The Lore

On How to Save the World: English Major Edition

When Joan Didion wrote “we tell ourselves stories in order to live,” she was speaking to writers who search for the profound in the mundane and the magic in our daily lives–drawing connections together to mean something. This love of connections and journey toward truth has always propelled me, both in the way I perceive life and the way I choose to spend my time. 

My career starts with a love of stories that pushed me into a college newsroom and a BA in English Literature, and then partially through an MFA in creative nonfiction writing. Upon recognizing that creative writing lives in everything, I pivoted to an MA in rhetoric and writing. I wanted not only to write, but to be a part of teaching writing. The question of how writing or persuasion works moved me into studying my community’s activism and Queer rhetorics. This love of community work and the research it took to make happen prompted me into applying for a PhD.

In the summer of 2020 the Creek Fire tore through the area my grandparents and many of my colleagues called home. My grandparents evacuated safely and their home survived, unlike a number of my friends and coworkers. This was the first year of my PhD at Virginia Tech. I had not even started my first semester when I began looking for ways to shift my focus from studying activism rhetoric into a tactile way to help my community. I pivoted to technical writing and risk communication, combining my love of writing, activism, and communication with the second part of Didion’s “in order to live.” 

My dissertation work is a capacity assessment of Queer wildfire refugees. It takes stock of disaster studies and that Queer evacuees are a FEMA recognized at-risk population and that the combination of disaster survival tactics of the 90s offers unique evacuation practices that could inform policy. I have found that the stories of our elders and their epidemic experiences inform how Queer people practice evacuations of natural disasters to this day. Translating history into practice and praxis to the public is the best way I have found for me to save whatever little part of the world I can. 

I am a writer by trade, an activist by passion, and storyteller by all measures.