news + updates + reviews

I do my best to keep an updated list of publications, talks, events, brief reviews (of books, music, etc. that I find interesting/helpful) and relevant news here. If you’re interested, scroll down. =)

5 december 2024

new publication in progress in environmental geography!

I have been thinking/writing/dreaming with Maria and Dan (especially Dan) for several years now, and this paper represents our collective sense of how - and in what ways - political ecology can expand its scope to be more proactive and future-facing.

So many issues - climate change, energy transitions - are happening right now, and we discuss why it is important for political ecologists - for academics, broadly - to engage directly in the process of change, to advocate for change through our work.

Personally, I am proud to have thinkers like Eve K. Sedgwick and José Esteban Muñoz, queer scholars (and heroes of mine), in conversation with political ecologists, broadening the purview of scholarship that is often included in/cited in the field.

The article is open-access, and it can be found here!

21 november 2024

lecture on climate knowledge/migration for curiosity unlimited

Curiosity Unlimited is a small nonprofit that provides scholarships for students, and, in return, they get lectures from faculty. After having to reschedule a couple times, I am really looking forward to this talk tomorrow. As someone who studies student debt, any mechanism to lower it/get rid of it is progress, and I am happy these folks exist. =)

20 november 2024

new publication in nature cities!

I am very excited and happy to see this article published! I was lucky to work with this dream team to deepen and expand my own knowledge of how, why, and in what ways ‘human activity’ is factored into climate models and, critically, their outcomes.

Elsewhere, I have written about this issue, noting how the modeling of undifferentiated ‘human’ into the future - without taking into account the complexity of the human (and the fact that not all humans are equally responsible for or impacted by climate change) - may only serve to predict a future where climate injustice is further substantiated. I have also written about ways that stories - like science fiction novels - help add texture and dimension to climate scenarios, allowing for readers to emotionally respond to possibilities rather than simply see them depicted on a glossy infographic.

The goal of our intervention is to pluralize the scenarios from climate modeling, to add depth and potential to SSCPs for example. Rather than anticipate the worst case scenario (over and over again), what would it mean to consider pathways for climate justice specifically?

It was a joy to get to work with the folks on this project, and I am especially grateful to Maria Rusca for bringing us all together! I am looking forward to seeing how this work continues to evolve. Here’s a link to the article, and if you’d like a PDF just be in touch. =)

14 november 2024

irving institute for energy and society - new energy: Challenges & Lessons from the 'Transit' of Colorado's Just Transition

Last September, I gave a talk for Dartmouth’s Irving Institute for Energy and Society, and the recording of that talk is live on youtube!

The talk covers what I am learning about the ‘transit’ of transition here in Colorado, and it includes some key lessons regarding what I see as a ‘good’ transition. More specifically, I share some research findings from my time out in Western Colorado, where I have worked with folks to better understand how one small town (Hayden) seems to be doing things well. They are ensuring that the transition isn’t ONLY about energy, but that it is about the broader promise of a more equitable future.

Here’s a link if you’re interested!

24 october 2024

Yeah, I Got a F#%*ing Job With a Liberal Arts Degree podcast - episode 47

A few weeks ago, I got to chat with Jeff Crane about where I grew up, and how that has had a profound impact on the work that I do. It was a really easy-going, organic conversation, and I feel like there’s lots of gems from our thoughts informing one another. The episode is out now and can be listened to (for free) here!

17 october 2024

landscapes of student debt symposium — grand valley state university

Over the past few years, I have been working with colleagues - building solidarity amongst geographers specifically - to begin thinking critically about how we can contribute meaningful research to help guide student debt activism. I have met some incredible folks, and I am really proud of how this work is developing.

Part of this work resulted in this day-long symposium at GVSU. I took this as an opportunity to do some research on intersections of institutional debt, campus buildings and their ecological impact, and how these costs are all pushed onto students through tuition increases. Through this process, I feel like I have learned a lot about institutional debt — what it is, how to research it, and how to open the black box of ‘debt servicing’ that so many of see in our university budgets. I recently read the book Lend and Rule: Fighting the Shadow Financialization of Public Universities, which helped me better understand this issue (it’s an amazing book).

From this symposium, several of us are developing some more research on this topic, so more on that soon!

2-4 october 2024

imagining planetary health, well-being, and habitability — a rachel carson center workshop

Several months ago, I saw this CFP float across my inbox. At first, I thought that my work may not be relevant to ‘planetary health’ per se, but, on second thought, I saw this as an opportunity to begin fleshing out what I see as ‘palliative political ecology,’ an idea that I began thinking about - largely as a coping mechanism - while I caring for my mom earlier in the year.

As it goes, I was one of the lucky few accepted to attend, and I was able to begin writing out some thoughts on the topic of palliation. Specifically, I presented a paper titled, “Palliative Political Ecology: Dying, Grief, and Healing on a Damaged Planet.” Because the work felt - and is - personal, I was a bit nervous… but I found this particular conference, and the group of amazing folks gathered there, to be incredibly generous and generative for me to keep building this idea.

All to say, keep an eye on this group of folks! There’s some really special and important work brewing at the RCC. =)

24 september 2024

seminar on energy justice @ dartmouth’s irving institute for energy & society

I hit the ground running this semester, working on several projects at the same time (all good things!) and giving a few fun talks this semester. The first one will be at Dartmouth’s Irving Institute for Energy & Society (9/25). I will be talking about some of my ongoing research in Colorado, where I have seen - at least in pieces - how something like a ‘just’ transition can actually work. It’s refreshing work, and I am excited to share it with folks!

Here’s a link to the event/registration. It’s free. It’ll also be recorded, and I will share it when it’s available. =)

15 july 2024

hearsay speaker series ‘24 @ honcho campout

This will be my third year to curate this speaker series at Honcho Campout, and I am still humbled and grateful for the opportunity to bring folks together to talk about issues we are all wrestling with. Campout is a celebration, a time for folks to connect, breathe, and love, but I also understand that celebration is intrinsically connected to harder feelings: loss, grief, confusion, sorrow.

This year, I am very motivated by the question: what’s the point of having fun — socially reproductive or otherwise — during a time of profound loss and change? of dancing, experiencing and sharing collective joy, in a context informed by war, crisis, and hopelessness?

Obviously, there’s no clear answers to these questions, but I am eager to see what people bring to these conversations. There will be four conversations in total this year, each one building on the previous one. The idea is to provide some conceptual framework for Campout, to give folks something to ponder and share with one another while dancing with friends.

As always, they will be recorded, and I will share them as soon as I can! =)

5 july 2024

summer reading

I was asked to write an essay review for this book, which is forthcoming (eventually), so I don’t want to get ahead of myself and put too much here. Mostly, I am thankful this book exists.

While this book is about the Navajo Nation, and Andrew Curley makes a compelling case to *not compare compare coal economies (e.g., Appalachia), this book provides so much context for understanding the sometimes-difficult, often-painful realities that come along with energy transitions. Further, it puts into perspective the complicated feelings - and experiences - that come along with folks’ lives being entangled with fossil fuels.

In short, there is not easy or straightforward pathway for energy transitions, and the transition itself is - and always is - about much more than infrastructure, jobs, and taxes. It’s about identity, lifeways, and survival. It’s about acknowledging and respecting people, knowing where they are coming from, in order to consider meaningful pathways forward. More than anything, the ‘transit’ of energy transitions is about addressing past harm and present pain to conceive of an equitable future.

14 june 2024

featured research interview!

I was asked to answer a few questions about two recent publications for my university’s internal communications/newsletter. To be honest, I was a little shocked to be asked… especially since some of my recent work on student debt is not what would typically be discussed widely or openly on campus. But, I also very much appreciate the opportunity to bring this work forward to anyone at all… but especially to the institution where I work.

Also, I explain a bit more about how and why I write, and how my collaborators - who are also dear friends - influence my scholarship.

You can read the rest of the interview here if you’re interested! Also, if you want either of the papers mentioned in the interview, just let me know! =)

27 may 2024

summer reading

I initially began this book a few months ago while I was staying in St. Louis to help my mom. A friend suggested it to me, and then he ordered me a copy for me to pick up a local book store. I read this one slow, hanging onto it because it is set right across the river from where I was staying with my mom. I felt, in many ways, this story was connected to her.

The book is an alternative history, one in which St. Louis is just a small village across the river from the bustling town of Cahokia. It it set in the early 1900s, and it takes place over a week, threading together narrative that deals with intersections of racial capitalism and industry with a complex personal story… one that floats along like the jazz chords underlying the book.

More than anything, and aptly, I spent the day before my mom passed walking around present-day Cahokia Mounds. I needed a break, and I decided a long walk in the sun, on an unseasonably warm day, would be perfect. I listened to music that my mom and I both loved, and I spent hours thinking about how the history outlined in this book could have come to fruition if a few historical puzzle pieces fell a little differently.

This book has lived in my head for months, and now that I finally finished it… I know there is place for it there for a long time to come.

17-19 may 2024

higher ed labor united (helu) founding convention!

Higher Ed Labor United (HELU) is aiming to build a coast-to-coast, wall-to-wall union for higher ed in the US, purposely combating the growing discourse against higher ed. Whereas higher ed labor organizing has often focused on specific sectors (e.g., faculty unions, grad student unions), HELU is building a industrial model, one that encompasses all workers, building solidarity among university workers to address the structural roots of the crisis in higher ed, such as a lack of federal and state support for higher ed.

The founding convention is the result of a genuinely tremendous effort. Organizers across the US, including myself, have been meeting with different unions to bring them together, resulting in a list of founding members organizations that spans nearly ever state in the US. This weekend, we are voting on the founding documents, and I am so excited to see HELU grow. I will attending as the delegate for UCW-CO and for UCCS’s Chapter of the AAUP, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

There are several public events throughout the weekend, many of which are online. If you care about higher ed, this is the place to be!

2 may 2024

lincoln institute of land policy — grant funded!

I was recently awarded a grant from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy to conduct research this summer on the Benefits, Challenges, and Implications of Land-Based Mitigation Strategies.

While I can’t give away too many details yet, I am excited to return to Central Appalachia, a region at the heart of much of my thought and research, to study how forest carbon management mechanisms are potentially re-treading historical inequalities in the region, exploiting resources in Appalachia for financial gain elsewhere. In short, how do forest management contracts - which can lock up (or enclose) land for upwards of 100 years - mirror historical absentee land ownership patterns that have driven the region’s inequality?

More on this work soon. =)

24 april 2024

Social science symposium series (S4) — applied critical social science workshop

At UCCS, I am incoming chair for the Social Sciences Symposium Series (S4), and I wanted to create an event that had an ‘applied element’, something that we could leave with action item in mind. Given the ongoing student protests across the US focused on divestment from war and genocide, this talk - on divesting our retirement funds from fossil fuels, land grabbing, and weapons - was meant to dovetail with these waves of activism, providing faculty at UCCS (or anywhere really) with the knowledge and means to control where and how their retirement funds are invested.

Most faculty in the US have their retirements funneled through TIAA. If you, like me, have met with your TIAA advisor and asked to NOT have your retirement funds invested in fossil fuels, land grabbing, and weapons, you likely get two responses. The first is that you are ‘allowed’ to invest in funds they deem more socially responsible, which is a black box that advisors often don’t fully understand or have details about. The second is that you can pay TIAA advisors to more meticulously manage your funds, but that it would actually cost more than your monthly contributions… defeating the entire purpose of retirement ‘savings.’

While the latter may be true for us as individuals, it is not the case when we collectively approach our institutions and demand change. We were lucky to have Doug Hertzler join us to guide us through ways of moving our institution towards TIAA divestment. I saw Doug give a presentation on TIAA’s land grabbing tactics at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers in Washington DC, and I could not stop thinking about it. He is a part of TIAA DIVEST!, which has been critical for pushing TIAA towards more responsible investments and reporting. There is a long way to go, but, importantly, there is progress.

If you are interested in learning more, you can find Doug at ActionAid USA. Here’s a recording of the workshop if you’re interested!

23 april 2024

ucw faculty advocacy network — communicating faculty issues workshop #2: writing op-eds

For the second workshop on ‘Communicating Faculty Issues’, I decided to focus on writing op-eds. Faculty are often encouraged, if not expected, to write op-eds, as either part of public engagement campaigns for our universities or as part of the grant-getting process, where we hope to make our research more broadly accessible. In short, op-eds have become something like a stand-in for faculty looking to connect with their communities. However, as it turns out, the shifting economy of news media is making op-eds less common.

I grew up in rural Mississippi, and I remember my grandparents reading the county newspaper everyday… then weekly… they whenever they could get a print copy. The newspaper industry has struggled alongside academia in many ways as neoliberal publishing models have strangled many small newspapers, moving them to consolidated and online-only formats. But the idea of connecting with, say, my grandparents in a newspaper… explaining, again, what something like tenure means and why it is important… is what drove me to organize this workshop.

From our facilitators, we learned that there is still a place for op-eds, but they need to be either extremely localized or nationally relevant. Many faculty issues — the things we tend to care about — just aren’t resonant, at least not intuitively, to either of these scales of audience. However, rather than walking away discouraged, thinking that what we care about isn’t relevant to others, we learned of ways to make our work - our lives - relevant. Again, this comes back to how we, as workers, are also part of the communities where we work. The things that are important to us (e.g., academic freedom) aren’t only relevant to our universities. Rather, they are critical elements of why - and how - we do our work.

The recording should also be freely available soon, and I will make sure to post it when it is!

10 april 2024

ucw faculty advocacy network — communicating faculty issues workshop #1: community radio

For the past two years, I have coordinated the United Campus Workers’ (UCW) Faculty Advocacy Network (FAN), which is an affinity group within the UCW that focuses on issues specific to faculty organizing across all of UCW’s locals. The FAN aims to build solidarity across locals and to build capacity for addressing labor issues that impact faculty - both tenure track and non-tenure track - across UCW states.

As part of this work, I spent lots of time listening to faculty talk about their experiences in higher ed across the US, but mostly in the Southeast in states where collective bargaining is still not possible… and where ‘labor’ is still sometimes seen as a taboo topic. Moreover, the Southeast has seen waves of legislation targeting higher ed: anti-tenure legislation; anti-divisive concepts legislation; breach after breach of academic freedom; and ongoing structural divestment. This reality has sharpened our collective sense of, and need for, organizing across state lines, building a national response to combat this national anti-higher ed discourse.

Within these conversations, however, faculty often feel powerless, especially when it comes to effectively communicating to the broader public about the issues we face. Faculty, specifically, are often seen as rich (lol) and disconnected from reality, and we are rarely seen as - even among ourselves - as workers… which is exactly what we are. To that end, I created a few workshops that would help us learn to better communicate about our issues in ways that resonate with the broader public, with the communities in which many of us work and live. How, for example, can we explain tenure to someone who thinks it is a bad idea? What is the point of academic freedom to us as workers? Why does it allow us to better serve our communities?

The first of these workshops focused on community radio, and I was super lucky to have Nathan Moore on board to help us. Through my conversations over the last two years, radio has come up often as a medium… but many faculty, including myself, do not know much about it. This workshop helped us understand ways to ‘pitch’ our struggles as emotionally targeted, socially relevant talking points.

The recording should be freely available soon, and I will make sure to post it when it is!

25 march 2024

catching up on some fiction

Though I don’t post every book I read on here, I do feel compelled to mention some books that really catch my attention, ones that make me a better writer and thinker. I have been a fan of Benjamin Myers for years, and I was recently able to catch up on one of his books that I missed, The Perfect Golden Circle.

I am drawn to Myers’s writing for many reasons, but namely because of the way he writes about - and with - landscape. In all of his writing, the land is a main character, driving the story from underneath, grounding readers with a deep sense of context, made of - in the case of this book - soil, stalks, and sweat. The book is a meditation on art, legacy, and why we do anything at all. It’s also about friendship and the quiet things that are rarely said between friends that anchor people to one another.

I actually listened to this one, despite having a physical copy next to my bed for months. I listened to it while driving across Kansas, which has a landscape that is not so dissimilar to the landscape guiding the book’s narrative. It was a long drive, and I listened to the book start to finish. I had a lot on my mind, driving back home after spending three months in St. Louis, where I was caring for my mom. She had just passed, and the buzzing enigma, or at least a desire to create it, humming in the background of this novel helped me think through my mom’s mysteries, about her legacy and things I will never know that also make me love her even more. This is not a book about grief and loss necessarily, but, in a way, it’s about carving out space in a world that is moving on anyways.

I can’t recommend this book, or any of Myers’s books enough!

22 march 2024

upcoming event — panelist for casey james miller’s book inside the circle

I am excited to be on this panel, alongside a couple of rad colleagues and students, to discuss the histories and emerging politics of queerness and nuances of queer resistance in China. Specifically, I am eager to discuss how these histories/politics intersect with socioecological change, noting how, and in what ways, resistance to state-led oppression and dispossession can help guide ongoing efforts from both queer and environmental activists.

In sum, I am excited to talk about the potential of queer political ecology, a subfield (within a subfield) I have been developing with friends for a while now.

I am not sure if this will be recorded, but I will be sure to share it if it is. =)

8 february 2024

new publication in capitalism nature socialism!

Josh and I began thinking about this paper, and this special issue, 5 years ago when we were sharing an apartment during the 2019 Dimensions of Political Ecology (DOPE) conference at the University of Kentucky. We walked over to get some coffee, and on the way we were talking about the interesting inconsistencies between pre-(apparent)-Anthropocene (before 2015) political ecology and post-(apparent)-Anthropocene (after 2015). The former was shaped in PE work for decades, showing empirically the ways that capitalism creates ruins through dispossession of resources: of land, of labor, of bodies. The latter, however, is shaped more by discussions of ruins being sites of radical possibility, of transformation and emancipation despite capitalism. The more we talked, the more we realized that these two views aren’t inconsistent; rather, they are two sides of the same coin.

We organized a session on the ‘Political Ecologies of Ruins’ at the 2020 DOPE conference, which, over the last 4 years, has turned into this special issue we are both really proud of. All 5 papers (discussed below on this page) examine the different ways capitalism is never complete, and that resistance to it is always happening even in the worst conditions shaped by capitalist development.

Ultimately, we wanted to draw attention to what we see as a dialectic of ruination, providing a pathway for not only understanding that ruins are never quite just ruins… but for recognizing, and ideally supporting, struggles that keep life thriving in the face of ruination.

Also, as a side note, it’s special that Josh and I finally produced something together (which was inevitable), and even more special considering it is something that grew from DOPE, which is where we originally met back in 2013.

There are few free downloads available here. If they’re gone, and you want a copy, just be in touch! =)

24 january 2024

new publication in human geography!

Rae and I have been friends for a long time, and we have been discussing our shared experiences with student debt nearly the entire time. Almost every decision we’ve made over the past decade+ has either in response to - or because of threats of - student debt: where we live, how we live, what jobs we can get, etc. Further, as both of us have transitioned to faculty, we are both broken by the exploitative nature of higher ed’s current political economy. Speaking for myself, it weighs heavily on me that my paycheck is tied to exploiting student debt.

In this article, we wanted to expand the typical parameters of student debt research by looking at the various socioecological drivers of the student debt crisis. We wanted to highlight not only why student debt forgiveness/abolition keeps getting ‘hung up’ by the legal system, but also how these various ‘hang ups’ point towards broader, intersecting crises that can be associated with the financialization of everyday life… and the spatial production of social reproduction specifically.

Importantly, we want to provide pathways for thinking more strategically and creatively about how to approach student debt activism. Rather than focusing squarely on the economic injustices of student debt, we point out how economic structures are indicative of the way we organize ourselves politically… and how a deeper engagement with the socioecological elements of the student debt crisis - its relationship to climate change, for example - can hopefully galvanize broader support for debt abolition.

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You can find the paper here. There are a limited number of free downloads. But, if you need one just be in touch. =)

21 january 2024

caretaking and taking care

^^ this picture is of my mom. she’s laughing and cuddling her stuffed horse, Al (named after a physics theory she picked up from one of her sci-fi stories)

Some personal news —

On Nov. 27th, I got a text from my mom to let me know she fell, and that she was stuck on the ground for five days without access to her phone. She assured me she was ok, but I rushed to St. Louis, where she was hospitalized, as soon as I could… and I have been here since then.

Over the last two months, I have become my mom’s primary caretaker, spending every day beside her bed in the hospital. Timelines - prognoses - have shifted, and they change every day, minute to minute. I had to dive headlong into navigating the complexities of a healthcare system that I know is failing, but, for me, those failures have mostly been at arms length. Now, fighting for my mom, I see them first hand. It’s painful and difficult to watch a system fail my mother, and to also fail the people who are doing their best to help her. It breaks my heart that people who can’t afford healthcare in the US just die, often painful, avoidable deaths.

With luck and persistence, I have managed to get her to a stable place for now. She is on hospice, which was inevitable. She’s been battling bone cancer for nearly a decade. We knew this was coming, but we did not know how or how soon. I am in the process of figuring out grants to cover the cost of medical transit so she can be closer to me, but that is also a moving target.

For now, I am grateful to have time with her, to spend hours a day mostly being quiet. We listen to music and read together. We talk sometimes. Though she is in lots of pain, she is relatively upbeat, and I am learning so much from her strength and fierce will to live. I am learning a lot about myself from spending time with her. I know she is the only person in my life who has loved me unconditionally, and it means the world for me to be with her.

As an academic, I can’t help but intellectualize this experience, and I am sure, in time, I will have something more meaningful or intelligent to say. Maybe not. But, I am thinking a lot about the concept of palliative care, and what it means to ease pain and suffering for a person… and also for a broken and damaged planet. I am inspired to see the breadth of care work that goes into taking care of folks in hospice, and the entire experience has been edifying in ways I am still struggling to articulate.

I am not sure why I feel compelled to share this at this stage, and on this page no less. Maybe because I have been slower with my emails than usual, or maybe because I feel a season change in myself that is requiring me to recalibrate my relationship to work. If nothing else, I hope that sharing is helpful to someone else.

There’s so much to learn from death, dying, and grief. It’s a profoundly human experience, and it is never neat or easy. But, again, I am grateful for the experience of being here, even if I wish it wasn’t happening at all. <3

30 december 2023

new publication in acme: an international journal for critical geographies!

Student debt is a pervasive and corrosive undercurrent in the political economy of higher education in the US specifically… but also around the world. The neoliberal shift to corporate models for universities is undermining the core mission of higher education, of making the world a better place. It breaks my heart, and I think about it constantly, as a student debtor and as someone whose livelihood is tied to student debt exploitation.

This article is meant to start a conversation, to better understand the contours and topologies of the student debt crisis with an eye towards abolishing it. So much student debt research is about the broader economic picture, and this is meant to bring a geographical perspective - one that understands nuance - forward in the hopes of complimenting ongoing activism. This is the first of several pieces I am writing with is shaping up to be a collective of other geographers interested in bringing more attention forward.

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Thanks to ACME’s commitment to open-access publishing, you can find the article here for free. =)

22 december 2023

hearsay speaker series at the 2023 honcho campout - 2 more talks that weren’t recorded but worth sharing!

I have learned that - sometimes - not everything needs to be recorded. While accessibility is important to me, I also understand how exclusivity in some contexts leads to more intimately shared insights, to more tightly held experiences. I facilitated/curated two more Hearsay talks at Campout in 2023, but they are not recorded. Here, I just want to share a few highlights.

Cindy Milstein’s work means the world to me, and I find myself returning to this book specifically at least every couple months for some reason or another. I have given this book away to more people than any other book. While there is much to celebrate - and while Campout is about celebration - there is also much to grieve. In fact, the two go hand in hand. Many people at Campout are looking to the community for healing. Cindy’s work is about the transformative power of grief, and the way collectively sharing grief opens doors for healing and possibility.

This talk took place in the mid-morning, just as people were waking up and grabbing breakfast. There was a soft breeze, and the sand in the Circle of Whispers was still cool from the night before. We formed a circle, and we built a shrine. We told stories. And, I still think about that conversation, nearly daily. I am so grateful for Cindy and their work and hope everyone can read this book.

You can get a copy here. =)

It’s important to remember where we come from. So much of queer history - art, life, love - was lost to the AIDs crisis, and yet we still see it flourishing in the present — on the dance floor, in between the rhythms of our favorite songs. For this talk, I wanted to remember, to show respect to queer elders and to re-live the music/life of Paradise Garage.

I was fortunate to be introduced to powerhouse, Michele Saunders (pictured above), who was front and center at Paradise Garage as a longtime club kid. I was also lucky to be introduced to legend, Eric De La Cruz, who worked at Paradise Garage. This talk, facilitated by OttO Kent (aka Jacob Sperber), was about reliving and remembering the past, but, importantly, about understanding how the past lives into the present.

You can read more about Michele and Paradise Garage here. =)

20 december 2023

hearsay speaker series at the 2023 honcho campout - neema avashia: 'Another Appalachia - Centering Queerness in Rural Spaces

A bit further down this page, you can read my review of Neema Avashia’s incredible book, Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place. It was one of the most important books I read in 2023… maybe even within the last decade. With Hearsay this year, I wanted to introduce folks to Appalachia, where Campout is based and where it was born. So many attendees are from the East of West coasts or larger cities, and they have no grounding in a place like Appalachia, other than sometimes harmful myths and ideas. In my experience, growing up in the rural South and spending more than a decade now working across Appalachia, I find the region to be among the most radical, queerest, and unique places I’ve been in the world… and I wanted others to share that experience.

While those goals were certainly met, what I did not expect was how deeply Neema connected with people about complicated questions of family and reconciliation. So many essays in her book revolve around core questions like: how do I love a community that doesn’t always love me back? For many queer people - from cities and rural places alike - this is an animating question, one that cuts deep. We have all struggled with family and friends, and Neema provides lessons on how to expand love to others while also being true to yourself. In short, her talk - this book - are powerful. I still get chills thinking about it, and I am so grateful that she was able to share time with us.

Here’s a link to the talk. =)

15 december 2023

hearsay speaker series at the 2023 honcho campout - mckenzie wark: raving

Curating the Hearsay Speaker series in 2022 was a life highlight for me, and I was stunned to be asked to do it again the following year. I learned a lot from the first year - in terms of form, content, style, etc. I know it went well, but I wanted to expand this year, to stretch and offer a bit more in terms of challenging, meaningful conversations.

Of course, it made sense for me to ask McKenzie Wark to come speak about her new book, Raving. I have followed her work for years, teaching much of her writing to my students. She is a thinker/writer that I have consistently kept up with, keeping tabs on new books and writing projects. Raving, in some ways, is a departure from her previous work, but, in other ways, it is completely consonant. How does culture shape us, and how is it shaped by us in return?

This book - to me - is about finding yourself, as difficult as it can be, amidst not only a complex community… but within a world that’s becoming more and more diffuse and isolating. Beyond being beautifully written, this book introduces deep truths for thinking about authenticity - of voice, of experience, of love, of family, of self. One of my favorite takeaways from this book is the socially reproductive elements of disassociation, of losing oneself on a dance floor… sometimes even in the world… only to come back to yourself with more clarity than before.

Also, as you will hear in this talk, McKenzie did a really rad hybrid speaking/techno talk/set. She also shared excerpts and stories from her newer book, Love and Money, Sex and Death: A Memoir.

You can read about some McKenzie’s experiences at Campout here.

You can listen to the talk - and some of my goofy questions - here. =)

7 november 2023

new publication in the geography teacher!

It is a common problem that most people who complete a PhD rarely get in any training in how to teach in the classroom. We have a sense of what we study, and we are trained to communicate our research… but that is not the same as teaching. I was lucky to work as a teaching assistant for an incredible professor, one who taught me so much about what it means to be a humble, thoughtful, kind, and generous educator. This article, in many ways, is about what I learned from her.

This article is also about the difficulty of teaching climate change. It is a heavy topic, and students are learning about it at younger ages. I didn’t even know what the term meant until I was nearly out of my undergrad, and I know some of students now starting learning about climate change as early as middle school. While that’s amazing, on the one hand, I also find that constant attention to such an existential threat can be really disarming. I am always thinking of ways in my teaching to be honest about climate change without damaging my students’ sense of what’s possible.

In short, this article is about my teaching process, and it is equal parts reflection and (hopeful) guidance. I care a lot about teaching, and I am always thinking of ways to teach about climate change that empowers folks. I am always happy to talk about this more, and I am always eager to connect with folks who working through what it means to teach in this moment.

Here’s a note from the end of the article —

“As the world continues to change, as the story of climate change unfolds, I look forward to hearing more student stories, as I ultimately feel I have as much to learn from them as they do from me, especially as students continue to know more about climate change from their own experiences. In many ways, given that we are all experiencing climate change, I see teaching climate change as an important thread that connects us to our students, our students to one another, and our students to the world around them in ways needed now more than ever.”

If you’re interested, you can find a link to the article here. I think there are still lots of free links, but if not just reach out. =)

13 october 2023

new publication in energy research & social science!

When 'transition' comes at the cost of those who to stand to benefit the most, we ask: who is the transition serving? Further, we are concerned with the question: who CAN it serve?

I find this work vital because it is happening NOW, and we, critical scholars, still have time to intervene, creating conditions so that this pivotal moment - one where we are globally dealing with the ongoing and intersecting realities of climatically precarious capitalist development, colonialism in all its ugly forms, and inspiring struggles for sovereignty - is one that can be won for the folks who need it most.

In this article, we focus on a case of transition technology in a historic coal mine in Northern West Virginia to discuss how transition technologies are, in many ways, only serving to further exacerbate the practices and ideologies that led to this moment. We discuss the ‘transit’ of transition, which is the say the discursive and material processes that are either inhibiting or contributing to genuinely equitable outcomes from transitioning.

We articulate transit as a relative process, one that is always in motion and in conversation with the past, the present, and the future. This means - to us - a just transition in the context of the United States, as well as any other settler colonial socieities, requires a critical interrogation of the sordid past so as to not project these inequalities into the future. We see these realities at play in the present, in settler socieities around the world, and argue that it is crucial to create space for, to find and and listen to, and to empower people who stand to benefit the most from this moment.

If you’re interested, you can find the article here. Curious to hear what y’all think!

1 october 2023

journal of political ecology special issue on experimental and speculative political ecologies

• Co-edited with dan santos

Just this morning, the final article was published in the special issue I co-edited with Dan - on experimental and speculative political ecologies - for the Journal of Political Ecology!

Dan and I have been thinking of ways to do PE more experimentally, focusing on ways that PE can help us answer emerging questions in the present, and more speculatively, looking explicitly towards the future as a site of both contestation and possibility. Our intro article highlights work that we see as already being experimental and/or speculative, and we do our best to tie them together in what we hope is a generative direction for PE research. We also outline a couple case studies - energy transitions in Colorado (me) and CRISPR-based gene drives (Dan) - to help make some of our ideas more coherent.

We were also super lucky to have collaborators on board who agreed to be part of this special issue. We are grateful to Simon Batterbury (editor for JPE) who encouraged us to move forward with this project, and who has provided helpful editorial guidance over the past year or so. We also thankful for the folks who contributed to this special issue, responding to Dan & I’s very open-ended call for papers. It’s been really exciting, as a co-editor, to see how the contributors took our ideas and developed them through their own frameworks and case studies.

The four papers in the special issue are wildly different, taking different approaches to both experimentation and speculation, and we couldn’t be happier with the outcome! Thanks to the JPE’s commitment to open-access publishing, all of the articles are now up and ready to be downloaded.

We are looking forward to seeing how these ideas continue to grow, especially as PE - we think - has so much to offer in light of the competing and nested issues we are facing at the moment. Let me know what you think! =)

Dylan M. Harris & Dan Santos (2023) - A case for experimental and speculative political ecologies

Håvard Haarstad, Siddharth Sareen, & Tarje Iversen Wanvik (2023) - Climate targets as more than rhetoric: Accounting for Norway's Zero Growth Objective

Elisa Schramm (2023) - Examining the role of minor experiments in French and Catalan eco-communities: Between critique and post-capitalist world-building

Maria Rusca, Maurizio Mazzoleni, Alejandro Barcena, Elisa Savelli, & Gabriele Messori (2023) - Speculative Political Ecologies: (re)imagining urban futures of climate extremes

12 september 2023

a couple of upcoming events

In a couple weeks, I will be back in West Virginia, a state - or really, a collection of people and the inspiring work they are doing - that I consider a second home in many ways. I was excited to be put in touch with the organizers behind this conference, and I am excited to join others to discuss the prospects of what a ‘just’ transition (emphasis on justice) can look like in a region that could genuinely benefit from one.

I have been working in/across Appalachia for a decade at this point in different capacities, and this region has shaped so much of who I am, the work I do, and the kind of world I think I’d like to see. At this conference, I will be discussing how market-based carbon management has not been an ideal route to a truly just transition, based on some recent research and experiences, but that carbon management, broadly, can work really well. I am also looking forward to learning from others who know a lot more about this than I do!

I should note that this conference is partly sponsored by WVU but funded largely by the USDA. Also, this conference is not taking place at WVU but will be nearby in Morgantown. I want to make this distinction because I am aware of how much work several of my colleagues and friends at WVU are doing at the moment to focus on protecting their workplace from egregious budget cuts and ‘re-structuring’ that, so far, only harms faculty, staff, and, importantly, students. For more information on the really rad, extremely important work taking place at WVU, check out this website. Their fight is all of our fight across higher ed.

By sheer coincidence, I will be discussing a similar topic at an event the following week here in Colorado. This panel is part of a larger ‘Cool Science Festival,’ and it is geared towards broader public participation. I was initially invited without knowing who the other panelists were, and I am eager to have this conversation with this particular group of people. I anticipate that my perspectives - regarding the larger concerns I have about market-based solutions to environmental problems - will result in what I hope will be a generative debate. I also really hope CO folks chime in, since this topic is especially relevant in light of the state’s Just Transitions roadmap, which is ticking along at a pretty quick pace!

I’ll also be at S-R, just hanging out. IYKYK, and if you’re around, let me know. =)

1 september 2023

brief reflections of the 2023 hearsay speaker series @ honcho campout

It’s been a little over a week, and I feel like I am still processing my experiences at the 2023 Honcho Campout. In short, I felt held the entire week — by my friends and chosen family, by strangers who’d kindly smile as I walked past them, and by all the artists, speakers, and organizers that make this kind of event possible.

This year, I was lucky to curate four different talks, all of them with people I personally wanted to know better… people whose work I needed to hear more about, and it was genuinely surprising, a bit overwhelming actually, to see how much their work resonated with others.

I hardly took any photos because I told myself I wouldn’t. I wanted to be as engaged as possible, making sure to connect with folks — the speakers, the audience — in a way that made the talks feel more convivial and intimate. I did, however, get this quick photo of McKenzie Wark, author of Raving, while she was doing some readings alongside a minimal techno track. It was incredible.

In time, all the recordings will be released, and I can’t wait to share them with folks. This year was really special, and it meant a lot to me, again, to see so many people resonating with the talks, engaging so openly and personally. I learned so much, and I am still riding the waves from being a part of this experience.

Here, I quickly just want to thank the Honcho folks for having me again, and I am so grateful that Club Flower was able to design such a beautiful space for the talks.

More on all this soon. =)

10 august 2023

summer reading, cont.

At this point, I have spent nearly a 1/3 of my life working/living in West Virginia, and I consider the state my second home in many ways. There are people and places there that I care about deeply, and I have learned so much about myself, the kinds of relationships I want to foster, and the world I’d like to live in by spending time there — researching… sure… but, more importantly, swimming, hiking, foraging, and watching sunsets.

WV is a complicated place, like MS, where I grew up. Neema Avashia’s beautiful book is a meditation on what it means to love a place that may not love you back, at least not in the ways that you’d expect or want. How do you reconcile a place being ‘home’ when you’re unwelcome? Or, how do you find places that are genuinely welcoming - find people that love you - in spite of it being a hard place to be? What if it is the only home you have?

I read through essays over the past several months, but I finally finished the whole book right before having Neema join me at the Honcho Campout for the 2023 Hearsay speaker series. While I knew her work would resonate with folks, I really could not have anticipated how deeply her work touched folks. My initial plan was to invite Neema to speak about how diverse and complex Appalachia is, especially for a group of people largely from the coasts, but I did not expect so many people to engage so openly with what ‘home’ means to them… what they hope it can mean.

I love Neema’s writing because it invites to think differently about politics at the moment, to lean into ambiguity regarding our feelings towards others and to lead with a sense of love, a sense that people will ultimately come together… but not without patience. This book is really powerful, and I’d recommend it to anyone alive in the US at the moment.

You can get a copy here. =)

31 july 2023

summer reading, cont.

Golf courses are socioecological disasters, and you can only imagine the impact that one would have in an urban setting. When a proposal to close half of the Hiawatha Golf Course in South Minneapolis passed, people living near the park began to imagine what the future of the site could, or should, be. This collection/zine of stories, counter-stories, histories, fantasies, and essays shines light on all that a golf course could be otherwise, inviting fresh ideas/hopes/dreams for a space where queer ecologies can flourish.

This book was exciting to read! It covers lots of ground, and it invites you to think explosively and creatively about what commons can be, based on a deep understanding of what they have always been. This collection is both a provocation and the start to something. As the editors point out, what began as a small project quickly developed into a national, even international, campaign to re-imagine and re-purpose land all around us… starting with, but definitely not ending with, golf courses.

You can order a copy of the book here and learn more about the campaign here. Also, their Twitter thread rules. All proceeds of the book go to support MPLS food shares.

27 july 2023

capitalism nature socialism (CNS) special issue on the political ecologies of ruins

• co-edited with joshua mullenite

For the past several months, Josh and I have been co-editing a special issue for Capitalism Nature Socialism on the “Political Ecologies of Ruins,” which began as a conversation… maybe in 2018?… at a Dimensions of Political Ecology Conference (DOPE). We were having coffee and talking about the different ways ‘ruins’ and ‘ruination’ have been used in political ecology.

Since 2015, or since discussions of the apparent ‘Anthropocene’ began getting louder, we noticed that several scholars - like Bruno Latour, Donna J. Haraway, and Anna L. Tsing - were thinking with ruins more as spaces of hope or possibility. We are inspired by folks like Eben Kirskey, whose writing on ‘hope in blasted landscapes’ and ‘emergent ecologies’, shows how spaces that have been previously ruined by capitalist development are refuges for all kinds of life that persists regardless. We are also inspired by so much of queer theory - from José E. Muñoz to Kara Keeling - that draws from the idea that queer people, and queerness broadly, has always existed, often in conflict, with heteronormative and patriarchal society, and that queer people often find refuge in spaces that are forgotten or derelict. We love all this work; however, we also found that it was often in contradiction to what early PE scholars thought about ruins and ruination.

Some of the earliest PE scholarship, from people like Piers Blaikie, Michael Watts, Judith Carney, and Susanna Hecht, focused squarely on the way capitalism creates ruins, over and over again, in the process of primitive accumulation and exploitation of resources (human and non-human). In short, this process is not seen in the same way as more recent scholars’ treatment of ruins.

We found this tension generative, so we decided to put together this special issue, which focuses on both elements of ruins and ruination — the negative, as sites of exploitation; and the positive, as sites of possibility.

We have a few more articles on their way to publication, including our editorial introduction. However, I wanted to go ahead and share the ones that have been published so far. They are better than I could have imagined!

Fernando Galeana (2023) - The Political Ecology of Archaeology and the Archaeological Imagination of the Honduran Frontier

Theodore Hilton (2023) - Dixiecratic Dreaming and Disavowal in Plaquemines Parish: Leander H. Perez Memorial Park

Andrea Marston (2023) - Architectures of Extraction: Labor and Industrial Revolution in Highland Bolivia

María Guillén-Araya (2023) - The Ruins of the Enclave: Simultaneity and Agrarian Change in Palmar Sur, Costa Rica

Andy Battle (2024) - New York 2140: Climate Change and Gentrification in Tomorrow's Ruined New Yorks

25 july 2023

summer reading, cont.

So far, this may be one of the best books I’ve read all year.

I have always loved nature writing, but I, like many folks, am tired of how this genre often anthropomorphizes the world around us. Further, the anthropomorphizing is often being done by mostly-white, mostly-male, and mostly-cis-gendered people, pushing a particular version of the ‘human’ onto the world and all its complicated, beautiful diversity. While I still love many nature writing books, I am often left filling the blanks with my own experiences, or even wanting to just know more about the world on its own terms.

Sabrina Imbler’s (2022) How Far The Light Reaches threads personal stories - of family, relationships, and aspirations - with the inhuman lives of sea creatures, diffracting all the pain and joy of the former through the alienly detached lens of the latter. The author is candid about their queer experiences, which resonate with me on a level that many other nature writers do not, but also those queer experiences are inflected by the queer existence of sea creatures many folks have never even thought of… let alone encountered. The result is jarring… but in a good way. It is weird, and exciting, to find ways of relating, for example, to a deep sea crab that survives in a narrow and volatile window of heat from ocean floor vents.

My favorite line - “There is a way, the scientists realized, to study something to death” (83). This line, written about the way scientists studied a killer whale named Nigel, struck me. I had to put down the book and think deeply about the way I - and many critical social scientists - do research, which often involves some amount of treading (and re-treading) trauma, either for ourselves or for our research participants and communities. With friends, I have written about ways to political ecology research differently to not create/re-create trauma, but I find myself thinking about this conundrum, and ways to avoid it, often.

In short, this book is really incredible. Anyone who loves nature writing should definitely check it out. =)

23 july 2023

summer reading

Admittedly, my summer reading has been slower going than anticipated, mostly because I have been busy with research (all good stuff!) and grant writing. In any case, I have read a handful of books so far that have brought me lots of joy.

McKenzie Wark’s (2023) Raving was cathartic. It was beautiful to read about Wark’s blisteringly honest relationship with herself, and I was drawn into the ways she discusses raves and raving as transformative and revelatory… perhaps not in the sense of large-scale political revolution (but also could be) but more so in the way that things are slowly revealed to ourselves when we listen closely to what our bodies want. Queer liberation, and the theories we draw from to dream of it, is not always fought for in the streets. Sometimes it happens in our bedrooms while we are typing on our computers. Sometimes it happens at 5am, when the sun is leaking through the window at a party where all of your close friends are huddled together.

My favorite line — “What I thought, so clearly, on that dance floor was: shut the fuck up, you are dancing with a beautiful woman on a Sunday afternoon at the end of the world” (68). It made me smile when I learned this line was actually written by a lover, not the author.

Her writing has been an inspiration to my academic and intellectual journey for years. I am excited to have her join the 2023 Hearsay Speaker series. I know her work is going to resonate with so many people. <3

21 july 2023

hearsay speaker series at the 2023 Honcho campout 💃🪩

In less than a month (from August 16th - 21st) I will be facilitating the Hearsay Speakers at the 2023 Honcho Campout. When I was asked to curate the series last year, I experimented with ways to bring important and potentially challenging conversations - about climate change, for example - forward in a context where people are celebrating, dancing to music and spending time with friends. From my experiences teaching about climate change, I am aware of how disarming and difficult the topic can be, and, yet, I feel like it is important to be honest about it… while also finding creative ways of connecting the changing climate to the day-to-day lives of students. I took those lessons to heart last year for the Hearsay series, and I was lucky to be asked to curate this year’s series again.

For this year, I wanted to expand the scope of the talks, bringing in speakers that could speak to intersections of critical issues - such as climate and ecological grief - with lived experiences. I could not be happier with the absolute dream-team that said yes to my invitations.

Neema Avashia kicks off the series by contextualizing Appalachia, where Campout has grown to what it is, as a queer space. I have written about the ways queer ecologies help folks understand Appalachia, and Neema’s work has been important to how I understand queer Appalachia. Next, given all the queer community has endured over the past year(s), Cindy Barukh Milstein will lead a healing circle, discussing productive and proactive means of channeling grief towards transformative ends. Then, Jacob Sperber will help folks relive the magic of the historic and seminal Paradise Garage alongside two nightlife legends to tell the tales: Eric De La Cruz and Michele Saunders. And, we are lucky to have McKenzie Wark talk about the revelatory truths and power of Raving, tying those truths back to her experiences.

I will also be leading two Queer Ecology walks again this year, which are an opportunity to unplug and reflect on queer kinship and solidarity with the land at Four Quarters. 

I am thrilled to bring Hearsay back to the Circle of Whispers at Four Quarters Farm, which will be reimagined by Club Flower.

Here’s more information about the 2023 Honcho Campout, and here’s a link to this year’s program, which will give you a sense of how/where the speakers fit in relation to the rest of the programming.

11 may 2023

labor and working class history association conference next week!

In one week - next Thursday (May 18th) - I will be part of the opening plenary panel titled “Building a Higher Ed Labor Movement: National and Statewide Coordination for Power” alongside some incredible folks who have been foundational in shaping the past couple years of higher ed labor activism!

I will discussing my role specifically as the facilitator/coordinator of the Faculty Defense Network (FDN) of the United Campus Workers (UCW). The FDN aims to build solidarity across locals and to build capacity for addressing labor issues that impact faculty - both tenure track and non-tenure track - across UCW states (AL, AZ, CO, GA, KY, LA, MS, SC, TN, and VA).

Over the past year, we have worked to address anti-higher ed legislation that has been sweeping across the US, much of which has been coming from the Southeast. We have fought against so-called ‘divisive language’ legislation, which aims to undermine academic freedom in the classroom. We have fought against anti-tenure legislation, protecting academic integrity in our research. We have also begun organizing against austerity-driven budget models that seek to further neoliberalize our institutions - and us and our students by extension.

I am drawn to UCW’s organizing model: a wall-to-wall union of workers regardless of job classification. I love that I get to organize alongside non-TT colleagues, undergrad and grad students, and staff. As an active member of AAUP as well, I understand the historic role of sector- and classification-based organizing, but I see the synchronicity offered by UCW’s model to be key in building a sustainable and powerful higher ed labor movement.

If you’re interested in learning more about my work and hearing from many others doing incredible work, join of the opening plenary online! It is free and open to everyone. You can register here!

Here’s more information about LAWCHA.

10 april 2023

Clark university’s graduate school of geography turns 100

I defended my dissertation in March 2020, the day before Clark University shut down due to COVID-19. I packed up my temporary apartment, threw some things in my car, and I left town to be close to friends and family. A few months later, in May, I ‘graduated’ with PhD on Zoom. My name flashed by so quickly I didn’t even have time to screenshot it. Needless to say, it wasn’t a very ceremonious ceremony.

I have never been one for big ceremonies, or even big celebrations. But, I was really looking forward to walking across stage, to being hooded with my PhD. I was looking forward to some closure to the experience of getting a PhD. While I have found it in other ways, I was really excited to see that the Graduate School of Geography was celebrating its 100-year birthday, mostly as a chance to see lots of friends… but also as a chance to finally close to the book on my time there.

I was not at all expecting to be asked to speak on a panel about the GSG’s legacy of human-environment geographies, but I am more than happy to do so… even if that means sitting next to people whose work has inspired me (aka - nervous). However, I feel affirmed to be asked, and I am grateful to have a chance to share what I have been doing since 2020 with friends and colleagues.

The celebrations start this week, and I can’t wait to see folks I care about. If you’re interested, here’s a list of the events, including the panel I am on: The Clark Graduate School of Geography’s Leadership in and Contributions to Human-Environment, Development, and Urban-Economic Geography. =)

10 april 2023

(brief) reflection on environmental justice and sustainability conference at Stanford

Last weekend - April 7th and 8th - I was fortunate to attend and speak at Stanford University’s Environmental Justice and Sustainability Conference, the first of its kind (I think?). The conference was co-sponsored by the newly established Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and it is part of a what I have learned is a growing effort to build EJ more squarely into the curriculum - and identity - of the SDSS.

Admittedly, getting an invitation to speak at Stanford was both exciting and nerve-wracking. As a kid, I always wanted to see Stanford, and I never would have imagined that my work would be relevant to the institution. That said, I felt welcomed, and I feel like my work was in conversation with so many great, smart, kind, and generous folks, both from within and outside of Stanford.

I was especially impressed - and humbled - by the students who presented. My whole heart smiled to hear about their work, and to think of all the positive impacts their research and projects will have. I was also grateful to have learned so much, about: eco-theater; evolutionary biology; ‘gamifying’; and solar agroecology to name only a few. It was wonderful to see some familiar faces, and it was even better to meet so many new folks.

I am excited to see what the SDSS continues to do, especially with its growing presence of EJ. You can find the conference agenda here, for as long as the link stays live!

2 april 2023

new article! a case for experimental and speculative political ecologies

Dan (my co-author) and I are both trained in political ecology, and we are both drawn to its ability to better understand how nature-society relations are embedded within deeply unequal, structural power relations. We appreciate that critique is a major part of this work, but both of us are also interested in studying issues that are currently taking place (like the proliferation of CRISPR technologies) and issues that are yet to happen (like catastrophic climate impacts).

In sum, in this paper, we ask: is it possible to bring all the strengths of political ecology to bear on the present and future? Borrowing language from Donna J. Haraway (2016), rather than ‘staying with the trouble’, is it possible to pre-empt or even avoid trouble? We are invested in the possibility that our scholarship - and our life work in general - can be in service to prefiguring the material conditions for more just futures.

This paper grew from a session we both organized at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Washington DC. Since then, we kept thinking, and we reached out to friends and collaborators and were able to put together a forthcoming special issue on experimental and speculative political ecologies in the Journal of Political Ecology.

This article serves two functions. First, Dan and I theorize and situate experimental and speculative political ecologies within the larger field of political ecology. We provide two case studies from our respective research projects: one on solar and the possibility of ‘justice’ in Colorado’s Just Transition and one on the prospects of CRISPR-based gene drives. Second, this article serves as the introduction to our forthcoming special issue, which we are excited to share!

You can access the article here. We are grateful that JPE is committed to open-access publishing, and we are happy our article/special issue landed there. =)

1 april 2023

some (blurry) photos from my talk at colby college — modeling the inhuman: prospects for climate justice in the future

I was excited to have the opportunity to talk through some new work of mine, inspired by the invitation from Colby College’s Center for the Arts and Humanities to engage the more humanities-side of my research. This research grew from questions I received from students at both Colby College and the College of the Atlantic, questions asking me to consider how the ‘inhuman’ may actually be modeled into the future climate.

Climate models have inspired me for years, and I have written ways to think more critically and expansively with them as modes of prefiguring equitable futures. In this talk, I wanted to envision a few of these futures.

Here, you see me bringing queer theory to bear on the science and math of climate models, using the models as a heuristic for envisioning more expansive genres of being human. I ask, “If the queer has never been human, what does it meant to project ‘the human’ into the future? What visions - and material consequences - are being constructed for the future, based on inequalities we see from the past and present? What other genres of being human - of existing, persisting outside the paradigm of liberal humanism - can help construct more just climate future?”

I love the creativity afforded by queer theory, and I appreciate how climate justice literature is increasingly turning towards a more holistic understanding of nature-society relations, understanding that climate justice for some is not enough. It has to be for all. We have to understand that we live in symbiosis, with one another and with the world around us.

Here, I am discussing lichens, and emerging lichen research, as a model for what I term ‘inhuman solidarity,’ a means for thinking of what life has always been like for many, and what it could be like for the rest of us if we were to expand our visions of what counts as ‘justice’, especially in a global context where people are already fighting for their lives to matter in the present.

The talk went well. We had some great conversations about ways to build and think about the future climate outside of the parameters of what are often seen as ‘possible’. I am always grateful for these experiences!

19 march 2023

the aag annual meeting is next week in denver! if you’re around, come say hi at the following events/sesssions!

^^^ I am excited to be working with a long-time friend and collaborator - Alex A. Moulton - to organize this double-session on the futurities of climate erasures. This work stems from conversations we’ve had multiple times over the past few years, and we are largely concerned about the way climate impacts erase histories, especially ones that are critical for understanding the past, present, and future pathways for climate justice. We got responses from several great scholars, and I am looking forward to the conversations and papers that will develop from these sessions.

You can find our initial CFP for the session here, which gives a bit more context about what we mean by ‘the futurities of climate erasures.’

^^^ Another long-time friend and collaborator - Rae A. Baker - and I have been discussing, dealing with, and struggling against student debt for years, and this session is the culmination of many of our conversations to date. We have invited others to help us develop an understanding of the broad contours of student debt, not just in the US, and to think through ways that geographers are especially suited to address the uneven geographies of student debt.

You can find more information about how we think of/with student debt in our initial CFP here.

^^^ Finally, I am excited to be presenting some of my emerging research related to my ‘People’s Climate Archive Project.’ The aim here is to discuss how and why a more culturally nuanced and appropriate climate archive is necessary, both in terms of developing more relevant climate knowledge and also in terms of forming a basis for building more contextualized approaches to climate justice, especially in regions where it is difficult to do so.

21 february 2023

upcoming talk at colby college (March 15th, 7pm EST) !

I am beyond-thrilled that I was invited to speak at Colby College’s Center for the Arts and Humanities! I will also get the chance to meet with their environmental faculty for a pre-talk seminar to discuss some work/ideas. This will be a great opportunity to learn with and from some some incredible folks!

For this talk, I plan to build on my work with climate models and climate justice. In a previous publication, I discuss the prospects of modeling the ‘inhuman’ into the future, which, as it should, has resulted in many ongoing discussions/debates about what can mean. I want to use this talk as an opportunity to expand on different pathways - or climate scenarios - that are based on something other than algorithmic knowledge of the climate system. I aim to draw from a few sources - climate change communication work and queer storytelling - to sketch out some possible scenarios.

Can’t wait to see what comes it. Also, y’all - this flyer! They even included my silly dog. =)

3 february 2023

new book review!

I love reviewing books. I appreciate that you get a free book, and I value the chance to read a text deeply, sometimes one that I may have never picked up on my own. A few months ago, I was asked to review 'Breaking Boundaries: Innovative Practices in Environmental Communication and Public Participation', which is a book I just did not know existed, and I am glad it was brought into my orbit.

I study storytelling and climate change, and environmental/climate communication is certainly part of that work. I feel like I have a sense of what’s working and not working (though I still have lots to learn), and I liked that this book also is about what is working and not working. More specifically, the book is about the tension between new and old modes of environmental communication (all communication, really), and how sometimes they at odds with one another. It’s about how technologies - like Zoom and Twitter - expand and also constrain our abilities to connect.

Starting with Muntadhar al-Zaidi’s famous ‘shoeing’ in 2008, I had a lot of fun writing this review, discussing how actions - like throwing tomato soup on paintings (e.g., Just Stop Oil) - counts as environmental communication, and that these actions reverberated so loudly in part because of how they were seen and metabolized by society, which is to say on the Internet. This book wrestles with the context in which older forms of public participation, like town halls, simply aren’t working and how other forms of communication, like social media, can be ephemeral.

In short, it’s a great book! I learned a lot and was happy to write about it. You can find the review here if you’re interested!

31 january 2023

hearsay speaker series at the 2022 honcho campout - talk #3 released!

It was important to me - and, from I gathered from the Honcho Campout organizers, to them as well - to have some discussion of land: where we are, why we are there, how we are using, etc. Of course, we are all on stolen land in the U.S., and I wanted to find ways to discuss how settler colonialism and racial capitalism frame our experiences of land - where we are dancing. Again, however, the challenge is finding ways of having these conversations without it being too heavy to resonate in a setting where folks are celebrating… how to discuss these issues without being disingenuous.

As luck would have it, I was visiting a friend in Asheville who introduced me to Travis L. Williams through Instagram. I followed up with him, and we ended up having several conversations about the best way to discuss these issues in the setting of Honcho Campout. Travis really came through with some excellent thoughts - pulling from his own experiences - about ways to bring several ides together in what felt like a good, challenging, but ultimately very important talk.

You can find the link to his talk here.

I am looking forward to next year’s speaker series and am already in the process of getting speakers lined up. Stay tuned. =)

28 January 2023

hearsay speaker series at the 2022 honcho campout - talk #2 released!

In a context that is ostensibly about celebrating - queer life, love, friends, family - climate change may not seem like the most intuitive topic to bring up. And yet, it is part of our daily lives, impacting nearly every facet of our day-to-day activities… which include the good times. As I mentioned, the challenge of curating these talks was finding ways to discuss potentially heavy topics with levity, but not with dishonesty.

Mika Tosca - and her vision of creative climate communications and queer futures - was able to bring herself, her knowledge, charm, and humor, forward in a talk that was both enlightening for folks and engaging. It was incredible to see folks actually working on group projects in the Circle of Whispers. =)

You can find a link to the recording here!

22 january 2023

hearsay speaker series at the 2022 honcho campout - talks being released!

Curating the Hearsay speaker series at the 2022 Honcho Campout was a highlight of last year for me, a highlight of a lifetime really. I was so excited - and humbled (and a bit terrified) - to be asked to think about a speaker series that would complement the coolness, sexiness, queerness, and all-around good time that is Campout.

I was tasked with finding ways to discuss topics like climate change, environmental justice, settler colonialism, racial capitalism, queer existence, and queer histories in ways that felt appropriate to their content without being overly heavy. I lucked into finding three speakers who fit the bill perfectly. The three talks are being released over the next three weeks.

First up is Harrison Apple’s talk, titled ‘uncommitted queer histories,’ that digs into the history of Pittsburgh’s queer nightlife with an eye towards keeping those histories alive in the present through archival and artistic practice. As the first talk, I think it did a great job of setting the scene, reminding folks that Campout grows out of Pittsburgh’s rich queer history.

Here’s a link to a recording of the first talk. Excited to share the others as they are made available!

18 january 2023

reflecting on roger deakin’s Waterlog: a swimmer’s journey through britain (1999)

If you know me, you know that I love swimming, especially outside. I enjoy warm weather and cold weather swimming, though it takes a while for me to pluck up the courage for the latter sometimes. For those who know me, it is also no surprise that I love landscape writing, and that I drawn specifically to nature/landscape writing about the UK. Nan Shepherd’s (1977) The Living Mountain is with me everyday, as I walk, think, and write about the world around me. The writer, Benjamin Meyers, writes about Northern England as if it is a character, growing and changing in quiet and mysterious ways, and I carry his writing with me all the time in my research and writing. I feel like reading his writing makes me a better writer.

This book - Waterlog - brings together both swimming and nature/landscape writing - in the UK, no less - in ways that have had a quiet and profound imprint on my thinking and writing as well. I have known about this book for years, but it took me a long time to finally read it.

I just finished it, last night actually, after reading for weeks before bed. My dreams were filled with water; they felt more fluid. I woke up feeling refreshed. I thought about - and looked at - water differently while reading the book. Living in Colorado, there is just not much water around, so I found myself feeling a sense of longing for a wild swim. But, this longing blurs into a deep love for water - not just swimming in it - but respecting it, especially in a time and place where water is so scarce.

I guess, in short, all I want to say is that this book is beautiful, and I’d recommend it to everyone. =)

13 january 2023

new publication in cultural geographies !

This article has been a long-time work in progress, and I am excited it is finally out and happy to share it! I first began this article in 2018, and it changed significantly based on findings from research, conversations with peers and mentors, and ultimately life/world events to this version published nearly five years later in 2023.

In short, I wanted to communicate what I have learned from working with storytellers — that stories are absolutely critical for our survival in the face of multiple, competing, and nested crises, climate change being one of many. Stories are a terrain of struggle, and they are what motivate/change us; they help us make sense of the non-sensical and create meaning from our shared experiences.

I am so grateful to the storytellers I have worked with over the years. Every time I return to this work, I am reminded of the profound lessons I’ve learned from them, and I do my best to implement them in my life beyond my research and teaching.

Excited to hear what others think. =)

Here’s a link to the article. Get in touch if you need access!

29 november 2022

finding solace in nate lippens’s my dead book (2021)

The past couple weeks have been long, confusing, and emotionally exhausting, but I found solace, and lots of (queer) hope actually, in My Dead Book. To me, the book is about registering the varying cadences of grief and trauma, seeing how, where, and why it plays out personally and in a community. More specifically, it’s about queer grief, based on an understanding that queer life is experienced differentially, almost ontologically. Grief and trauma register differently, stretching and moaning, stinging and hurting, lingering. There’s a history of the differential experiences of - and conditions that shape - grief in the queer community. This book is about experiencing those feelings fully, and realizing that there’s no blueprint, nor should there be.

It’s a challenging book, a heavy one. But, it’s the kind of book that takes a burden off your shoulders - one you may not even know you had - once you finish it. You realize you’re not alone, despite how isolated and weird life feels sometimes.

You can find more about the book and order it here.

20 november 2022

On Nov. 19th, there was a mass shooting at Club Q - a safe haven for queer people - in Colorado Springs. Queer spaces are invaluable. They are refuges where people feel safe and comfortable. Night life, specifically, is integral to the way queer people relate to, learn from, and love one another. This was an attack on my community. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. I encourage you to learn more about the incident - to learn about the victims and remember them - and to donate what you can.