Environmental Studies Department

Through my teaching and scholarship at Gettysburg College, I study the relationships between people and the environment, the structures that shape those relationships, and the outcomes that follow. Within this broad arena, I maintain a cross-cutting interest in humans' rich and complex relationships with nonhuman animals.  

My scholarship lies at the intersections of biodiversity conservation and environmental change, gender issues, and practices of equitable and sustainable development. I am particularly interested in how these issues manifest in the borderlands of wildlife protected areas, where people frequently conflict with both one another and with members of other species over questions of space, place, and belonging. For over two decades I have maintained a regional focus on India, with my fieldwork emphasizing the experiences of Himalayan communities in Uttarakhand.  Specific topical interests include participatory approaches to community-based conservation, gender mainstreaming debates, studies of human-wildlife conflict and coexistence, rewilding initiatives, and conservation politics. 

My work also examines human-nonhuman animal interactions more broadly. From this perspective, I strive to engage practical and philosophical questions about commodification of "the wild" and what this practice means for nonhuman animal actors.  Several students have joined me in examining these issues in terms of the trade in captive-bred wolf-dog hybrids and debates over wildlife reintroduction in the US.  Currently I am working on a long-term book project that examines cross-scale questions about the trade in captive wildlife, wildlife rescue, retirement pathways, and related global "voluntourism" practices. 

In addition, and in collaboration with the international (and locally-based) NGO Project Gaia, I've worked with numerous students over the years to examine the potential for clean cookstoves to reduce black carbon, promote sustainable livelihoods, support women's empowerment, and contribute to biodiversity conservation objectives.  

My theoretical approaches are interdisciplinary and emphasize cultural and political ecology, environmental justice, feminist environmentalisms, critical development studies, compassionate conservation, care ethics, and animal geographies.

I welcome the opportunity to support and collaborate with research students who share any of these broad theoretical, topical, or regional research interests.  If these areas excite you too, please get in touch or come by for a visit!  

COURSES OFFERED

Please note that section availability varies from year to year.  

* ES146: Animals in Culture, Society, and Literature 
* ES161: Introduction to Human Geography
* ES196: Environmental Science and Society 
* ES334: Global Environment and Development 
* ES335: Gender and Environment 
* ES400: Senior Seminar: Animals, the Environment, and Society
* FYS171-4: Women, Wildlife, and Water
* FYS174: Encountering Animals
* FYS 167-3: Whispers of Elephants

Coming soon!  ES2xx or new ES400 section: "Abundant Futures in the Pluriverse" -- this course will bring participants together to collectively and critically examine possible pathways and visions for transformative societal and planetary futures that draw inspiration from discourses of abundance and hope, rather than scarcity and fear. 

STUDENT CLUB ADVISING

I am also faculty co-advisor to the student club GECO (Gettysburg Environmental Concerns Organization) and Farmhouse, and faculty advisor to SASA (Students Against Sexual Assault). 

 

Thanks for visiting!

Schedule with me: https://calendly.com/professorogra