Work-in-Progress talk: "Race, Recreation, and Storytelling in the Outdoor Diversity Movement"

Sarah Wald, Environmental Studies and English, and 2022–23 Oregon Humanities Center Faculty Research Fellow at the University of Oregon.

This project examines the movement to diversify public lands access, outdoor recreation, and employment in the US. It focuses on organizations, social media accounts, and cultural productions (films, graphic novels, creative non-fiction) that counter the whiteness of outdoor recreation, public lands advocacy, and conservation. I use an environmental justice lens to analyze the stories told about race, nature, and nation in the movement. These stories offer new ways to imagine environmental belonging and political action for just futures.