Helen Guohui Shen is an environmental anthropologist whose research resides at the intersection of political ecology, multispecies ethnography, and environmental governance, with a primary focus on the highland frontiers of Southeast Asia. She holds an MSc with Distinction in Anthropology, Environment, and Development from University College London (UCL). 

Helen Guohui Shen is an environmental anthropologist whose research resides at the intersection of political ecology, multispecies ethnography, and environmental governance, with a primary focus on the highland frontiers of Southeast Asia. She holds an MSc with Distinction in Anthropology, Environment, and Development from University College London (UCL). Helen’s work investigates the socio-material entanglements between human communities and non-human agents, specifically examining how indigenous tea cultivation practices and traditional ecological knowledge shape land use, social territoriality, and environmental politics among Yunnanese communities in northern Thailand. Bringing over a decade of field-based experience as a tea researcher and industry specialist, she offers a unique methodological perspective that bridges the gap between the socio-cultural heritage of Camellia sinensis and contemporary debates on agrarian transformation and land governance.