A Polyphemus Moth at Nocturnal Neighbors 2026; Photo by Kristen Grace.
Outreach
Our lab engages in a variety of outreach and informal education events through the Museum each year. Our largest event series includes regular Summer and Fall events to explore nocturnal insect communities around Gainesville.
Nocturnal Neighbors is our premier event for the year and happens over two nights each National Moth Week in July.
Teaching
My pedagogy focuses less on content recall and more on confronting grand challenges of the present day through critical inquiry and cross-disciplinary synthesis. Below is a selection of my course offerings, past, ongoing, and in the near future.
[Graduate] Critical Natural History and Life Sciences (Fall Semesters)
This course is a high-level survey of natural history and the life sciences as a discipline, focusing on how biological inquiry has been shaped by society. The course also surveys alternative epistemologies of biology, natural history museums as institutions, and the role of objectivity and commodification in the life sciences.
I co-teach this course with Dr. Jacque Micieli-Voutsinas and Elise LeCompte. This course focuses on the management and care of art, historical, biological, and digital collections, including legal responsibilities, cataloging, conservation, insurance, and proper handling of materials.
[Undergraduate] IDH2952 – Aesthetics of Biodiversity (Fall Semesters)
This course surveys the intersection of aesthetic philosophy and conservation biology to ask fundamental questions about our relationship with nature. We use the visual and performing arts as a lens to explore these topics in the class. We also learn how to make new work by using nature as inspiration.
