Brittany Meché

Brittany Meché

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies

413-597-2778
Class of 1966 Environmental Center - Kellogg House
At Williams since 2019

Education

B.A. New York University, Middle Eastern&Islamic Studies
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

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