Profile
Melissa Fisher Ph.D., a cultural anthropologist, is currently a Senior Advisor focused on workplace culture and design at CFAR Consulting Services. She is also a Visiting Scholar at NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge; and an Associate Researcher at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study. She has extensive experience ethnographically studying, writing, and consulting on gender, class, race, work, space, power, and the built environment. Her current book in progress explores how architects and other professionals imagine and design post-covid work environments with a focus on equity and justice. Her work has been showcased in her books, Frontiers of Capital: Ethnographic Reflections on the New Economy (Duke University Press) and Wall Street Women (Duke University Press), articles, white papers, media appearances, keynote speeches, and consulting on several films, including the Sony Classic 2016 female financial thriller, Equity. She has held full-time faculty positions at New York University, Georgetown University, visiting positions at Stockholm University and the European University Viadrina (Germany), and was most recently the Laurits Andersen Professor of Business and Organizational Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen. Prior to becoming an anthropologist, Melissa worked in and on postmodern dance, performance and graphic design in NYC and as a masters student at Wesleyan University. These experiences trained her to think about ways of connecting people, place, movement, and design.
Degrees Held
Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology, Columbia University
Masters in Dance and Movement, Welseyan University
B.A. cum laude in English, with Honors, Barnard College, Columbia University
Professional Affiliation
American Anthropological Association
Association for Feminist Anthropology
Society for Urban, National, and Transnational/Global Anthropology
Workplace Evolutionaries
Recent Publications
Melissa Fisher, “Workplace anthropologist – the missing member of the workplace design team “Work and Place. In progress, Summer 2025
Melissa Fisher and Hana Kassem, "In search of Cafe des Ambassadeurs: An Anthropological-Architectural Approach," Work Design Magazine, in progress, May 2025.
Melissa Fisher, and Hana Kassem, “Workplace Redux: An Anthropological Approach to Today’s Workplace Design,” Work Design Magazine. September 21, 2023
Melissa Fisher, “Charting the Future of Business and Organizational Ethnography,” Journal of Organizational Ethnography, Special 10th Anniversary Issue (Fall/Winter 2021). Pp. 369-80.
Jannick Friis Christensen, Sarah Dunne, Melissa Fisher, Alexander Fleischmann, Mary McGill, Florence Villesèche, Marta Natalia Wróblewska, “Toward Powerful Queer-Feminist Academic Writing, “Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organizations 18.4. (April 2018), pp. 865–79.
Melissa Fisher , “White Corporate Feminine Spirituality: The Rise of Global Professional Women’s Conferences in the New Millennium” in Ethnographies of Conferences and Trade Fairs: Shaping Industries, Creating Professionals, edited by Anette Nyqvist and Hege Høyer Leivestad. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, pp. 43–63.
Melissa Fisher, Claudia Nessous, and Anna Perrottet, “’Fashion Is Political?!’ Sustainable Fashion and Entrepreneurial Feminisms in Berlin,” Femina Politica (August 2017), pp. 127–35.
Melissa Fisher, “Building Alternative Feminist Economic Futures: WHEELS,” Globalizations, special issue, Feminist Global Political Economy of the Everyday, edited by Adrienne Roberts and Juanita Elias (March 2016), pp. 908–11. Reprinted in Feminist Global Economies of the Everyday, edited by Adrienne Roberts and Juanita Elias. New York: Routledge, 2016.
Melissa Fisher, “Wall Street Women: Professional Saviors of the Global Economy,” Critical Perspectives in International Business, special issue, Critical Perspectives on the Globally Mobile Professional and Managerial Class, 11. 2 (May 2015), pp. 137–55, https://doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-11-2012-0054
Melissa Fisher, “Wall Street Women on Film,” Public Books (September 1, 2016), https://wwww.publicbooks.org/wall-street-women-on-film.
Performances and Appearances
Selected Podcasts, Media & Keynotes on Book in Progress on Future of Workplace Ethnography, Culture, & Design (2021-present):
Print: RemiNetwork.Com; Washington Post; WorkDesign Magazine; Vision 2030 (JLL Global Work Research).
Documentary: Work Design What the “F” is Happening to the Office? Docuseries.
Podcasts: The Conference Board; Eptura Workplace Innovators Series; NYU Institute for Public Knowledge The Shift Series; ONEder Podcast, One Workplace.
Selected Keynotes:
"Work Design Futures," Global Foresight Conference: Anticipatory Governance and Future Aspirations Conference. Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study. Upsalla, Sweden. December 10, 2024.
“The Future of the Work Environment and Work Design,” Keynote for Sustainability, Technology, Resilience, Innovation, Development and Entrepreneurship Conference. Northcap University School of Management and Liberal Studies. Gurugram, India. December 15-16, 2023.
“Leveraging Cultural Anthropological Tools to Design Human-Centered Workplaces, “WORKTECH Keynote. North America Conference, New York City. September 27, 2023.
“International Business Ethnography and the Global Reimagining of The Future of Work,” Keynote for the launch of the Global Cultures Program. Maynooth University School of Business and Department of Anthropology, Maynooth, Ireland, September 27, 2022
“Collaborative Ethnography Today: Developing Collective Methods to Reimagine the Future of Work,” Keynote, Ethnography Symposium, Suffolk Business School. University of Suffolk. UK August 26. 2022.
“The Future of Work in the Age of Pandemics,” Keynote for Conference on Work from Home: Global Perspectives. Department of Management Studies, BMI. Munjal University, India. March 24, 2022.
“Charting the Future of Business and Organizational Ethnography,” Keynote, Research and Impact Away Day, Essex Business School. UK. May 6, 2021.
Selected Media Coverage and Interviews of book, Wall Street Women (2012, Duke University Press): 2012-2020
Television and Radio: BBC News, Business; BBC World Service, “Newshour;” BBC Radio 4, “Thinking Allowed”; CNBC; National Public Radio; NOS/Dutch Public Broadcasting; Uptown Radio, Columbia University
Documentary Film: Equity, Sony Classic Pictures, 2016; MAKERS: Women in Business, dir. Jamila Wignot, AOL, and PBS, 2014
Popular Print: Bloomberg Businessweek; The Financialist; ForeWord; The Guardian; Library Journal; The National; Publishers Weekly; Barnard College Magazine; Crains, New York; El Confidencial; Financial History Magazine; Fortune India; The Guardian; The Glass Hammer; Ignites, A Financial Times Service; The Independent; The National; New York Times; The Quint, India; Star Reviews; Times of India; Traders Magazine; Traders Magazine: TopTwelve Books for the Holidays; Wall Street Journal; Wall Street Journal Deal Blog; Zeit Online
Selected Academic Reviews: Feminist Review; Journal of Women’s History; Anthropology of Work; Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organization; Organization; Women’s History Review; Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute; Sociologie du Travail; American Journal of Sociology; Anthropology Now; Business History Review; American Ethnologist; Administrative Science Quarterly; Journal of Financial Counseling and Planning; Business History Journal; Reviews in Cultural Theory.
Selected Keynotes:
“Time and Space in Business and Organizational Anthropology: From Wall Street to Hollywood to Copenhagen, “Inaugural Lecture, University of Copenhagen. Denmark. November 26, 2017.
“Women in the Financial Sector: Generations of Women Breaking Down Barriers,” The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, New York City. March 30, 2017.
“Women-Led Start-Ups, Professional Work, and Networks in the United States,” Invited US Embassy Speaker Program Tour, organized by the United States Embassy, Berlin, Germany. Talks and workshops presented in Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Berlin, and Frankfurt., Germany. March 11–15, 2017.
“What Is an Inclusive Economy?” Opening Plenary with Elizabeth Prugl, Graduate Institute (Geneva), Beyond the Zombie Economy: Building a Common Agenda for Change Conference. Political Economic Research Center (PERC), Goldsmiths, University of London, UK. 1-2. 2016.
Research Interests
Workplace history, culture, and design; speculative ethnography and design; decolonizing design; gender, class, race and inequality in America; gender, sexuality and performance in cities; global foresight, anticipatory governance, and geo-cultural scenarios; wall street and finance; feminism and late capitalism.
Awards And Honors
Avuity Top 65 CRE and Work Tech Experts to Follow on Linked In (February 2025): Top 65 CRE and WorkTech Experts to Follow on Linkedin - AVUITY
Award: Top 10 Articles and Expert Insights, Work Design Magazine for 2023 for: Fisher, Melissa, and Hana Kassem, “Workplace Redux: An Anthropological Approach to Today’s Workplace Design,” Work Design Magazine. January 4, 2024.
Best Book in the Category of Broad Industry History, awarded to Wall Street Women, Favorite Books List, Goldman Sachs, 2016
Highly Commended Paper, awarded to “Wall Street Women: Professional Saviors of the Global Economy,” Critical Perspectives on International Business 11.2 (2015), Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence, 2016