My commitment to the environmental humanities is integrative and grounded in praxis. I am passionate vegetable gardener and an ardent supporter of local agriculture. In addition to my formal education, I also hold a certification in Permaculture Design and regularly attend gardening workshops through Cornell Cooperative Extension. I also have spent many summers volunteering on organic farms in both Europe and Asia. Most recently, I am working on developing education and outreach for my family's small business, "Home Organic Gardening Service" (HOGS Long Island). Through HOGS, my Stony Brook and Old Westbury students have had opportunities to learn about organic gardening on Long Island. I have helped students secure internships, jobs, and volunteer opportunities--and have also given them opportunities to experiment with organic gardening in relation to food justice curriculum and care ethics practices. On the HOGS website, I maintain a blog on local sustainable agricultural issues, which I do in order to create dialogue between the academy and the community. 

For more information about the gardening work, please visit the HOGS website: HOME ORGANIC GARDENING SERVICE

Those old books suggested a certain fertility, an Ohio soil, as if they were making a humos for new literatures to spring in. I heard the bellowing of bullfrogs and the hum of the mosquitoes reverberating through the thick embossed covers when I had closed the book. Decayed literature makes the richest of all soils.

                                                                        -Henry David Thoreau, March 16, 1852