I’m faculty in the Writing Program at UC Santa Barbara, where I teach courses focused largely on science and environmental writing. I earned my Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Scientific & Technical Communication from the University of Minnesota. I also hold a master’s degree in Technical and Professional Writing from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and a bachelor’s degree in Geography from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.
My writing and research focus on environmental and science communication, visual culture, and the implications of environmental advocacy for vulnerable species. Most recently, with my new book, At Home in the Anthropocene, I’ve been engaging more with travel and nature writing and creative nonfiction. Underpinning all of my work is the idea that writing and communication can function in the service of advocacy and productive discourse.
My recent book, Visualizing Posthuman Conservation in the Age of the Anthropocene, was published by The Ohio State University Press in 2018. My new book, At Home in the Anthropocene, is a follow-up to Visualizing and was published with The Ohio State UP in September 2022.
I can be reached by email at amy.propen [at] gmail [dot] com.
Amy D. Propen 