# Setha Low > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Setha_Low > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Setha_Low.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setha_Low > Source revision: 1343672499 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|American anthropologist}} {{use American English|date=September 2019}} {{use mdy dates|date=September 2019}} {{Infobox person | name = Setha Low | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1948}} | birth_place = [Los Angeles, California](/source/Los_Angeles%2C_California) | death_date = | death_place = | education = Ph.D., [University of California, Berkeley](/source/University_of_California%2C_Berkeley) (1971) | occupation = [Anthropologist](/source/Anthropologist) | employer = [City University of New York](/source/City_University_of_New_York) }} '''Setha M. Low''' (born 1948) is a professor of [environmental psychology](/source/environmental_psychology) and the director of the Public Space Research Group at the [City University of New York](/source/City_University_of_New_York). Low served as president of the [American Anthropological Association](/source/American_Anthropological_Association) and was a Conservation Guest Scholar at the [Getty Conservation Institute](/source/Getty_Conservation_Institute). Low received a bachelor of arts in psychology from [Pitzer College](/source/Pitzer_College) in [Claremont, California](/source/Claremont%2C_California), in 1969, and her master of arts and doctorate in anthropology at the [University of California, Berkeley](/source/University_of_California%2C_Berkeley), in 1971 and 1976, respectively. Her research includes an ethnography of residents in [gated communities](/source/gated_communities) in [San Antonio, Texas](/source/San_Antonio%2C_Texas), and on [Long Island](/source/Long_Island) in New York, and a study of urban parks including New York City's [Prospect Park](/source/Prospect_Park_(Brooklyn)), [Orchard Beach](/source/Orchard_Beach%2C_New_York) in [Pelham Bay Park](/source/Pelham_Bay_Park), and [Jacob Riis Park](/source/Jacob_Riis_Park) in the [Gateway National Recreation Area](/source/Gateway_National_Recreation_Area). More broadly, Low's research includes work on the anthropology of space and place, [medical anthropology](/source/medical_anthropology), [urban anthropology](/source/urban_anthropology), [historic preservation](/source/historic_preservation), landscapes of fear, security/insecurity, and gating in Latin America, the United States, and the cities of Western Europe. Low grew up in [Los Angeles](/source/Los_Angeles){{cite podcast|last1=Low |first1=Setha |date=2025-11-11 |title=On the Meaning and Value of Public Spaces |author-link1= |last2= |first2= |author-link2= |display-authors= |author-mask1= |author-mask2= |collaboration= |df= |editor-last1= |editor-first1= |editor-link1= |editor-last2= |editor-first2= |editor-link2= |display-editors= |editor-mask1= |editor-mask2= |url-access= |trans-title= |format= |department= |work=JSTOR Daily |script-work= |trans-work= |type= |series=Perspectives on Public Space |language=English |issue= |interviewer-last1=Ivry |interviewer-first1=Sara |publisher=JSTOR |publication-date= |minutes= |time-caption= |time= |page= |pages= |at= |no-pp= |arxiv= |asin= |asin-tld= |bibcode= |bibcode-access= |biorxiv= |citeseerx= |doi= |doi-access= |doi-broken-date= |eissn= |hdl= |hdl-access= |isbn= |ismn= |issn= |jfm= |jstor= |jstor-access= |archive-url= |archive-format= |archive-date= |access-date= |via= |quote-page= |quote-pages= |quote= |script-quote= |trans-quote= |mode= |ref= |postscript=|url=https://daily.jstor.org/on-the-meaning-and-value-of-public-spaces/}} and currently resides in [Brooklyn](/source/Brooklyn). == Publications == * 2022 ''Why Public Space Matters''. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780197543733. * 2016 ''Spatializing Culture: The Ethnography of Space and Place''. New York and London: Routledge. * 2006 ''The Politics of Public Space'' [with co-editor Neil Smith]. New York and London: Routledge. * 2005 ''Rethinking Urban Parks: Public Space and Cultural Diversity''. University of Texas Press. * 2003 ''Behind the Gates: The New American Dream''. New York and London: Routledge. * 2003 ''The Anthropology of Space and Place: Locating Culture'' [with co-author Denise Lawrence-Zuñiga]. Oxford: Blackwell. * 2000 ''On the Plaza: The Politics of Public Space and Culture''. Austin: University of Texas Press. * 1999 ''Theorizing the City: The New Urban Anthropology Reader''. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. * 1996 "Spatializing Culture: The Social Production and Social Construction of Public Space," ''American Ethnologist'' 23(4): 861–879. * 1995 ''Children of the Urban Poor: The Sociocultural Environment of Growth, Development and Malnutrition in Guatemala City'' [with co-author F. Johnston]. Boulder: Westview. * 1995 "Indigenous Architectural Representations: Mesoamerican and Caribbean Foundations of the Spanish American Plaza," ''American Anthropologist'' 97(4): 748–762. == References == * {{Cite news | volume = 17 | issue = 2 | last = Getty Conservation Institute | title = Conservation Guest Scholars | work = GCI Newsletter | accessdate = 2009-01-16 | year = 2002 | url = http://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications/newsletters/17_2/gcinews7.html }} * {{Cite news | last = Marquardt | first = Katy | title = Recipe for a City Park's Success: The cultural diversity of its users can make or break an urban space | work = U.S. News & World Report | accessdate = 2009-01-16 | date = 2008-04-25 | url = https://www.usnews.com/articles/business/retirement/2008/04/25/recipe-for-a-city-parks-success.html }} * {{Cite news | issn = 0740-5421 | last = Robinson | first = Eugene | title = Eugene Robinson - We the Paranoid | newspaper = The Washington Post | accessdate = 2009-01-16 | url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/03/AR2007120301619.html | date=2007-12-04 }} {{reflist}} == External links == * [http://www.gc.cuny.edu/Page-Elements/Academics-Research-Centers-Initiatives/Doctoral-Programs/Anthropology/Faculty-Listing/Setha-M-Low Setha M. Low, Professor of Anthropology, The Graduate Center, CUNY] * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD7xCo_zfAs Setha Low speaks about public space at House of Speakeasy's Seriously Entertaining] {{American Anthropological Association presidents|state=uncollapsed}} {{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Low, Setha}} Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:American women anthropologists Category:American anthropologists Category:21st-century American psychologists Category:American women psychologists Category:Environmental psychologists Category:21st-century American women Category:20th-century American psychologists {{US-anthropologist-stub}} --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Setha Low](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setha_Low) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setha_Low?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.