Research

My interdisciplinary research is situated at the intersections of environmental history, more-than-human geography, political ecology, and critical ocean studies. The following sections describe my current research projects and interests.

Gray Whales: Remembering Pasts, Anticipating Futures

Photograph of gray whale spouting, with just a bit of the blowhole showing. People on a freeway bridge over the water are watching the whale and there are pine trees on hills in the background. — Gray whale spouting by 101 Freeway bridge near Klamath River, California. (Credit: goingslo via OpenVerse.)

My current book project examines histories, stories, and justice issues circulating around the migration and conservation of gray whales along the North American Pacific Coast. Gray whales undertake the longest annual migration of any marine mammal, journeying from their calving lagoons in Baja California Sur, Mexico all the way to Arctic Alaska (and beyond, as polar ice melts). In my work on gray whales, I examine the full geographic area of Eastern North Pacific gray whale migration on the West Coast of North America. Using an interdisciplinary approach and drawing on a wide range of sources, this project analyzes the many stories people tell and have told about gray whales in different times and places — and why these stories matter.

Portions of my research on gray whales have been published and/or discussed in peer-reviewed and public writing (for Environment and History, Slate, and Nursing Clio) and podcasts (Green Dreamer and Unladylike)

Coastal Environments, Memory, & Justice

Photograph of crumbling highway behind barricade at a sandy and rocky beach with waves and palm trees in the distance. — Crumbling former coastal infrastructure in Ventura, California. (Credit: A. Guasco.)

As a critical place-based researcher with long-standing ties and commitments to the North American Pacific Coast, and particularly the Santa Barbara Channel region, one of my key areas of work focuses on coastal and oceanic history, narratives, memory, and justice issues. I am currently developing a project on the intersections of ecological history and coastal environmental justice in the Southern California Bight region. I have previously written about this topic for The Scholar.

Residency & Conservation: Animals’ Mobilities, Belonging, & Blurred Geographies

Blurry birds-eye-view photograph of gray whale mother and calf swimming in dark teal water. — Gray whale mother and calf, seen from above. (Credit: NOAA, Public Domain.)

One of my current projects focuses on the concept of “residency” in ecological sciences and conservation. As part of a digital humanities fellowship with the American Society for Environmental History and Gale, I am researching the origins of the concept of residency and the contexts that have shaped it over time. This work looks at animal residency, movement, and migration across many species. The primary aims of this work focus on applications for shaping more socially just and ecologically resilient conservation research and practice on a rapidly changing planet.

Fieldwork, Ethics, and (Not) Going There

Screenshot of a blog titled "Why should fieldwork-based research consider an 'ethic of not going there'?" Orange content labels read "Original Content" and "Politics." Cover image of two women hiking in a hilly terrain. — Image from *Geography Directions*, 2022.

Across my research and teaching, I aim to develop practices that are ethical, inclusive, accessible, and sustainable. One part of this work has been to question the taken-for-granted nature of fieldwork, research travel, and/or “going there” as a way to establish one’s authority to speak for or about a place. Drawing on disability justice and anticolonial theory frameworks around “access” and “accessibility,” I suggest “an ethic of not (always) going there” as a route into alternative ways of doing research that are more ethical and respectful both for researchers and for researched places and communities. My writing on these topics has appeared in The Geographical Journal, Dialogues in Human Geography (with Johanne M. Bruun), Geography Directions, and Environmental History Now (author narrated version available here).