Hello!
I am a writer, media maker and anthropologist who was born in Chicago, lives in Houston, and feels most at home in Berlin and Los Angeles. I have held teaching positions at the University of Chicago, Cornell University and Rice University and been the recipient of grants and fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Fulbright, the Social Science Research Council, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation.
My work focuses on the energy and environmental challenges of our era, particularly the need to decarbonize society and to break the ecocidal trajectory of global capitalism. I have recently led research projects on the contentious politics of wind power development in Mexico and on the emotional impact of catastrophic flooding in Houston. I am increasingly interested in electric futures across the world and on amphibious urbanism in coastal cities experiencing sea level rise.
In the past decade, my methods have become increasingly collaborative and multimodal. I have curated environmental art exhibitions, produced podcasts, made a documentary film, and installed the world’s first memorial to a glacier fallen to climate change. Upcoming projects include a television series, Petropolis, which explores how oil can both unite and destroy a city, a serious non-fiction book about the Iceland’s disappearing glaciers and a RPG about sentient petroleum.
Thanks for stopping by and please feel free to reach out:
Representation: Alison MacKeen, Park & Fine Literary and Media