Publications
Books
5. Lester, Rebecca J. Coming Undone: What Dissociative Identity Disorder Tells
Us about the Politics of Truth in the Virtual Age, University of California Press, under contract.
4. Cubellis, Lauren and Rebecca J. Lester, eds. Traces of Care: The Work of Discernment and Recognition. Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam Press, under contract.
3. Lester, Rebecca J., ed. Innovations in Psychological Anthropology. Milton
Park, Oxfordshire, Routledge, 2024.
2. Lester, Rebecca J. Famished: Eating Disorders and Failed Care in America. Berkeley, University of California Press, 2019.
· National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD) Book of the Month, July 2025.
· Winner: 2020 Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing (third place).
· Winner: 2020 Ellen Basker Book Prize, Society for Medical Anthropology (honorable mention).
1. Lester, Rebecca J. Jesus in Our Wombs: Embodying Modernity in a Mexican Convent. Berkeley, University of California Press, 2005.
· Winner: 2006 Boyer Prize for Contributions to Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Anthropology.
Special Issues and Curated Blog Series
2. Reyes-Foster, Beatriz and Rebecca J. Lester, eds. Trauma and Resilience in Anthropological Fieldwork. Anthrodendum blog series, 2019. BLOG
1. Myers, Neely, Kim Hopper, and Rebecca J. Lester, eds. Practical Anthropology for a Global Public Psychiatry: Provocations and Future Directions. Transcultural Psychiatry 54 (4) 2016.
Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters
30. Lester, Rebecca J. “Anxious Intimacies: Polyamory and Lifestyle Politics in America.” American Anthropologist, in press.
29. Lester, Rebecca J. The Limits of Liberal Care. Current Anthropology, in press.
28. Lester, Rebecca J. “Unraveling Care: Feeding Tubes, 'Thick' Objects, and
Contested Recovery." In Matters of the Mind: The Materialities of Mental Ill-Health. Edited by Anna Lavis and Karin Eli. New York: Routledge, in press.
27. Lester, Rebecca J. "Dangerous Intimacies: Resentment, Risk, and PTSD Recovery in ‘Post-Racial’ America.” In Innovations in Psychological Anthropology. Edited by Rebecca J. Lester. New York: Routledge, 2024.
26. Lester, Rebecca J. "Trigger Warnings: Danger, Desire, and Declensions of the Will in Eating Disorders Treatment.: In Against Better Judgment: Akrasia in Anthropological Perspective. Edited by Patrick McKearney and Nick Evans. Oxford, UK: Berghahn Books, 2023.
25. Galvin, Michael, Geusly Michel, Eurine Manguira, Edny Pierre, Carolyn Lesorogal, Jean-Francois Trani, Rebecca Lester, Laura Ionnatti. “Examining the Etiology and Treatment of Mental Illness Among Vodou Priests in Northern Haiti.” Culture, Medicine, & Psychiatry 6 (2022). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11013-022-09791-4
24. Lester, Rebecca J. “Inner Worlds as Social Systems: How Insights from Anthropology Can Inform Clinical Practice.” Social Science and Medicine—Mental Health 2(22) (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmmh.2022.100068.
23. Johnson, Adam P. and Rebecca J. Lester. “Mental Health in Academia: Hacks for Cultivating and Sustaining Wellbeing.” American Journal of Human Biology (2021). https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23664.
22. Lester, Rebecca J. "Ground Zero: Ontology, Recognition, and the Elusiveness of Care in Eating Disorders Treatment." Transcultural Psychiatry 55, no. 4 (2018): 516-533.
21.Lester, Rebecca J. "Self-Governance, Psychotherapy, and the Subject of Managed Care." American Ethnologist 44, no 1 (2017): 23-35. Winner of the Stirling Prize for Best Published Work in Psychological Anthropology.
20. Lester, Rebecca J. and Eileen Anderson-Fye. "Fat Matters: Capital, Markets, and Morality" In Fat Planet: Obesity, Culture, and Symbolic Body Capital, 193-204. Edited by Eileen Anderston-Fye and Alexis Brewis Santa Fe, NM: School for Advanced Research Press, 2016.
19. Myers, Neely, Kim Hopper, and Rebecca J. Lester. "Reflections on the Anthropology of Public Psychiatry: The Potential and Limitations of Transdisciplinary Work." Transcultural Psychiatry 53, no. 4 (2016):419-426.
18. Lester, Rebecca J. "Eating Disorders." In International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edition, 822-828. Edited by James Wright. Cambridge, MA: Elsevier, 2015.
17. Lester, Rebecca J. "Health as Moral Failing: Medication Restriction among Women with Eating Disorders." Anthropology and Medicine 21, no. 2 (2014): 241-250.
16. Lester, Rebecca J. "Back from the Edge of Existence: A Critical Anthropology of Trauma." Transcultural Psychiatry 50, no. 5 (2013): 753-762.
15. Lester, Rebecca J. "Subjectivity." In Encyclopedia of Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology, 834- 827. Edited by R. Jon McGee and Richard L. Warms. New York: SAGE, 2013.
14. Lester, Rebecca J. "Lessons from the Borderline: Anthropology, Psychiatry, and the Risks of Being Human." Feminism and Psychology 23, no. 1 (2013): 70-77.
13. Lester, Rebecca J. "Self-Mutilation and Excoriation." In Encyclopedia of Body Image and Appearance, 724-729. Edited by Thomas Cash et al. Cambridge, MA: Elsevier, 2012.
12. Lester, Rebecca J. "How Do I Code for Black Fingernail Polish? Finding the Missing Adolescent in Managed Mental Health Care." Ethos 39, no. 4 (2011): 481-496.
11. Lester, Rebecca J. "Brokering Authenticity: Borderline Personality Disorder and the Ethics of Care in an American Eating Disorder Clinic." Current Anthropology 50, no. 3 (2009): 281-302. Winner of the Stirling Prize for Best Published Work in Psychological Anthropology.
10. Lester, Rebecca J. "Anxious Bliss: A Case Study of Dissociation in a Mexican Nun." Transcultural Psychiatry 45, no. 1 (2008): 56-78.
9. Lester, Rebecca J. "Critical Therapeutics in Two Eating Disorders Treatment Centers." Medical Anthropology Quarterly 21, no. 4 (2007): 369-387.
8. Cabassa, Leo, Luis Zayas, and Rebecca J. Lester. "It’s Like Being in a Labyrinth: Hispanic Immigrants’ Perceptions of Depression and Attitudes Towards Treatment." Journal of Immigrant & Minority Health 9, no. 1 (2007): 1-16.
7. Zayas, Luis, Rebecca J. Lester, and Leo Cabassa. "Why Do So Many Latina Teens Attempt Suicide?: A Conceptual Model for Research." American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 75, no. 2 (2005): 275-287.
6. Lester, Rebecca J. "Eating Disorders and the Problem of ‘Culture’ in Acculturation." Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 28, no. 4 (2004): 607-615.
5. Lester, Rebecca J. "The Immediacy of Eternity: Time and Transformation in a Roman Catholic Convent." Religion 33, no. 3 (2003): 201-219.
4. Lester, Rebecca J. "Like a Natural Woman: Celibacy and the Embodied Self in Anorexia Nervosa." In Celibacy, Culture, and Society: The Anthropology of Sexual Abstinence, 197-213. Edited by E.J. Sobo and Sandra Bell. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000.
3. Lester, Rebecca J. "Let Go and Let God: Religion and the Politics of Surrender in Overeaters Anonymous." In Interpreting Weight: The Social Management of Fatness and Thinness, 139-164.Edited by Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter, 1999.
2. Lester, Rebecca J. "The (Dis)Embodied Self in Anorexia Nervosa." Social Science & Medicine 44, no. 4 (1997): 479-489.
1. Lester, Rebecca J. "Embodied Voices: Women's Food Asceticism and the Negotiation of Identity." Ethos 23, no. 2 (1995):187-222.
Public-Facing Publications
3. Lester, Rebecca J. “My Great-Grandfather Poisoned Drinkers During Prohibition.” Psyche (April 2, 2025)
2. Lester, Rebecca J. “Middle Age is a Time When Women are Vulnerable to Eating Disorders.” The Conversation (March 12, 2025).
1. Lester, Rebecca J. “A New Therapy for Dissociative Identity Disorder Helps a Woman with 12 Selves.” Scientific American (June 2023): 36-43.
Media
Podcasts and Interviews
14. Survival in the Trenches (in production, 2025)
13. Reddit iAMA: “Ask Me Anything,” (June 14, 2023). https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/149dd04/im_rebecca_lester_a_ther… ped_a_did/
12. Science Quickly Podcast, “Understanding Dissociative Identity Disorder through the ‘Community’ of Ella,” (May 17, 2023). PODCAST
11. Sausage of Science Podcast: Hackademics Webinar Series, “Hacks for Succeeding in Academia,”(January 13, 2022). https://physanth.org/news/3170/
10. Eating Recovery Academy Podcast, “Famished, by Dr. Rebecca Lester,” (November 10, 2021). PODCAST
9. The Hunger Trap, “How American Healthcare is Failing People with Eating Disorders,” (March 8, 2021) PODCAST
8. American Anthropological Association, "System Transformation to Improve Mental Wellbeing at Universities," (November 6, 2020). https://soundcloud.com/erica-hua-fletcher/aaa_rov_systemtransformation_…
7. AnthroPod, "Anthropology and/of Mental Health, part 2" (June 25, 2020)
6. St. Louis on the Air (May 17, 2020). STLNPR.org
5. KMOX interview with Charlie Brennan and Amy Markors (February 13, 2020). https://kmox.radio.com/media/audio-channel/whine-line-eating-disorders-…- february-13th-2020-10-11am
4. AnthroPod, "Anthropology and/of Mental Health, part 1" (November 19, 2019).
3. Washington University, "Rebecca Lester and Eating Disorders in America" (2018). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWaGRvB5kfg
2. Voices of Experience, Society for Psychological Anthropology (2017). https://vimeo.com/236009483
1. Hold That Thought, "Breaking Down Persistent Myths about Eating Disorders" (2016). PODCAST