Other Work

Uneven earth press + Not Afraid of the Ruins

Over the last seven years, I have worked with friends/collaborators to publish speculative fiction and essays about post-capitalist futures and possibilities. We have worked with writers from around the world, seeking stories from underrepresented writers when possible. We have worked with artists, designers, and activists, and we are excited to launch our book Not Afraid of the Ruins early next year. The book features four characters - a horseshoe crab, a lichen, a gecko, and a pig - that traverse the book - with 21 stories - along different themes, allowing readers to read the book from a variety of perspectives.

This work has also been in connection with Uneven Earth, a website dedicated to telling stories of environmental activism and justice around the world. We recently decided to launch a press - Uneven Earth Press - earlier this year, which will serve to publish even more creative, beautiful books that continue blend scholar-activism, research, and fiction to tell stories about equitable futures. More on the press soon!

United campus workers (ucw)

faculty advocacy network coordinator

I have been fortunate - and thankful - to work alongside incredible labor activists through United Campus Workers. I am an active member of my local - UCW-Colorado / CWA 7799 - and have been the coordinator for the national Faculty Advocacy Network (FAN) since August 2022. The aim of the FAN is establish a space for solidarity and support for faculty across UCW locals in the US. We are seeking ways to build power against the erosion of tenure, the implementation of destructive budget models (and increasing debt), and the displacement of genuine pathways for shared governance.

UCW is a wall-to-wall union, meaning that we are in solidarity with all university workers, because it takes all of us to make the university function. If you’re interested in learning more, I am more than happy to talk further!

community + campus organizing / activism

Activism has been a formative part of my life for decades, but especially since being an undergraduate student at the University of Southern Mississippi, where I was the co-president or president of several student activist groups. At the London School of Economics, I was part of the DIVEST campaign, and I became increasingly involved in climate justice activism in London, leading up to the People’s Climate March in 2014 (pictured above). This work undoubtedly shaped me as a person and my career path. As a faculty member, I am committed to working closely with students to pay it forward, to make sure that students feel confident and empowered in their activism.

Currently, I am working with students across the University of Colorado system who are leading a system-wide DIVST campaign. You can find more information (and sign the petition) here. I am also the faculty advisor for UCCS’s Green Action Fund, which aims to fund student and faculty projects that support sustainability, especially with an eye towards environmental, climate, and energy justice. Last year, I worked alongside several inspiring student activists to establish a $15/hr minimum wage on campus, and I working with many of the same students to address ongoing inequalities for Resident Advisors (see petition here). I am a member of the Natural Environment group that helps write the Pikes Peak United Way on their Quality of Life Indicators Report. More specifically, I maintain and update the report’s section on greenhouse gas emissions. I am also a board member for the Chinook Center, a community organization in Colorado Springs that fights housing and food insecurity (among many other things) through mutual aid.

To me, academic and community service go hand in hand. I have learned so much from my work as an activist and organizer, and it is important that I bring that work into my research, writing, and teaching as much as I can.

hearsay speaker series @ honcho campout

In Summer 2022, I was asked to curate and facilitate the Hearsay Speaker Series at the Honcho Campout, which is an annual LGBTQIA+ music/arts festival that takes place in rural Pennsylvania. It's a radically queer space, with lots of emphasis on community and solidarity. This year, the festival was attended by more than 1700 people, and I had the chance to invite speakers to address topics as diverse as queer history and the importance of community archives, climate justice and radical hope, and the implications of racial capitalism for environmental justice. I also led two queer ecology walks that complemented the speaker series, where we discussed the intersections of queer kinship and environmental activism.

I am so thankful to know a number of incredible artists and musicians, and I look forward to opportunities to bring these worlds together. I am grateful to the Honcho organizers for supporting this work, and to my partner Mike Ojeda (Club Flower) for designing a beautiful space. Creating spaces like this is one of my favorite parts of my work. =)

outdoor education

Over the last decade, I have worked off and on as an outdoor educator, mostly for Experience Learning in West Virginia. I always find ways of incorporating experiential learning into my classroom, getting outside as much as possible. This work fundamentally shaped me as an educator, and I do my best to return to ‘the field’ as often as I can. Spending time with others outdoors, learning about one another in relation to the natural world, is invaluable.