Chandler L. Classen, PhD
My research showcases a deep commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship and the collaborative process. I am a humanities scholar trained in performance studies, environmental humanities, communication and media, and cultural studies. I use ethnographic, archival, and critical/cultural methods to explore environmental activism and how communities respond to ecological crises. My research extends the work of environmental humanities scholars who seek to explore the discursive and material relationship of environmental crises and how communities process contemporary ecological precarity and anxiety.
We need better stories of environmental issues; how communities respond to, make sense of, and memorialize their interactions with environmental threats light the way to building liberatory – if contested – ecological politics. In addition to publishing journal articles and texts, I use performance and creative approaches to my research to tell powerful stories of what it means to live amidst worsening ecological crisis.