Professor of English, California State University, Fullerton

Nicole Seymour works at the intersection of environmental issues and queer issues, with a particular focus on the role of aesthetics and affects in related activist movements. She is the author of Strange Natures: Futurity, Empathy, and the Queer Ecological Imagination (University of Illinois Press, 2013), which won the 2015 Book Award for Ecocriticism from the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, and Bad Environmentalism: Irony and Irreverence in the Ecological Age (University of Minnesota Press, 2018), which was included in the Chicago Review of Books’ list of the “Best Nature Writing of 2018.” Her latest book, Glitter (Bloomsbury’s Object Lessons series, 2022), offers an environmental-cultural history of a substance often dismissed as frivolous. Seymour recently held fellowships at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich and the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh. She is currently professor of English and graduate advisor for the Environmental Studies Program at California State University, Fullerton.

Marcia H. Howard Chair in Literary Studies, Department of English and Institute of the Environment & Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles

Ursula K. Heise teaches in the Department of English and at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA. Her research and teaching focus on contemporary literature; environmental culture in the Americas, Western Europe and Japan; narrative theory; media theory; literature and science; and science fiction. Her books include Chronoschisms: Time, Narrative, and Postmodernism (Cambridge University Press, 1997), Sense of Place and Sense of Planet: The Environmental Imagination of the Global (Oxford University Press, 2008), Nach der Natur: Das Artensterben und die moderne Kultur (After Nature: Species Extinction and Modern Culture, Suhrkamp, 2010) and Imagining Extinction: The Cultural Meanings of Endangered Species (University of Chicago Press, 2016).

Florence and Frank Bush Professor in Art, Washington University

Patricia Olynyk is an artist, writer and educator whose work explores science and technology-related themes and the ways in which social systems and institutional structures shape our understanding of our place in the world. She is the former director of Washington University’s Graduate School of Art and the Florence and Frank Bush Professor in Art. She holds a courtesy appointment in WashU’s School of Medicine and fellowships in the Institute for Public Health and Living Earth Collaborative, both interdisciplinary hubs that facilitate research across a wide range of fields. Prior to joining WashU in 2007, Olynyk was part of the Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan, where she also directed their endowed distinguished visitors program and the Roman J. Witt visiting faculty program. In 2005, she became the first non-scientist appointed to the university’s renowned Life Sciences Institute.

Associate Professor of Art History and Archaeology, Washington University

Ila Sheren’s research focuses on questions of borders and decolonial theory, whether in the case of the U.S. frontera, environmental crisis in the Global South or the performative nature of political protest. Sheren teaches courses in new media, activist art and alternative art practices, as well as surveys of modern and contemporary art.

Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies, History (Affiliate), and Global Studies, Washington University

Hayrettin Yücesoy is a historian with a specialization in the premodern Middle East. His scholarly interests revolve around the intricate realm of political thought and practice, covering themes such as political messianism, monarchy, republican practices, visions of social order throughout premodern literature and the historiography of these subjects.

In his written works and publications, Yücesoy delves into the convergence of discourse and political practice, unraveling the polyphonic and dialogic nature of texts. His research endeavors aim to uncover unconventional and dissenting voices, which act as a counterpoint to both contemporary and premodern “master narratives.” Yücesoy is interested in discourse and social position and in the language’s capacity not only to articulate but also to shape life-worlds. Throughout his career, Yücesoy has contributed to scholarship through publications in English, Arabic and Turkish. His recent research revolves around the discourses of “good governance” as a point of entry for tracing the lineage of non-theological and non-ulema-centric political discourses in Middle Eastern history.

Professor of English, California State University, Fullerton

Nicole Seymour works at the intersection of environmental issues and queer issues, with a particular focus on the role of aesthetics and affects in related activist movements. She is the author of Strange Natures: Futurity, Empathy, and the Queer Ecological Imagination (University of Illinois Press, 2013), which won the 2015 Book Award for Ecocriticism from the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, and Bad Environmentalism: Irony and Irreverence in the Ecological Age (University of Minnesota Press, 2018), which was included in the Chicago Review of Books’ list of the “Best Nature Writing of 2018.” Her latest book, Glitter (Bloomsbury’s Object Lessons series, 2022), offers an environmental-cultural history of a substance often dismissed as frivolous. Seymour recently held fellowships at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich and the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh. She is currently professor of English and graduate advisor for the Environmental Studies Program at California State University, Fullerton.