
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies
Education
M.A. New School University
Ph.D. University of California-Berkeley, Geography
Areas of Expertise
West Africa, United States, African Diaspora; security/militarism; nature/environment; race/empire; expertise/international development; politics/political theory
Courses
ENVI 261 / STS 261 TUT
Science and Militarism in the Modern World (not offered 2024/25)ENVI 297 / GBST 287 SEM
Global Sustainable Development (not offered 2024/25)Scholarship/Creative Work
2024 “Le Stand de Tir.” Nos Lieux Communs. Eds. Fabrice Argounès, Michel Bussi, and Martine Drozdz. Paris: Fayard Press
2024 “Security” [with Paul Gallay, Mary McNeil, and José Constantine]. Engage: Indigenous, Black, and Afro-Indigenous Futures. Ed. Joy James. London: Pluto Press.
2023 “Unmaking Arizona.” A Review of Natalie’s Koch’s Arid Empire: The Entangled Fates of Arizona and Arabia. New York: Verso Press, 2023. Political Geography.
2023 “Desert Black.” Transition, 133(1): 70-88.
2022 “Wave of Coups Disrupts Africa” Democracy Now https://www.democracynow.org/2022/2/8/us_presence_in_africa_fuels_coups
2022 “Black as Drought: Arid Landscapes and Ecologies of Encounter Across the African Diaspora.” Environment and Society, 13(1): 60-77.
2022 “Development, the Drug War, and the Limits of Security Sector Reform in the West African Sahel.” ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 20(6), 687-706. https://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/2101
2021 “Ecology Otherwise: A Review Essay.” A review of Tiffany King The Black Shoals: Formations of Black and Native Studies. Durham: Duke University Press, 2019. Society and Space Online.
2020 “Memories of an Imperial City: Race, Gender, and Birmingham, Alabama.” Antipode. 52(2): 475-495.
2019 “Bad Things Happen in the Desert: Mapping Security Regimes in the West African Sahel and the ‘Problem’ of Arid Spaces.” A Research Agenda for Military Geography. Ed. Rachel Woodward. London: Edward Elgar.
2016 “Surveillance States and the Possibilities of Diaspora: A Review Essay.” A review of Simone Browne Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness. Durham: Duke University Press, 2015. Antipode on https://antipodefoundation.org/book-reviews/.
2016 “Making Room for Black Feminist Praxis in Geography” [with Camilla Hawthorne] Society and Space on http://societyandspace.org.
2015 “Concerning Violence: Film Review.” Africa is a Country [with Michael Watts, Camilla Hawthorne, and Erin Torkelson] on https://africasacountry.com.
2014 “The Redemption Trope in South African Cinema.” Africa is a Country on https://africasacountry.com.
Awards, Fellowships & Grants
2025 Senior Research Fellow Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, Germany
2025 Environmental Humanities Residential Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh
2023 Hellman Fellowship, The Society of Hellman Fellows, Williams College (1-year tenure)
2020 Non-Resident Fellow, Du Bois Research Institute, Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Harvard University (2-year tenure)
2019 Gaius C. Bolin Dissertation and Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Environmental Studies, Williams College (2-year tenure)
2019 McMillan-Stewart Residential Fellow, Du Bois Research Institute, Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Harvard University (1-year tenure)
2019 Carter G. Woodson Pre-Doctoral Fellowship in African and African American Studies, University of Virginia (2-year tenure)(declined)
2019 African and African Diaspora Studies Dissertation Fellowship, Boston College (1-year tenure)(declined)
2019 Alternate, Dissertation Fellowship, The Ford Foundation
2018 International Dissertation Research Fellowship, The Social Science Research Council (1-year tenure)
2017 John L. Simpson Memorial Fellowship, Institute for International Studies, UC Berkeley (1-year tenure)
2017 Teaching Effectiveness Award, Graduate Division, UC Berkeley
2017 Kathryn Davis Peace Fellow, Middlebury College
2016 Dissertation Proposal Development Fellowship, The Social Science Research Council
2016 Rocca Pre-Doctoral Award, UC Berkeley Center for African Studies
2016 Human Rights Fellowship, UC Berkeley School of Law
2016 Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor, UC Berkeley
Professional Affiliations
American Association of Geographers
African Studies Association
American Studies Association
International Studies Association
Current Committees
- Environmental Studies Program