Teaching

I teach various courses exploring the tangled causes and unequal consequences of environmental problems, the social and political-economic relations that shape these problems, and the predicaments of those now seeking to address them. In the classroom, my teaching is aimed at helping students forge connections that can link more theoretical debates with lived experience and with the practical urgencies of the ecological transformations that increasingly surround us.

To this end, my pedagogy emphasizes vigorous dialogue as a means of advancing student learning: dialogue with me, dialogue with each other, and dialogue with the wider worlds in which my students are implicated, locally and globally, personally and professionally. That includes challenging students to be mindful about their intentions as they try to define themselves as thinkers, as engaged members of their communities, and as young people facing important choices in their lives and careers.

I conceive of education as a collective process of personal and intellectual transformation whose rewards far exceed the acquisition of new knowledge or new skills. As an educator, I am committed to helping my students navigate the difficult work inherent to this process and steering them toward the vital experiences of insight, wonder, and empowerment I believe it makes uniquely possible.

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Conservation & Environmental Policy

This course serves as an introduction to the politics of conservation and environmental policymaking in the United States. We will begin by first taking stock of the alarming environmental transformations now in motion and considering divergent perspectives about the political implications. Next, we will look at the key actors, institutions, and political processes which have… Continue reading Conservation & Environmental Policy

Theories of Change

Clashing perspectives about how to envision and enact “social change” have long riven the environmental movement, animating deep disagreement among activists. In this seminar, we will explore these debates by (1) analyzing various efforts aimed at “changing the world” and (2) troubleshooting their different methods, strategies, and underlying ideas about change. Through close analysis of… Continue reading Theories of Change

Global Political Ecology

This seminar will introduce you to the field of political ecology: as an eclectic body of scholarship for understanding nature-society relations; as a source of methods for studying these relations; and as a “way of seeing” which prompts us to critically examine the political causes and unequal consequences of environmental problems, the purported solutions to… Continue reading Global Political Ecology

What on Earth Is ES Teaching You?

The task of teaching about contemporary ecological crises, from global warming to global biodiversity loss, presents a vital pedagogical challenge. Educators across diverse subdisciplines of environmental studies (ES) are now revisiting fundamental questions concerning what to teach, how to teach, and even why to teach as their traditional subject matter transforms around them. In this… Continue reading What on Earth Is ES Teaching You?

The Politics of Hope

We are frequently told we must “never give up hope.” But what is at stake in hoping? In this course we will interrogate this ubiquitous injunction to hope. We will analyze contemporary debates about the possibility of hope in the face of uncertain planetary futures to consider the affective politics of how, in what ways,… Continue reading The Politics of Hope