Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2002, Natural Resources

The need for instruments to objectively and deeply measure public beliefs concerning environmental values and ethics, and relationship to environmental protection led to a project to integrate analytical techniques from ethics and educational psychology to identify beliefs in theories of value and obligation (direct and indirect), develop a 12-category system of environmental ethics, and a psychometric instrument with 5 scales and 7 subscales, including a self-assessment instrument for environmental ethics. The ethics were tested for ability to distinguish between beliefs in need to protect environment for human interests versus the interests or rights of animals and the environment. A heuristic for educators was developed for considering 9 dimensions of environmental and the ethics, and tested favorably. An exploratory survey (N = 74, 2001) of adult moral beliefs used 16 open-ended questions for moral considerability of, rights, treatment, and direct and indirect moral obligations to the environment. A 465 - item question bank was developed and administered (N = 191, 2002) to Ohio adults, and reduced to 73 items in 12 Likert-type scales (1-7, 1 strongly disagree) by analyzing internal consistency, response variability, interscale correlations, factorial, and ANOVA. The results (beliefs concerning the general environment): Scale 1) Environmental Capacity (suffer mentally and physically) u= 5.0, a= 0.85; 1.1) Conativity, u= 4.2, a= 0 .84; 1.2) Sentience, u= 5.0, a= 0.85; Scale 2) Value, u= 5.0, a= 0.92 ; 2.1) Intrinsic Value, u= 3.4, a= 0.84 ; 2.2) Animal and Environment's Rights, u= 4.95, a= 0.90; Scale 3) Moral Need to Protect, u= 5.0, a= 0.84; 3.1) Moral Acceptability of 4 Uses (medical research, zoo's, eating, killing to eat) u= 4.8, a= 0.89; 3.2) Usefulness, u= 5.54, a= 0.89; 4) Environmental Ethic a= 0.73 (95% in ethics 7-12, the ecological ethics), highest population mean: “Ecological Phenomenalism”, then “Ecological Ecocentrism”), modal category: “Ecological (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Joe Heimlich (Advisor) Subjects:

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2024, Environmental Studies

Given the precarious state of the planet, countries have approached environmental protection uniquely by codifying environmental rights in their constitutions. Using the theoretical concept of legal consciousness, this manuscript investigates how Colombia, Ecuador, and the United States address the environment in their respective constitutions. I find that in the U.S., individual states establish environmental provisions, while Colombia and Ecuador take a more explicit approach enshrining environmental rights in their national constitutions. More specifically, Colombia frames environmental protection as a duty of the state, while Ecuador views it as necessity, in that the environment has inherent rights. The decision to include or exclude environmental provisions in constitutions presents possibilities for future legal work on environmental rights.

Committee: Stephen Scanlan Dr. (Advisor); Holly Ningard Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: Environmental Education; Environmental Law; Environmental Studies; Latin American Studies

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, English (Rhetoric and Writing) PhD

In 2019, The Lake Erie Bill of Rights (LEBOR) was voted onto the city charter of Toledo, Ohio. The charter amendment made it possible for citizens of the city of Toledo to sue polluters on behalf of the Lake, effectively giving Lake Erie more standing in court closer to that of legal personhood. A year later, LEBOR was deemed unenforceable by Judge Jack Zouhary, who critiqued it as vague and reaching too far beyond the jurisdiction of Toledo. This dissertation starts from those two critiques, analyzing how LEBOR fell short in 1. specifically connecting to the thousands of years of landscape practices and relations Indigenous residents had developed in the time before the region was colonized and 2. understanding the Lake as a place with a dynamic set of naturecultural relations with deep ties to the watershed and landscape within the jurisdiction of Toledo. This analysis uses theories from spatial rhetoric, placemaking, naturecultural critique, Indigenous scholarship, and postcolonial studies focused on the U.S. to understand why these shortcomings occurred and how future activist composers can possibly benefit from avoiding them. At the center of the analysis is an oral history composed using only the words of the activists in order to ground the work in their more immediate context. The dissertation concludes by evaluating how my analysis of LEBOR can be applied to teaching writing in and outside of the classroom and to scientific research projects that may otherwise be falling short in their connection with the public connected to the knowledge they gather and the organisms and entities they research.

Committee: Neil Baird Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Ellen Gorsevski Ph.D. (Committee Member); Chad Iwertz-Duffy Ph.D. (Committee Member); Lee Nickoson Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Environmental Justice; Geography; Rhetoric

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2023, Antioch New England: Environmental Studies

We know that when children feel a sense-of-relation within local natural environments, they are more prone to feel concern for them, while nurturing well-being and resilience in themselves and in lands/waters they inhabit. Positive environmental behaviors often follow into adulthood. Our human capacities for creating sustainable solutions in response to growing repercussions of global warming and climate change may grow if more children feel a sense of belonging in the wild natural world. As educators, if we listen to and learn from students' voices about how they engage in nature, we can create pedagogical experiences directly relevant to their lives. Activities that relate to learners' lives inspire motivation, curiosity, and furthers understanding. Behaviors supporting environmental stewardship, environmental justice, and participation in citizen science and phenology are more probable when children feel concern for ecological landscapes. Internationally, some educators are free to encourage a sense-of -relation by bringing students into natural places. Yet, there are many educators who are constrained from doing so by strict local, state, and national education policies and accountability measures. Overcoming restrictions requires creative, relevant, and enjoyable learner-centered opportunities. Research shows that virtual nature experiences can provide for beneficial connections with(in) nature for children and adults. It is best to bring children outside. When this is not possible, a sense of wonder may be encouraged in the classroom. Our exploratory collaborative digital landscape-lore project makes this possible. We expand awareness about how we, educators, and children alike, are engaged within the landscapes and waterscapes significant to us. The term landscape-lore articulates the primacy of the places we find meaningful. Our intercultural investigations took place in collaborative public schools in colonized landscapes. New Hampshire and New Zealand, k (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: James Jordan PhD (Committee Chair); Jean Kayira PhD (Committee Member); Robert Taylor PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Cultural Anthropology; Ecology; Education; Education Philosophy; Educational Psychology; Educational Theory; Environmental Education; Environmental Justice; Environmental Studies; Folklore; Geography; Literacy; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Native American Studies; Physical Geography; Sustainability

BA, Oberlin College, 2017, Environmental Studies

Mainstream environmental activists often draw the correlation between environment and disability as being a matter of public health inequities, including air quality, pollution, and now the aftereffects of fracking. These are important, but they only scratch the surface of the link between these movements. I will discuss the movement of ecodisablism and how climate justice activists with disabilities, including the Crips for Climate Justice movement, have been influenced by climate and disability activism. This research is relevant as the massive baby boomer population ages and risks losing their connection to nature due to inaccessible green spaces. Moreover, discussing disability rights and environmentalism together may remind environmentalists of the importance of inclusion of all groups in their communities.

Committee: Cheryl L. Cottine (Advisor); Elizabeth C. Hamilton (Advisor); Evangeline Marcella Heiliger (Committee Member) Subjects: Climate Change; Environmental Health; Environmental Justice; Environmental Studies

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2014, Arts and Sciences: English and Comparative Literature

Women's and Indigenous contributions and approaches to mitigating eco-devastation have long played a minor role in literary studies and beyond, thus I introduce the term “ecomentaries” to describe those visual, written, symbolic, and metaphorical texts engaged with the documentation of environmental injustices. I argue that the unearthing and scrutiny of toxic entanglements in ecomentaries, particularly those conceptualized by minority women writers and activists, provide a key method through which to untangle or deconstruct norms of imperial colonization, while promoting ethical treatment of the natural world. Through the analysis of three key sites of consternation and resistance—(un)tangled legacies connecting water as lifeline and commodity between Sarah Baartman and Michiko Ishimure's Lake of Heaven, (un)tangled bodies and species justice in Ruth Ozeki's My Year of Meats, and (un)tangled places in the struggle for Indigenous land rights by the Mirarr Aboriginal people of Australia's Northern Territory—this dissertation uncovers the relevance of Indigenous thought to humanist and ecofeminist projects in cultural studies.

Committee: Myriam Chancy Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Marion Rohrleitner Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jennifer Glaser Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, History

This dissertation tells the story of how a zoo changed the world. Certainly, Charles Darwin shocked scientists with his 1859 publication On the Origin of Species, by showing how all life emerged from a common ancestor through the process of natural selection. Darwin's classic, though, cannot explain why by the end of the century many people thought critically about the relationship between humans and animals. To understand this phenomenon, historians need to look elsewhere. Between 1870 and 1910, as Darwinism was debated endlessly in intellectual circles, zoological parks appeared suddenly at the heart of every major American city and had (at least) tens of millions of visitors. Darwin's theory of evolution inspired scientists and philosophers to theorize about humans and animals. Public zoos, though, allowed the multitudes to experience daily the similarities between the human world and the animal kingdom. Upon entering the zoo, Americans saw the world's exotic species for the first time—their long necks, sharp teeth, bright colors, gargantuan sizes, ivory extremities, spots, scales, and stripes. Yet, more significantly, Americans listened to these animals too. They learned to take animals seriously as they interacted with them along zoo walkways. In fact, zoo animals led zoogoers in surprising directions— to the halls of Congress, to the halls of museums, to global trade networks, to the birth of the airplane, to the formation of primatology, to tuberculosis outbreaks, to the rise of animal rights, and to the genesis of ecology. Zoos, in turn, ushered animals into the heart of American politics, print culture, science, environmentalism, ethics, and medicine. Zoological parks encouraged visitors to approach animals on their own terms. In so doing, zoos put Humanism on display, where the limits of anthropocentrism could be scrutinized by a zoogoing world. Zoological parks at the turn of the century prepared the way for later environmental, conservation, and (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Randolph Roth (Advisor); John Brooke (Committee Member); Chris Otter (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Animals; Environmental Studies; Science History; Zoology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2011, Sociology

Drawing from archival and interview data, this study examines and compares the historical and contemporary processes through which Indigenous fishing rights have been negotiated in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, where three unique patterns have emerged and persist. Framing these battles as episodes of political contention in broader struggles for tribal self-determination and decolonization, the author takes a systematic, case comparative approach to expose the movement-level dynamics and the broader structural constraints that have resulted in varying levels of success for Indigenous communities who are struggling to maintain their traditional fishing practices, while also gaining economic stability through commercial fishing enterprises. By focusing on the interactions that occur between state actors and Indigenous resisters at the highly-contested, cultural and ideological frontiers of these nations' socio-political landscapes, this study is able to expose the dynamic processes through which cultural meaning-systems both affect collective action and are capable of transforming formal systems of racial/ethnic domination. More broadly, this study reveals contemporary trends in the struggle over ethnic identity and culture in post-colonial societies. These trends reflect both changes in colonial structures as well as enduring dissimilarities in the worldviews and relative political influence of Indigenous peoples and members of dominant societies.

Committee: Vincent Roscigno PhD (Committee Chair); Korie Edwards PhD (Committee Member); Andrew Martin PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Comparative; Environmental Justice; Sociology

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2013, Geography

Many attempts to explain inequality in the Delta tautologically invoke "persistent poverty" as its root cause, obscuring the continuities between historical exploitation and industrial agriculture in the present day. In contrast, I argue that agro-industry in the Delta is productive of environmental and social injustice, and that this injustice is confronted by black agricultural practice. A careful historical exploration of agro-industrial development avoids historical disjuncture by emphasizing the continuity between injustice in the past and injustice in the present. Food insecurity and environmental toxins are produced along with the regions high yields of cotton, corn, rice and soybeans. Agro-industry presents obstacles to a more socially just agriculture in the Delta—land ownership is highly concentrated, aerial herbicide application kills adjacent vegetable crops and a disarticulated food system hinders marketing possibilities—while producing health and income inequalities. In this thesis, I explore the historical roots of contemporary injustices, showing that the dominance of a particular form of industrial agriculture in the Delta was hardly an inevitability of agricultural 'modernization'. Rather, industrial agriculture in the Delta was developed as a strategic technology of racial differentiation, political control, and economic exploitation. For this reason, the historical opposition of the agricultural development state to black independence shapes the technologies and distribution of environmental injustice in the present day.

Committee: Kendra McSweeney PhD (Advisor); Hasan Jeffries PhD (Committee Member); Becky Mansfield PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; Agriculture; Black History; Environmental Justice; Geography