Lisa Messeri is an assistant professor of sociocultural anthropology at Yale University. Her research concerns how science and technology stretch our imagination of what place is and what it means to be in place and in the world. Lisa’s first book, Placing Outer Space, is an ethnography of planetary science, studying how scientists transform planets into worlds. Her current research, supported by an NSF grant, focuses on the virtual reality community in Los Angeles.

Lisa has published articles in American Ethnologist, Environmental Humanities, Technology & Culture and other academic journals. She has also written essays published in The New York Times, Slate, and Motherboard. Her research has been written about in Wired, PBS’s NovaNow, and other popular websites. She has enjoyed giving talks around the world about the anthropology of outer space to both academics and broader audiences.