My recent research can be divided into three projects. First, “Plastic Nature” explores questions about the normative dimensions of nature and the natural. Second, “Parts per Billion” addresses questions about collective responsibility in the context of climate change. I am beginning a third project, “Sustainable Power,” which focuses on ethical questions raised by renewable energy.
I remain committed to adopting multidisciplinary perspectives and presenting my work to a wide range of audiences. I strongly believe that environmental philosophers must think broadly and engage a large audience. As a scholar I aim to encourage both thinking and action that will meaningfully mitigate environmental injustices.
For a full list of publications my Google Scholar page is often most up to date. You can also view my CV.
Plastic Nature
In this project, my work explores questions about the normative dimensions of nature. Nature is a slippery concept; it can mean everything (all physical reality) and nothing (the wilderness now vanished from earth) (Vogel). Nature is also valued differently across time, place, and social positions. I examine multiple sites where nature’s contested value is evident. I use political ecology, ecofeminism, and critical theory to trace the political backdrop and power relations underwriting these disputes. Nature’s value is plastic; it can take many shapes. By imposing ways of valuing nature over others, or by fixing its value, the powerful inflict a type of environmental injustice; such valuing often constitutes a kind of violence or other forms of domination. My project exposes and critiques this domination. In doing so, I also contribute to debates over realism and post-naturalism.
In a book chapter, I argue the Jurassic Park films, when taken as a series, revise their definition of “natural” by exploiting the conceptual ambiguities of the term. Tracking this revision reveals power relations that disguise nature’s normative meanings (The Horror of Relations).
In “Sympathy for Cecil” I draw from three areas – animal ethics, political ecology, and ecofeminism – to understand not only why Cecil the Lion’s death elicited an outpouring of sympathy, but how sympathy for predator animals (translated into record-breaking financial donations) functions on the international scene to protect dangerous animals at the expense of people who live alongside them.
Parts per Billion
This project involves ethics, social-political philosophy and environmental politics. I consider questions about collective responsibility for climate change. I am primarily interested in the limits of individual responsibility to address climate change, the possibility of collective responsibility (especially for governments and institutes of higher learning), and how to identify collectives that bear such responsibility. I am especially interested in the evolving fossil fuel divestment movement. I intentionally published my work in different venues to reach a wide range of audiences: students, philosophers, and academics generally concerned with environmental issues.
Some of my published work on this project explores arguments against direct duties to address climate change, ways of thinking about shared responsibility, and the barriers and potential for climate change research at universities and colleges. I have also published work relevant to this project in the NY Times (with Aaron Jaffe) and in a forthcoming textbook chapter in College Ethics (2nd Ed. OUP).
Papers in progress for this project include questions about climate hypocrisy and structural injustice, the privatization of responsibility and the enclosure of environmental commons.
Sustainable Power
Recent literature on energy ethics – both in philosophical journals and beyond – is rich with questions about energy democracy, environmental politics, fair burdens, participatory justice, and more. I am particularly interested in energy democracy. I published an article in Environmental Ethics and an APA blogpost on this topic. I believe that by considering climate change a problem with energy systems rather than merely with emissions (Shaw), we can better understand some of the justice concerns that arise from environmental enclosure and displacement. In 2020 I was awarded an internal grant as part of interdisciplinary team to develop method of assessing utility scale solar energy. I was an ACLS fellowship recipient for 2025-26 to further my research on this project.
