Graduate Students

Graduate students have always been at the center of ASLE. Even before our association was formally organized, The American Nature Writing Newsletter, a biannual publication founded by Alicia Nitecki in 1989, and the forerunner of ASLE News, included the writing and editorial contributions of graduate students—some of whom would become founding members of our association. Graduate students then joined experienced teachers and scholars in building ASLE, compiling reading lists, syllabi and a “Where to Study” list of institutions with graduate programs in the environmental humanities.

New in 2018: Graduate Student Summer Reading Group!  Read More and Sign Up

Today, graduate student members of ASLE enjoy:

• Friendly, fun, and intellectually invigorating biennial conferences and off-year symposia at which graduate students are warmly welcomed
• Conferences where graduate students make professional connections with faculty and other students, some of whom become long-term colleagues and friends
• Conferences that encourage intellectual development by providing graduate students a place to present their work, encounter new ideas and methodologies, and exchange ideas
• Conferences with dedicated panels and events on professional issues such as tackling the job market and creating course syllabi
• Conference travel grants to support graduate student attendance
• Awards for the best work of environmental creative writing and ecocriticism by graduate students (see Graduate Student Paper Awards below)
• opportunities to work with faculty working in ecocriticism, environmental writing, and the environmental humanities through our Graduate Mentoring Program
• Opportunities to work closely with the coordinator of the Mentoring Program and other members to develop resources and programs for graduate students
• An association committed to expanding professionalization opportunities, validate diverse career outcomes, and strengthen teacher training

ASLE Graduate Student Liaisons

Our Graduate Student Liaisons (GSLs) represent the interests and concerns of graduate students at meetings of the Executive Council (EC) and collaborate with the coordinator of the ASLE Mentoring Program. As Project Coordinators, GSLs spearhead projects important to the life and future of the organization.

The following ASLE members have served as GSL, and we recognize here their inspired work and ongoing contributions:

• 2018-19: April Anson & Kristin George Bagdanov
• 2017-18: Aubrey Streit Krug & April Anson
• 2016-17: Stephen Siperstein & Aubrey Streit Krug
• 2014-15: Clare Echterling & Stephen Siperstein
• 2012-13: Andrew Husband
• 2011-13: Andrew Hageman
• 2010-11: Jill Anderson
• 2009-10: Sarah Jaquette Ray
• 2008-09: Angela Waldie
• 2005-07: Tom Hillard & Paul Bogard
• 2004-06: Amy Patrick
• 2004: Sarah McFarland
• 2002-03: Barbara Cook & Tina Richardson
• 2000-01: Melissa Goldthwaite & John Krajicek
• 1998-99: Wes Berry & Mei Mei Evans
• 1995-97: Laird Christensen & Peter Blakemore
• 1994: Julie Seton & Lisa Spaulding
• 1993: Dan Philippon & George Hart
• 1992: Mark Schlenz & James David Taylor

Graduate Student Paper Awards

Our graduate student paper awards in ecocriticism and environmental creative writing were first given at the 2007 conference at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The most recent awards were given at the 2017 conference held at Wayne State University in Detroit. The next ASLE book awards will be presented at the Thirteenth Biennial Conference at the University of California, Davis.

We are honored to list here the award winning writing from previous years:

2017

• K.M. Ferebee (The Ohio State University), “The Quick and the Dead: Animacy, (Un)Burial, and Resistance in Pu-239 (The Half-Life of Timofey Berezin)”(scholarly)
• Marta Werbanowska (Howard University), “’There Is Hope in Connecting’: Black Ecotheology and the Poetry of Lucille Clifton” (scholarly)

2015

• Vera Coleman (Arizona State University), “Becoming a Fish: Trans-Species Beings in Narrative Fiction of the Southern Cone” (scholarly)

2013

• Maya Laxmi Kapoor (University of Arizona), “The Slowness of Our Eyes: A Creative Nonfiction Look at Life Through a Microscope” (creative)
• Scholarly: William Lombardi (University of Nevada, Reno), “Unequal Burdens: An Outline for Postlocal Ecocriticism and Notes on the Location of Ecosocial Justice” (scholarly)

2011

• Alenda Chang, University of California, Berkeley, for “Back to the Virtual Farm: Gleaning the Agriculture-Management Game” (scholarly)
• Micah Sewell, University of Montana for “Seeds: A Creation Story” (creative)

2009

• Andrew Husband, Sam Houston State University, “Postcolonial ‘Greenery’: Surreal Garden Imagery in Nuruddin Farah’s Maps” (scholarly)
• Emily Carr, University of Calgary, “eve / in exile: the poem as ecotone” (creative)

2007

• Jill Gatlin, University of Washington, “Landscapes and Lungs: Toxicity, Space, and Race in Hubert Skidmore’s Hawk’s Nest.” (scholarly)
• Flannery Scott, Western Illinois University, “The Highest Places.” (creative)