Ph.D. English Language and Literature, University of Chicago
M.A. English Language and Literature, University of Chicago
B.A. English and History, University of California Santa Barbara

• BIS 490 Eco-Anxiety and Climate Grief
• BIS 245 Humanities and Environment
• BIS 356 Ethics and the Environment
• BIS 290 Interdisciplinary Writing
• BCORE 104/110 Learning Ecology Through Storytelling

I believe that creating a more sustainable world is both a science and an art. My teaching brings together environmental studies and the humanities—literature, history, philosophy, film, and art—to help students understand environmental issues through multiple ways of knowing. Alongside this interdisciplinary foundation, my courses emphasize integrative learning: the insights of the humanities are deepened through field experiences and service learning across the Puget Sound region. When students aren’t analyzing literary and cultural texts in the classroom, they’re outside engaging with place, reflecting on experiential and embodied connections to our more-than-human world.

Because my classes address existential challenges such as climate disruption and biodiversity loss, I also attend closely to the emotional dimensions of this work. Grappling with the realities of climate injustice often generates feelings of grief, anxiety, guilt, and even despair—emotional, psychological, and intellectual responses that often remain unspoken in traditional curricula. Yet research shows that these emotions profoundly shape how we learn, make meaning, and imagine possible futures. My courses create space for students to acknowledge and work through these feelings directly. I offer tools and practices that support emotional resilience, meaning-making, and a sense of agency, helping students develop the psychological and existential capacities needed to engage in this work for the long haul without becoming overwhelmed.

Ultimately, my goal as an educator is to guide students in cultivating both critical insight and compassionate imagination—skills essential for addressing the intertwined ecological and social crises of our time.

My research examines the role of emotions in environmental education and climate communication. In my recent book An Existential Toolkit for Climate Justice Educators (co-edited with Sarah Jaquette Ray), we explore the emotional and mental health impacts of climate disruption and ecological loss, and offer strategies to help young people face these challenges with courage, resilience, and a sense of purpose.

My seminars on climate anxiety and grief have been featured in the New York Times, National Geographic, NPR, Washington Post, Seattle Times, and other outlets. Public scholarship is central to my work: I regularly lead seminars and give public talks on climate and mental health while collaborating with youth activists, climate scientists, psychologists, and policymakers. My podcast Facing It further extends this work by offering practical tools for transforming climate anxiety into meaningful action.

I am also the author of Gardenland: Nature, Fantasy, and Everyday Practice (University of Georgia Press), which examines American garden literature as a “fantasy genre” where people enact desires for more just, joyful, and ecologically connected ways of living. The book analyzes texts ranging from popular garden manuals to literary fiction and nonfiction—featuring writers such as Toni Morrison, Henry David Thoreau, Leslie Marmon Silko, and John Steinbeck—as well as guerrilla gardening manifestos, Hollywood film, and science fiction. By situating these fantasies within key historical moments, Gardenland offers a broader narrative about the social anxieties and desires that draw us to the soil. The book was named one of EcoLit’s “Best Environmental Books” of 2019 and featured on NPR’s Morning Edition and the Smithsonian Institution lecture series.

In my other scholarly publications, I have explored topics such as the role of anxiety and grief in climate education, the importance of multisensory experience in environmental humanities, representations of nature in utopian literature, and the ecological imagination of terraforming in science fiction (see selected publications below).