research + writing

Overview

My research analyzes the stories we tell (and don’t tell) about environmental problems like climate change and energy. I am interested in the capacity of stories to engage with – and potentially shift –environmental knowledge in regions, and with people, who are among the most vulnerable to matters of environmental, energy, and climate justice.

Topical interests: political ecology, political economy, climate politics/justice, energy politics/justice, climate communication, climate science, folklore, storytelling, environmental humanities, environmental philosophy, queer studies, critical theory

research + writing links

You can find a list of my publications on Research Gate.

Also, you can find more information on my Google Scholar page.

ongoing research projects

Climate Storytelling

How do stories of climate change shape how we understand and engage with it? How does the way we tell stories enable or disable possibilities for just climate futures?

This work examines the transformative capacity of stories to help study, build, and imagine equitable climate politics. How might, for example, ‘folk archives’ of climate change help develop culturally nuanced approaches to climate justice? The image above is page from a collaborator’s notebook. It is an archive for studying climate change.

The page highlights recipes for natural dyes from Southern Appalachia, many of which have changed over the last several decades as climate change has caused plant species to migrate or go extinct in the region. Unlike traditional climate archives - ice cores, ancient pollen grains, etc. - that are largely inaccessible, both in terms of accessing and studying them, this archive is a blueprint for a more visceral, and more actionable, approach to studying climate change.

Climate Consciousness

How has climate knowledge developed over time? What discursive and material processes have shaped the way climate change is understood, especially in the US?

Sifting through archives - looking at objects like settlers’ notes penned on soup can wrappers and miners’ notes written to their bosses - I began to understand that ‘climate consciousness’ in the US is the result of the interrelationships between empire, energy, and progress.

As empire moved West across the US, it consumed massive amounts of energy, all in service of a particular vision of progress. This history - and the patterns of power and powerlessness left in its wake - is the context in which climate politics in the US are framed.

The ‘Transit’ of the Just Transition

When discussing ‘Just Transitions’, it is critical to ask: transition to and from what? for whom? and by what means? Is a transition to a greener status quo really enough?

Desires for and anxieties about a just transition are threaded through nearly all of my work. There is clearly a need for transition, especially in communities - and with people - experiencing the worst impacts of climate change. However, is it enough to simply ‘mine the sun’ as the sign above states? Or, rather, is a just transition an opportunity to reimagine what’s possible?

I am drawn to ‘Just Transitions’ because they are currently taking place. We have a chance to intervene directly in the process, ensuring - with community partnerships - that the transition is truly just and in service to those who stand to benefit the most.

Political Ecologies of Student Debt in the U.S.

Is it reasonable that students are taking on so much debt for the promise of a better life? To what extent are other factors - like climate change - driving the student debt crisis in the US?

I am a student debtor. Nearly every decision I have made in life has been because of student debt or threats of it. I am an educator, and I see my students struggle with student debt everyday. This project is meant to shine light on the way student debt is related to other crises — how, for example, student debt holdings twin with fossil fuel investments.

I hope this work helps guide student debt activism. Further, I hope this work creates space for my students - all students - to get an education, to build a life, without the threat of student debt hanging over them.