The shortest version of my PhD is “It’s about loving a concrete river!”

My next briefest version is “This thesis is a contemporary environmental history that reshapes understandings of how people interact with the rest of nature in urban landscapes.”

And, for the keen folks, the entire thesis is now available online at http://hdl.handle.net/10453/123262

If you are keen to dip in, I recommend reading the field guide chapters and the conclusion. They’re my favourite bits!

This photo seems an apt one. It feels like a fireworks-worthy moment to have this piece of work finally in the public domain! This photo is taken from the riverbed in Downtown Los Angeles, a guy with a piece of blazing steel wool, and the now-demolished 6th Street Viaduct tunnel behind him. I took the photo on January 26, 2016, at an impromptu street party commemorating the closure of the bridge and its centrality in Los Angeles life and visual culture.