Sylvia came to the University of Arizona in 2005. She holds a PhD in political science from the University of Hawaii. Her most recent work has focussed on environmental politics and on social movements, principally in Brazil and Panama. For several years she has taught a course on environmental activism in Latin America and is now developing a new seminar on the politics of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. She also co-teaches a study abroad course in Vieques, Puerto Rico. Before coming to the University of Arizona, she held faculty positions for twenty five years at Yale University and the University of Michigan, and in 1999 she was a visiting Fullbright Professor at the Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil. Sylvia is the author of two books: Uncertain Hazards: Environmental Activists and Scientific Proof, Cornell University Press, 2000; and Hidden Arguments: Political Ideology and Disease Prevention Policy, Rutgers University Press, 1988. She has also published numerous articles in academic journals and lectured widely on environmental politics.

• Ph.D. in Political Science, University of Hawaii

Focused on environmental politics and social movements in Brazil and Panama.

• Tesh, Sylvia. "Unequal Alliances, Unjust Outcomes: North Americans and Mexicans at the Border in Nogales." Work in progress.
• Tesh, Sylvia.  “Resisting the Expansion of the Panama Canal: Political Ecology and Environmental Activism.”  Submitted for publication.
• Tesh, Sylvia and Eduardo Paes-Machado.  2004.  “Pollution, Poverty and Environmentalism in Brazil.”  Journal of Environment and Development 13: 42-73.
• Tesh, Sylvia  2002 “The Internet and the Grassroots” Organization and Environment 15(3): 336-339
• Tesh, Sylvia. 2000. "Uncertain Hazards: Environmental Activists and Scientific Proof." Cornell University Press.
• Tesh, Sylvia. 1988. "Hidden Arguments: Political Ideology and Disease Prevention Policy." Rutgers University Press.

• Environmental Activism in Latin America
• Politics of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon
• A study abroad course in Vieques, Puerto Rico