Bonnie McCay (born 6 October 1941) is an anthropologist and Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor Emerita at Rutgers University.
[1] Her research has focused on the anthropological and social aspects of common property theory, with particular emphasis on fisheries management and human–environment relations in marine areas.
Her critique of the concept of tragedy of the commons predates the more well-known work by Elinor Ostrom.
[3] She became a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1990 and of the Society for Applied Anthropology in 1996.
[3] In 2012 she was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences.