Christina Gooch, MA Candidate, Environmental Studies
Email: cgooch@uoregon.edu
Mailbox:Colombia, ENVS Main Office
Office Hours and Location: Tuesday 12-2pm, COL 244
Bio: Raised on the south shore of Kauai, Hawaii and in the heart of the Smoky Mountains in western North Carolina, my life has been a geographic hopscotch that has instilled a love of outdoor exploration and an appreciation for the complexity of current environmental issues. These interests led me to Smith College in Northampton, MA, where I spent summers studying abroad in Kenya and interning with the National Park Service in southern Colorado, receiving my bachelor’s degree in geology in 2007. After graduating, I began a career with the National Park Service, carting my pack and boots to Mount Rainier as a park guide, to the Everglades as an environmental educator, and to the high Sierra of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, where I have worked as a wilderness patrol ranger since 2009. During this time, I spent several winters pursuing an interest in sustainable food production, volunteering on organic farms in the US and abroad. My years of visitor interactions in the National Parks, along with reflection upon my own food- and environmentally-related travel experiences, have led me to think critically about the interface of global experience and community-based action. These questions drew me to the University of Oregon, where I am exploring the connection between food studies abroad and students’ subsequent engagement in local food issues. When not hiking or thinking about food, I can be found running, mandolin picking, gazing excitedly at rocks or stars, and grinding fresh coffee.
Sam Moore, MA Candidate, Environmental Studies
Email: smoore8@uoregon.edu
Mailbox:Colombia, ENVS Main Office
Office Hours and Location: Wednesdays 10am-12pm, COL 244
Bio: I graduated from Tulane University, majoring in Environmental Studies as well as Studio Art (concentrating in photography). My study at Tulane revolved around the pairing of material knowledge of biological processes with conceptual undertakings in photography, writing and drawing. Aesthetically, I am attracted to people and nature alike, and I think my best work incorporates both. I idolize Walker Evans and Ansel Adams equally alongside E.O. Wilson and Rachel Carson.As my environmental consciousness evolved, I realized that the scope of my interest was broadening to become willfully large, with driving interests in environmental justice, ethnogeography and journalism as well as field ecology, with literary concerns from intensely practical case studies to abstract natural ethics. I enrolled at the University of Oregon with an intention to intensify my study of these different paths and to throw myself fully into reading, writing and taking pictures relating to critical problems of human-environment interaction.Through courses in each domain I hope to blend a passion for visual storytelling with a foundation of specific knowledge about ecosystems and their function. I am especially interested in subtropical ecosystems in southern Africa from previous studies abroad there, especially related to the interplay between conservation, colonial history and socioeconomic disparity.Otherwise, I’m from Massachusetts, interested in biking, hiking, fresh food and plenty of hip hop.