Courtney Carlson

Instructional Designer for Distance Learning

Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources

courtney.carlson@uwyo.edu

Education

BA English, Boston College

MFA Creative Writing (nonfiction) and ENR, University of Wyoming

 

Background and Expertise

Courtney Carlson has worked in the Haub School since 2009. Previously, she served as associate director of academics. In August of 2015 she joined the teaching faculty as assistant professor and is now Adjunct Professor. 

Carlson received her bachelor of arts degree in English from Boston College. She spent one year as a visiting student at Mansfield College, University of Oxford, where she studied literature and philosophy. She holds the MFA in nonfiction writing and environmental and natural resources from the University of Wyoming. Her thesis, an essay collection called I Came Here to Leave, explored the metaphorical and biophysical significance of decomposition.

Environmental humanities theory, scholarship, and practice forms the basis of much of Carlson's writing, teaching, and mentoring. At UW, she has taught a range of literature, creative writing, and cultural studies courses in the Haub School, the Department of English, and the Honors College. She has contributed to field teaching in northwest Wyoming; Tamil Nadu, India; Laikipia, Kenya; the Spanish Canary Islands; Queensland, Australia; and Chamonix, France. She is an affiliate faculty member in the University Honors College, American Studies, the Science and Math Teaching Center, and the Wyoming Institute for Humanities Research. She is interested in how creative expression can deepen our understanding and experience of culture and nature.

Carlson has been awarded writing residencies at Caldera, the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, and Playa. She was chosen to attend Orion's Wildbranch Writing Workshop in 2013. She has delivered community writing workshops in Jackson Hole, Casper, and Laramie, Wyoming, and in central Oregon.

 

Selected Teaching

• ENR 4890/HP 4152, Alpine Climate and Culture (study abroad)

 

Selected Awards & Honors

• Going the Extra Mile teaching award, University of Wyoming Disability Support Services, 2011.
• Promoting Intellectual Engagement teaching award, University of Wyoming Learning Resources Network, 2011.
• J.P. Ellbogen Outstanding Graduate Teaching award, University of Wyoming Graduate School, 2009.

 

Former Graduate Students

Jessica Black, candidate for the MS in Natural Science Education/Environment and Natural Resources. "Revitalizing Educational Gardens for Resilience: A Case Study of an Elementary School Garden," anticipated 2018. (Chair)

Nolan Goetzinger, candidate for the MA in English. Title TBD, anticipated 2018. (Committee member)

Alfonso Orozco, MS in Natural Science Education/Environment and Natural Resources. "Analysis of Latino Outdoors' Mission Statement and Organizational Performance: A Multiple Constituency Approach," awarded May 2017. (Chair)

Nicole Chambers, MA in English. "Writing Environment: Cultural Phenomenology of Place in Anna Seward's Writing Process," awarded May 2017. (Committee member)

Peyton Lunzer, MA in English. "Walking in the Wasteland: How Walking in Marginalized Space Empowers Emily Brontë, Mary Austin, and Other Women Writers," awarded May 2017. (Committee member)

Timothy John Hill, candidate for the MS in Kinesiology and Health. "Know Your Brewer: Liquid Food for Alternative Local Food Movements," awarded May 2017. (Committee member)

Ashley Andersen, MS in Natural Science Education/Environment and Natural Resources. "An Analysis of Selected Upper Division Core Courses in the Haub School's Environment and Natural Resources Curriculum," awarded May 2016. (Chair)

Ryan Rasner, MA in Communications. "Autoethnography of Narcotics Anonymous," awarded May 2016. (Committee member)

Manasseh Franklin, MFA Creative Writing (Nonfiction)/Environment and Natural Resources, "In the Face of Changing Places," awarded December 2015. (Committee member)