Tilly’s research explores the ecological and socio-cultural importance of damaged urban landscapes, particularly the Los Angeles River in California. 

Her doctoral thesis – A Field Guide to Love and the Los Angeles River – built a new definition of place-based intimacy using extensive archival and oral history research. Tilly maps how people love complicated landscapes and argues that doing so is essential to living well in an urbanized world. 

Acclaimed environmental historian Professor Char Miller describes Tilly’s work as “so deft, so fluid…[and] a powerful case for the academic field of environmental history…a full-on analysis and open-ended immersion…that is unusual in the field…luminous, liberating [and] beguiling”. 

Through collaborations with California Humanities, Pomona College, the National Endowment for the Humanities, USC, Color Compton, CicLAvia and many other partnerships, Tilly’s research and public engagement inspires and connects people. Her Instagram curatorial projects I Am the LA River and LA River X have galvanized extensive public engagement with the river by community members, photographers, artists, nonprofits, and local government. 

Tilly has been a guest speaker at Night of Ideas, The Claremont Colleges Library, Creative Neighbors, the Los Angeles Breakfast Club, the University of the Sunshine Coast, the Association for the Study of Literature, Environment and Culture, the International Water History Association, and many more.