Biography
Lisa Fink (they/them) is a scholar, educator, and poet specializing in environmental humanities, U.S. literatures, critical ethnic studies, Indigenous studies, political ecology, and public humanities. Their writing has appeared or is forthcoming in American Quarterly, Boston Review, ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, American Indian Quarterly, (among others) and, with Lydia Cagluaq Agnus, in the collection Redefining Land Management in North American Literature and Culture: From Resource to Reciprocity. Lisa is also the author of the poetry chapbook Her Disco (dancing girl press, 2013). They have received fellowships from the Fulbright Program, Vermont Studio Center, PLAYA, and the Mellon Foundation.
Lisa’s current book project, “Unsettled Ecologies: U.S. Empire, Racial Discourse of Invasion, and Alienated Life,” is an Indigenous, race, and ethnic studies account of environmental discourse, thought, and practice concerning species invasion as it intersects with anti-immigrant, anti-Asian, and anti-Indigenous discourse—and abolitionist forms of environmental thought and practice that emerge in contestation.
From 2023–2025, Lisa was an NPS Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow based on Dena’ina Ełnena where they worked with Alaska Native communities and park service staff to transform interpretation of lands, waters, and wildlife in Alaska’s national parks to emphasize Indigenous knowledges, histories, and cultures.
Lisa is an assistant professor in the Department of English and Lyman Briggs College (Science and Society) at Michigan State University. They teach courses at the juncture of American studies, environmental studies, science studies, political ecology, and public humanities. They also serve as an affiliated faculty member in the Asian Pacific American Studies program and the Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Collaboration, Learning, and Engagement.
Ph.D., Environmental Sciences, Studies, and Policy, with a graduate certificate in American Studies, University of Oregon
M.A., English, University of Oregon
M.F.A., Creative Writing (Poetry), University of Virginia
B.S., Zoology, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Works
“‘Part of the Circle’: Making Different Futures with Beings from Elsewhere through Anishinaabe Reciprocal Resurgence.” Forthcoming in American Indian Quarterly.
“Relationality.” With Lydia Cagluaq Agnus. In Redefining Land Management in North American Literature and Culture: From Resource to Reciprocity (Routledge, 2026).
“Powerful Humanities Research Methods Can Help Us Avoid Overburdening Tribes.” Park Science 38, no. 1 (2024).
“Alienated Species and Unsettled Ecologies: Locating ‘Redneck’ Conservation in the Racial Discourse of ‘Asian’ Carp Invasion.” American Quarterly 75, no. 4 (2023): 821–845. doi.org/10.1353/aq.2023.a913523.
“Refusing the Colonial Discourse of Animality: Insects, Farmworkers, and Ecological Solidarity in Helena María Viramontes’ Under the Feet of Jesus.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 31, no. 2 (2022): 395–415. doi.org/10.1093/isle/isac055.
“‘Sing the Bones Home’: Material Memory and the Project of Freedom in M. NourbeSe Philip’s Zong!” Humanities 9, no. 1 (2020). doi.org/10.3390/h9010022.
Her Disco (dancing girl press, 2013)
College of Arts & Letters News
- College Welcomes New Faculty and Staff
College of Arts & Letters
August 20, 2025The College of Arts & Letters is thrilled to welcome 28 new faculty and staff members whose diverse expertise will enrich our community, strengthen collaboration, and expand opportunities for students. New colleagues will be recognized during the 2025 Faculty and Staff […] Read Now →
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