A Biodiversity Study of A Sculpture Park

Back in May, I finally finished grad school. Inevitably, I get asked a variation of same question again and again: “What do you research? What was your thesis about? What was your program about?” My answer remains a slippery, unstable thing. Sometimes, I simply say that I study environmental art history (like the history of environmental art). If I’m feeling extra pretentious, I’ll say that I’m a “climate museology” scholar — an unofficial academic term that describes museum studies research focused on the climate crisis and its impact on cultural institutions, historic sites, and archives. I’ve realized that this kind of interdisciplinary scholarly compost is what I love most, when I’m able to dabble in a little bit of art history, a little bit of animal and plant studies, some design and architectural history, with a mix of science fiction studies and environmental humanities work thrown in there for good measure.

My final research project, “Out of the Gallery And Into The Open Green: Storm King Art Center’s Entangled Art Historical Ecologies,” brought all of these tangled academic threads together. This thesis definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone as a scholar, challenging me to merge my love of art and the outdoors through environmental science research and species identification. Comprised of archival research, staff interviews, and site visits, I found myself…