: John Wiley and Sons Ltd

13. Leach, M. and J. Fairhead, 1994, 'Ruined settlements and new gardens: gender and soil-
ripening among Kuranko farmers in the forest-savanna transition zone' (with J. Fairhead)
in I. Yngstrom, P. Jeffery, K. King and C. Toulmin (eds), Gender and Environment in
Africa: Perspectives on the Politics of Environmental Sustainability, Edinburgh: Centre
of African Studies, pp 193-209
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1994, 'Declarations of difference', in I. Scoones and J. Thompson
(eds), Beyond Farmer First, London: Intermediate Technology Publications, pp 75-79
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1994, 'Relationship between population and environmental
productivity in Kissidougou prefecture', Food Production in Sub-Saharan Africa,
NRI/IFPRI, Chatham: Natural Resources Institute
Leach, M., 1992, 'Women's crops in women's spaces: gender relations in Mende rice farming'
in E. Croll and D. Parkin (eds), Bush, Base, Forest, Farm: Culture, Environment and
Development, London: Routledge
Leach, M., 1991, 'Women's use of forest resources in Sierra Leone' in A. Rodda (ed.), Women
and the Environment, London: Zed Press
Leach, M., 1991, 'Social organisation and agricultural innovation: women's vegetable
production in Eastern Sierra Leone' in H. de Haen (ed.), Peasant Household Systems:
Partners in the Process of Development, Germany: DSE
Reports, working papers and short articles:
Elbe, S., M. Leach and I. Scoones, 2013, ‘Pandemic Flu Controversies: What have we learned’,
Workshop Report, January 2013. Brighton: STEPS Centre.
Ely, A. and M. Leach, ‘Science and politics at Rio and beyond’, Outreach magazine, 14 July
2012.
STEPS Centre, 2010, Innovation, Sustainability, Development: A New Manifesto. Brighton:
STEPS Centre. Also available in CD-Rom and interactive online versions.
www.anewmanifesto.org.
Leach, M., Fairhead, J., Fraser, J. and Lehner, E. , 2010, ‘Biocharred Pathways to
Sustainability? Triple Wins, Livelihoods and the Politics of Technological Promise,
STEPS Working Paper 41, Brighton: STEPS Centre
Waldman, L. and M. Leach, 2009, ‘Centres of excellence? Questions of capacity for innovation,
sustainability and development’. STEPS Centre Working Paper 23.
Brooks, S., M. Leach, H. Lucas and E. Millstone, 2009, ‘Silver bullets, grand challenges and the
new philanthropy’, STEPS Centre Working Paper 24
Cassidy, R. and M. Leach, 2009, ‘AIDS, citizenship and global funding: A Gambian case study’,
IDS Working Paper 325. Brighton: Institute of Development Studies.
Leach, M., ‘Building pathways to a more secure future’, The Edge, ESRC Magazine, Spring
2008, Issue 27.

14. Leach. M., 2008, ‘Haemorrhagic fevers in Africa: Narratives, politics and pathways of disease
and response’, Wellcome History, Issue 38.
Leach, M. (ed.), 2008, Re-framing Resilience: a Symposium Report, STEPS
Working Paper 13, Brighton: STEPS Centre
Leach, M.,2008, ‘Haemorrhagic Fevers in Africa: Narratives, Politics and Pathways of Disease
and Response, STEPS Working Paper 14, Brighton: STEPS Centre
Leach, M., I. Scoones and A. Stirling, 2007, ‘Pathways to Sustainability: An Overview of the
STEPS Centre Approach’. STEPS Centre Approach Paper.
Scoones, I., Leach, M., Smith, A., Stagl, S., Stirling, A. and Thompson, J., 2007, ‘Dynamic
Systems and the Challenge of Sustainability’, STEPS Working Paper 1, Brighton:
STEPS Centre
Leach, M., Bloom, G., Ely, A., Nightingale, P., Scoones, I., Shah, E. And Smith, A., 2007,
‘Understanding Governance: pathways to sustainability’, STEPS Working Paper 2,
Brighton: STEPS Centre.
Stirling, A., Leach, M., Mehta, L., Scoones, I., Smith, A., Stagl, S. And Thompson, J., 2007,
‘Empowering Designs: towards more progressive appraisal of Sustainability’, STEPS
Working Paper 3, Brighton: STEPS Centre.
Bloom, G., Edström, J., Leach, M., Lucas, H., MacGregor, H., Standing, H. and Waldman, L.,
2007, ‘Health in a Dynamic World’, STEPS Working Paper 5, Brighton: STEPS Centre.
Leach, M. and I. Scoones, 2006, 'Mobilising citizens: social movements and the politics of
knowledge' , Citizenship DRC Synthesis Paper, IDS Working Paper 276. Brighton:
Institute of Development Studies.
Leach, M., J. Fairhead, D. Millimouno and A.A. Diallo, 2006, ’The Social Dynamics of Infant
Immunisation in Africa: Perspectives from the Republic of Guinea', IDS Working Paper
262
Leach, M., 2005, 'MMR Mobilisation: Citizens and Science in a British Vaccine Controversy',
IDS Working Paper 247.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2005, 'The centrality of the social in African farming' (with J.
Fairhead), IDS Bulletin 36(2).
Leach, M. et al, ‘dynamique sociale et vaccination infantile dans deux prefectures de la Guinee:
Rapport de l'etude’ (with Dominique Millimouno, Alpha Ahmadou Diallo and James
Fairhead), report to Guinean Ministry of Public health and national programmes,
available online.
Fairhead, J., M. Leach and M. Small, 2004, 'Childhood Vaccination and Society in The Gambia:
Public engagement with science and delivery' IDS Working Paper 218. Brighton:
Institute of Development Studies.

15. Poltorak, M., M. Leach and J. Fairhead, 2004, 'MMR 'choices' in Brighton: Understanding public
engagement with vaccination science and delivery, IDS Working Paper. Brighton:
Institute of Development Studies.
Leach, G. and M. Leach, 2004, 'Carbonising forest landscapes? Linking climate change
mitigation and rural livelihoods', IDS Bulletin Vol 35 No 3
Leach, M., I. Scoones and L. Thompson, 2002, ‘Citizenship, science and risk’, IDS Bulletin
33(2).
Fairhead, J., M. Leach and K.S. Amanor, 2002, ‘Science and the Policy Process: Perspectives
from the Forest’, IDS Bulletin 33(1).
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2002, 'Introduction: Changing perspectives on forests:
science/policy processes in wider society', IDS Bulletin 33(1): 1-12.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2002, '"'Sustainable" timber production and science/policy
processes in Trinidad', IDS Bulletin 33(1): 75-83.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 2002, 'Practising "biodiversity": The articulation of international,
national and local science/policy in Guinea', IDS Bulletin 33(1): 102-110.
Forsyth, T. and M. Leach, 1997, Poverty and environment: priorities for research and policy: an
overview study, United Nations Development Programme and European Commission.
Leach, M., R. Mearns and I. Scoones, 1997, 'Environmental entitlements: a conceptual
framework for understanding the institutional dynamics of environmental change', IDS
Discussion Paper 369
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1997, 'Escaping the deforestation mythology' (with J. Fairhead),
ILEIA Newsletter 12(3): 6-9
Leach, M., R. Mearns and I. Scoones, 1997, ‘Editorial: Community-Based Sustainable
Development: consensus or conflict’, IDS Bulletin 28(4): 1-3.
Leach, M., R. Mearns and I. Scoones, 1997, ‘Challenges to community-based sustainable
development; dynamics, entitlements, institutions’, IDS Bulletin 28(4): 4-14.
Leach, M., R. Mearns and I. Scoones, 1997, 'Institutions, consensus and conflict: implications
for policy and practice’, IDS Bulletin 28(4): 90-95.
Leach, M., 1997, ‘Gender and environment’. Commissioned workshop report for OECD/DAC,
Paris.
Leach, M., 1997, ‘UNCDF’s Participatory Eco-development Approach: a Desk Review’. Report
of commissioned study for UNCDF, New York.
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1996, 'Les ilots forestiers de Kissidougou: dynamique sociale du
changement de l'environnement dans la mosaique forest-savana d'Afrique de l'Ouest',
French version of report to ESCOR, Paris and Montpellier: CIRAD

16. Green, C., S. Joekes and M. Leach, 1996, 'Integrating gender into environmental research and
policy', report of commissioned study for USAID, Sussex: IDS
Leach, M., S. Joekes and C. Green, 1995, 'Editorial: gender relations and environmental
change' IDS Bulletin, 26 (1): 1-8, Sussex: IDS
Leach, M., S. Joekes and C. Green, 1995, 'Gender relations and environmental change', IDS
Bulletin, 26 (1), Sussex: IDS
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1995, 'Whose forest? Modern conservation and historical land use
in Guinea's Ziama Reserve', Rural Development Forestry Network Paper, 18c, London:
ODI
Leach, M. and J. Fairhead, 1995, 'Ruined settlements and new gardens: gender and soil-
ripening among Kuranko farmers in the forest-savanna transition zone', IDS Bulletin, 26
(1): 24-32, Sussex: IDS
Leach, M. and C. Green, 1994, 'Gender and environmental history: moving beyond the
narratives of the past in contemporary women-environment policy debates', IDS Working
Paper, 16, Sussex: IDS
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1994, 'Natural resource management: the reproduction and use of
environmental misinformation in Guinea's forest-savanna transition zone', IDS Bulletin,
25 (2): 81-87, Sussex: IDS
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1994, 'The forest islands of Kissidougou: social dynamics of
environmental change in West Africa's forest-savanna mosaic',, Report to ESCOR,
Overseas Development Administration
Leach, M., 1993, 'Poverty and the environment: an entitlements approach' in Report of ODA
Natural Resources Advisers' Conference, Swansea, June 1992, London: Overseas
Development Administration
Leach, M., 1992, 'Gender and the environment: issues, approaches and a West African case
study', Commissioned paper, published in Gender and Environment: Some
Interlinkages, Report of a SIDA Seminar, Stockholm: SIDA
Leach, M., 1992, 'Dealing with displacement: refugee-host relations, food and forest resource in
Sierra Leonean Mende communities during the Liberian influx, 1990-91', IDS Research
Report, 22, Sussex: IDS
1992 'Forests of the past? Archival, oral and demographic evidence of Kissidougou
prefecture's vegetation history' (with J. Fairhead, D. Millimouno and M. Kamano), COLA
Working Paper 1, Kissidougou, (also in French translation)
Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1992, 'Social differentiation in resource access, use and control:
implications for rural development policy in Kissidougou prefecture' (with M. Kamano and
D. Millimouno), COLA Working Paper 2, Kissidougou, (also in French translation)

17. Fairhead, J. and M. Leach, 1992, 'Managed productivity: the technical knowledge used in local
resource management in Kissidougou prefecture' (with M. Kamano and D. Millimouno),
COLA Working Paper 3, Kissidougou, (also in French translation)
Leach, M., 1992,'Gender and the environment: traps or opportunities?', Development in
Practice, March
Leach, M., 1992, 'Environmental impacts of refugees: Liberians in Sierra Leone', Refugee
Studies Programme Newsletter, Oxford: Queen Elizabeth House
Leach, M., 1991, 'Locating gendered experience: an anthropologist's view from a Sierra
Leonean village', IDS Bulletin, 22 (1), Sussex: IDS
Leach, M., 1991, 'Engendered environments: understanding natural resource management in
the West African forest zone', IDS Bulletin, 22 (4)
Leach, M., 1991 'DELTA and village level planning in Sierra Leone: possibilities and pitfalls',
RRA Notes, 11, London: IIED
Leach, M. and R. Mearns, 1991,'Environmental change, development challenges', IDS Bulletin,
22 (4), Sussex: IDS
Davies, S. and M. Leach, 1991, 'Food security and the environment', IDS Bulletin, 22 (3)
Davies, S., M. Leach and R. David, 1991, 'Food security and the environment: conflict or
complementarity?' IDS Discussion Paper, 285, Sussex: IDS
Davies, S. and M. Leach, 1991, 'Globalism versus villagism: food security and the environment
at national and international levels', IDS Bulletin, 2 (3)
Leach, M. and R. Mearns, 1991,'Poverty and environment in developing countries: an overview
study' Report to ESRC Global Environmental Change Initiative/ODA, Swindon: ESRC,
GEC
Chambers, R. and M. Leach, 1990, 'Trees as savings and security for the rural poor' (with R.
Chambers), Unasylva, 41 (161)
Leach, M., 1990, 'Images of propriety: the reciprocal constitution of gender and resource use in
the life of a Sierra Leonean forest village', PhD Thesis, University of London
Dillon, B. And M. Leach, 1990, 'Oxfam in Sierra Leone' (with B. Dillon), Report to Oxfam
Leach, M., 1989, 'The politics of palm oil in a Mende village', Africana Research Bulletin, 14
(1and 2), Freetown: Fourah Bay College