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.