I’m an anthropologist and a postdoctoral fellow at the Columbia Climate School studying the politics of environmental crisis on the US Gulf coast. My research examines responses to land loss in south Louisiana, with attention to planning, extraction, and shifting technologies of land governance.
Email: sheehan.moore [ at ] columbia.edu
Education
CUNY Graduate Center
PhD, Anthropology, 2024
Dissertation: Future Land, Futures Lost: Planning the Crisis on the Louisiana Coast
MPhil and MA, Anthropology, 2020
McGill University
BA (Hons), First Class, 2013
Honours Anthropology, minor in Art History. Thesis: “‘Taking Up Space’: Spaces of protest and neoliberalization in the university.”
Research Positions
Columbia Climate School
Postdoctoral research fellow, 2024 – Present
Department of Anthropology, Columbia University
Research assistant for Professor Audra Simpson, 2021 – 2023
Healthy Gulf
Science Research Intern, 2020 – 2023
Center for Place, Culture and Politics, CUNY Graduate Center
Dissertation fellow, 2021 – 2022
The City College of New York
Writing Across the Curriculum fellow, 2020 – 2021
Anthropocene River Campus: The Human Delta, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW)
Collaborator, 2019
Advanced Research Collaborative, CUNY Graduate Center
Student fellow, 2018 – 2019
Climate Action Lab, CUNY Graduate Center
Research fellow, 2018 – 2019
New Media Lab, CUNY Graduate Center
Research fellow, “Risky Images of Climate Futures,” 2018
Department of Transcultural Psychiatry, McGill University
Research assistant for Professor Suparna Choudhury, 2013 – 2018
Department of Anthropology, McGill University
Research assistant for Professors Lisa Stevenson and Eduardo Kohn, 2011 – 2015
Canadian Centre for Architecture
Curatorial research assistant, 2012
Teaching
Columbia University
Teaching Assistant, 2024
Introduction to Archaeological Method & Theory
Hunter College
Graduate Teaching Fellow, 2016 – 2019
Courses designed and taught: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Human Ecology
Teaching assistant for: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Diversity in the United States
Publications
Co-editor with Theo Hilton and Amelia Moore. “Coastal Futures.“ Essay series for Theorizing the Contemporary, Society of Cultural Anthropology, January 25, 2024.
With Theo Hilton. “Futures on Dry Ground: Anthropology and Coastal Planning.“ Environment and Society 14:1 (2023), 43-61.
With Naomi Yoder. “Murky Waters: An Analysis of Hurricane Ida Pollution Reports.“ Healthy Gulf, June 13, 2022.
“Images of Loss: Mapping the Future Coast.” Engagement, January 7, 2022.
“Transcontinental Dialogues: Activist Alliances with Indigenous Peoples of Canada, Mexico, and Australia, ed. by R. Aída Hernández Castillo, Suzi Hutchings and Brian Noble (review).” Anthropologica 62:1 (2020), 204-205.
“Indigenous and environmental water protectors fight to block Louisiana pipeline.” Waging Nonviolence, July 16, 2018.
With the NYC Stands with Standing Rock Collective. “Standing Rock Syllabus.” 2016.
With Suparna Choudhury. 2016. “Locating Risk in the Adolescent Brain: Ethical Challenges in the Use of Biomarkers for Adolescent Health and Social Policy.” American Medical Association Journal of Ethics 18:12 (2016), 1199-1206.
With Josh Pavan. “There Is Power in a Union: Building Solidarity against the Casualization of Labour at McGill.” Convergence 6 (2015), 2-4.
“Taking Up Space: Anthropology and Embodied Protest.” Radical Anthropology 7 (2013), 6-16.
Conference Presentations
“The Permit and the Plan: Governing Louisiana’s Coastal Crisis.” Presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Toronto, Nov. 2023.
“Murky Waters: Pollution Following Hurricane Ida.” Presented with Naomi Yoder at the State of the Coast conference, New Orleans, Jun. 2023.
“Coastal Values: Property, Preservation, and Protection in Louisiana.” Presented with Theo Hilton at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Seattle, Nov. 2022.
“Map as Threat, Planning as Promise.” Presented at the University of Pennsylvania EnviroLab conference, Philadelphia, Mar. 2021.
“Untimely Movements on the Louisiana Coast.” Presented at the American Anthropological Association/Canadian Anthropology Society Annual Meeting, Vancouver, Nov. 2019.
“Planning Time: Action and Anticipation on the Louisiana Coast.” Presented at the American Ethnological Society Annual Conference, Philadelphia, Mar. 2018.
“Precarious Work and the Memorious Commons.” Presented at the Inequality and the Commons Advanced Research Collaborative Conference, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, May 2016.
“Memory and Movement Building on the Contingent Campus.” Presented at the McGill-Queen’s Graduate Conference in History, McGill University, Montreal, Feb. 2016.
“Understanding Austerity in Practice.” Panel discussant at Study in Action/Études en Action, Concordia University, Montreal, Mar. 2015.
“Protesting Publics: Neoliberal Rhetorics of Space and Hope.” Presented at the Space and Equity conference, McGill University, Montreal, Feb. 2013.
Invited & Organized Presentations
“Contesting Erosion in the Southeast.” Invited roundtable discussant at the American Studies Association Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Nov. 2024.
“Anthropology Of Coastal Planning I: Nature Between Science And Policy” and “Anthropology Of Coastal Planning II: Shared Histories, Just Futures.” Panel co-organizer with Theo Hilton at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Seattle, Nov. 2022.
“The Next Big One: The Ongoing Work of Disaster Recovery and Preparedness for Communities on the Frontlines.” Invited discussant with Naomi Yoder at the Climate Justice Series Webinar, hosted by the Disaster Justice Network and the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program, Sep. 2022.
“Teaching Writing through Reading in Anthropology and the Social Sciences.” Professional development workshop presented at The City College of New York, Mar. 2021.
“Decolonize This Museum.” Invited discussant, Decolonize This Place/Artists’ Space, New York, Oct. 2016.
Awards
Amos E. Simpson Travel Grant, 2025
B. Altman Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, 2022 – 2023
Images of Research, CUNY Graduate Center, 2022
Center for Place, Culture and Politics Dissertation Award, CUNY Graduate Center, 2021 – 2022
COVID-Affected Research Agenda Grant, PublicsLab, CUNY Graduate Center, 2020
Bourse de doctorat en recherche, Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture, 2019 – 2020
Doctoral Student Research Grant, CUNY Graduate Center, Summer 2018
Anthropology Department Summer Research Grant, CUNY Graduate Center, Summer 2018
Social Justice Project Award, New Media Lab, CUNY Graduate Center, June 2018
Provost’s Digital Innovation Grant, CUNY Graduate Center, Summer 2016
Archie Malloch Internship Award, Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas, McGill University, Summer 2012
Arts Research Internship Award, Faculty of Arts, McGill University, Summer 2011
A.S. Hill Entrance Scholarship, Faculty of Arts, McGill University, 2009 – 2010
Design and Editing
Home/Field
Editor, Sep. 2022 – Present
Barricade – A Journal of Antifascism & Translation
New York, NY
Page Designer, 2021
HAU Journal of Ethnographic Theory and HAU Books
Chicago, IL
Editorial assistant – graphic and print design, Aug. 2014 – Oct. 2018
Fields/Terrains Journal of Anthropology
McGill University
Editor-in-chief, Sep. 2012 – Apr. 2013
The McGill Daily
Montreal, Quebec
Design and production editor, Sep. 2010 – Apr. 2011
Organizing
CUNY Adjunct Project
New York, NY
Coordinator for labor relations, Jan. 2016 – Sept. 2019
Association of McGill University Research Employees
Montreal, Quebec
Outreach coordinator, Jan. 2015 – Jul. 2015
Association of McGill University Support Employees
Montreal, Quebec
Outreach coordinator, Nov. 2013 – Jul. 2015
Association of McGill University Support Employees
Montreal, Quebec
Chair, Board of Representatives, Mar. 2011 – Mar. 2012
Other Experience
The Committee on Globalization and Social Change
CUNY Graduate Center
Coordinator, Aug. 2021 – Present
Daily Publications Society
Montreal, Quebec
Chair, Board of Directors, Sep. 2012 – Apr. 2013
Canadian Architecture Collection
McGill University
Special projects assistant, Jun. 2010 – Sep. 2011