College Opportunity and Access

Outside of campus, I try to spend as much time as possible gardening, baking, and exploring the beautiful mountains and waters of Maine with my husband, son, and our semi-feral dog, Bruce. Our cat has no interest in joining. 

Course Areas

Farm & Food Policy, Food Sovereignty and Justice

• PhD, Anthropology and Environmental Policy, University of Maine
• MS, Forest Resources, University of Maine
• BS, Anthropology and Environmental Studies, Western Michigan University

My scholarship focuses on food systems, particularly the ways in which political and economic conditions shape possibilities for farmers, eaters, and food systems workers. I’m interested in the power of collectives to envision and bring to fruition just and sustainable futures. My doctoral dissertation examined farmers’ adoption of pollinator conservation practices in the lowbush blueberry industries of Maine and Prince Edward Island (PEI). In collaboration with a team of interdisciplinary researchers, I examined how farmers adapt their pollination management practices in the face of declining bee populations. My current work focuses on student and community food insecurity, food sovereignty, and prison food systems.

• Vice Chair, Bar Harbor Food Pantry, 2022-present
• Member, Hancock County Food Security Network, 2022-present
• Advisory Council Member, Downeast Restorative Harvest Project, 2022-present
• Secretary-Treasurer, Culture & Agriculture section of the American Anthropological Association, 2017–2019
• Technical Committee Member, Northeast SARE, 2016–2021
• Volunteer, Master Gardener Program, 2011–2020

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

• Velardi, S., Leahy, J., Collum, K., McGuire, J., and Ladenheim, M. (2023) Size and Scope Decisions of Maine Maple Syrup Producers: A Qualitative Application of Theory of Planned Behavior. Trees, Forests, and People.
• Collum, Kourtney, Samuel Hanes, Francis Drummond, and Jessica Leahy. (2023) “We’re Farmers, Not Beekeepers:” A Cultural Model of Pollination Management among Lowbush Blueberry Growers in the United States and Canada. Human Organization 82(2).
• Velardi, S., Leahy, J., Collum, K., Ladenheim, M., and McGuire, J. (2021) “You Treat Them Right, They’ll Treat You Right:” Understanding Beekeepers’ Scale Management Decisions within the Context of Bee Values. Journal of Rural Studies 81.
• Velardi, S., Leahy, J., Collum, K., Ladenheim, M., and McGuire, J. (2020) Adult learning theory principles in knowledge exchange networks among maple syrup producers and beekeepers in Maine. The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension DOI: 10.1080/1389224X.2020.1773283.
• Hanes, Samuel P., Kourtney K. Collum, Aaron K. Hoshide & Francis Drummond. (2018) Assessing Wild Pollinators in Conventional Agriculture: A Case Study from Maine, USA’s Blueberry Industry. Human Ecology Review 24(1).
• Collum, Kourtney K. & John J. Daigle.  (2015). Combining Attitude Theory and Segmentation Analysis to Understand Travel Mode Choice at a National Park.  Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism 9:17-25. 
• Boston, P. Qasimah, M. Miaisha Mitchell, Kourtney K. Collum & Lance Gravelee.  (2015). Community Engagement and Health Equity.  Practicing Anthropology 37(4):28-32.
• Jessee, Nathan, Kourtney K. Collum, & Richard D. Schulterbrandt Gragg.  (2015). Community-based Participatory Research: Challenging ‘Lone Ethnographer’ Anthropology in the Community and the Classroom.  Practicing Anthropology 37(4):9-13.
• Hanes, Samuel, Kourtney K. Collum, Aaron Hoshide, & Eric Asare.  (2013). Grower Perceptions of Native Pollinators and Pollination Strategies in the Lowbush Blueberry Industry.  Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 28(4):1-8.

Book Chapters

• Collum, Kourtney K. & John J. Daigle.  (2015). The Shift from Automobiles to Alternatives: The Role of Intelligent Transportation Systems.  In Sustainable Transportation in Natural and Protected Areas. Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group.  Edited by Francesco Orsi.

Personal Website

https://jhendersonmusic.com/

Course Areas

music

• PhD, Music, Duke University, 2021
• MA, Music, Duke University, 2019
• BA, Anthropology, Guilford College, 2005

Jonathan is an ethnomusicologist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer. Jonathan’s academic research concerns how local musical traditions are transformed through recording studio practice and come to articulate new meaning in their international circulation. He has many years of experience studying music from the black Atlantic, from Brazil to Senegal to the US South. Jonathan is active as an artist and performer. Most recently he produced the album “Routes” for his band Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba. The album was recorded both in Senegal and North Carolina and garnered critical acclaim from Songlines, Afropop Worldwide, The Financial Times, and Robert Christgau for Vice, among others. Jonathan has written music for film and theater, including several summers runs with The Paperhand Puppet Intervention. He plays bass with Onyx Club Boys, and is a founding member of and contributor to varied projects including intermedia performance collective INVISIBLE, the protest marching band Cakalak Thunder, folk band Midtown Dickens, and the samba reggae bands Batalá Durham and Oxente. Jonathan has over a decade’s worth of music teaching experience at the secondary and post-secondary level.

ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 12 Conference. 2020. Asheville, NC. Presented participatory art installation, Anechoia Memoriam, with collaborator Mark Dixon. Anechoia Memoriam is a performance at the crossroads of John Cage’s notion of silence and the silences surrounding state killings of unarmed people of color. A seven-hour interactive performance designed for a typewriter that electromechanically controls an acoustic piano (The Selectric Piano), the score for Anechoia Memoriam is composed of 180 names of unarmed people of color killed by law enforcement in the United States. The piece is intended as a memorial and depends on the attention (or inattention) of listener-participants.

Society for Ethnomusicology Annual Meeting. 2020. Ottawa, Canada (held virtually). Presented conference paper entitled “An Art Which Conceals Art: Record Production and the Politics of Invisibility in Toumani Diabaté’s Kaira.”

The South Central Graduate Music Consortium. 2020 Hosted by the University at Chapel Hill. Presented conference paper entitled “World Music Record Production and the Politics of Invisibility.”

British Forum for Ethnomusicology and Société française d’ethnomusicologie Joint Autumn Conference. 2019. Hosted at City University of London. Presented conference paper entitled “Producing Music, Producing History: Exploring the Archive Below the Surface of a Sound Recording.”

Annual Meeting of the Southeastern and Caribbean Chapter of the Society for
Ethnomusicology (SEMSEC). 2019. Hosted on the campus of Wake Forrest University. Presented conference paper entitled “Atlantic Cosmopolitanisms: Angélique Kidjo Reimagines Remain in Light.”

Performance and Labor in the Contemporary World. 2018. Hosted by Duke University Department of Cultural Anthropology. Presented conference paper entitled “Producing Music, Producing History: Exploring the Archive Below the Surface of a Sound Recording.”

Duke Music Department Colloquium Series. 2018. Presented talk entitled “Producing Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba’s Routes.”

Review of Louis Chude-Sokei’s The Sound of Culture: Diaspora and Black Technopoetics for Mark Anthony Neal’s New Black Man in Exile blog.

MUSIC COMPOSITION, PERFORMANCE and PRODUCTION

Recording and Production Credits:

2020 Diassing Jalikunda, Youssoupha Cissokho. Produced, engineered and mixed in M’Bour, Senegal, Diassing Jalikunda is a full-length album of griot korist Youssoupha Cissokho’s original compositions, recorded at his family compound with a mobile studio.

2019 Music from We Are Here, Paperhand Puppet Intervention. Composer, Arranger, Producer; bass, piano, percussion.

2018 Routes, Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba. Produced album recorded both in North Carolina and Senegal. Coordinated 35 musicians, composed string quartet arrangements, played bass and percussion, directed recording sessions, wrote liner notes. Routes was favorably reviewed by Songlines, The Financial Times, Afropop Worldwide, Robert Christgau for Noisy/ Vice, Black Grooves and many others.

2017 Music from Of Wings and Feet, Paperhand Puppet Intervention. Composer, Arranger, Producer, Engineer; bass, piano, percussion, guitar.

2014 The Great Peace, Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba. Arranger and Co-Producer; bass, percussion.

2014 Music from the Painted Bird, Paperhand Puppet Intervention. Composer, Arranger, Producer, Engineer; bass, piano, percussion, guitar.

2013 PARO, Brice Randall Bickford. Bass, percussion.

2012 Resonance, Diali Cissokho & Kaira Ba. Arranger, Co-Producer; bass, percussion, keyboards.

2012 Home, Midtown Dickens. Co-Arranger, Co-Producer; bass, percussion, piano, guitar.

2012 Solar Rapé, Carlos Timon. Bass, percussion.

2012 Misery Makes Odd Bedfellows, Jared Bartman. Bass.

2009 Lanterns, Midtown Dickens. Co-Arranger, Co-Producer; bass, percussion, piano, guitar.

2009 Rhythm 1001: Live at the Ackland Art Museum, Invisible. Composer, Performer.

2009 Irresponsibly Electric, Invisible. Composer, Engineer; bass, percussion, keyboards.

Multi-Channel Sound Installation and Performance:

2020 Landscapes. Captured field recordings at Grand Staircase Escalante (UT) for 5.1 surround mix of environmental sound score to accompany installation focused on the opening of the national park to oil and gas extraction. In collaboration with Merrill Shatzman and Raquel Salvatella de Prada.

2019 Dust of the Zulu, Rubenstein Arts Center Project Residency at Duke University. Composed score and designed sound for installation based on Prof. Louise Meintjes’ award-winning ethnography Dust of the Zulu: Ngoma Aesthetics After Apartheid (Duke Press 2017). Created collaborative exhibit with Prof. Meintjes, photographer TJ Lemon and others.

2018 Cornered, Rubenstein Arts Center Project Residency at Duke University. Composed and recorded original score for Raquel Salvatella de Prada’s video projection installation focusing on African migration to Europe.

2014 Time Constraints, collaboration with Mark Dixon. Co-Composer of 50-minute composition for electromechanical drum machine and percussion triggered by dripping water. Performances include: Duke University Nelson Music Room, Durham NC; UNC-A Ecomusicology Conference, Asheville NC; Telfair Museum, Savannah GA.

2011-2012 The New Obsolete, with Invisible. Co-Composer of 70-minute performance piece for typewriter-controlled piano, and electromechanical drums triggered by dripping water. Performances include: Moogfest, Asheville NC (2012); 1708 Gallery, Richmond VA (2012); Weatherspoon Museum, Greensboro NC (2012); Contemporary Art Museum, Raleigh NC (2012); North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh NC (2012); UNC-G New Music Festival, Greensboro NC (2011); Reynolda House, Winston-Salem NC (2011).

Music for Film and Theater:

2020 Waiting for Q. Sound design and mix for 20-minute documentary short film focused on the online conspiracy theory, QAnon.

2020 Haw River Learning Celebration. Composed and recorded original score for six-part educational video series produced in collaboration with the Haw River Assembly.

2019 We Are Here, Paperhand Puppet Intervention. Composer, Band Member, Music Director. Co-composed, arranged, directed and performed live score for popular outdoor theater performances. Directed 7-piece band. Performed 20-30 shows per season, seen by 10,000+ people. Each season’s production features a custom-composed score for 6-10 multi-instrumentalists and vocalist(s). UNC-CH Forest Theater and NC Museum of Art Amphitheater.

2017 Of Wings and Feet, Paperhand Puppet Intervention. Composer, Band Member, Music Director. Co-composed, arranged, directed and performed live score for popular outdoor theater performances. Directed 7-piece band.

2014 Peace in Our Pockets, The Groove Productions. Composed and recorded original score for feature length film about the use of cellular technology in mobilizing voter participation and non-violence in the 2013 elections in Kenya.

2014 The Painted Bird, Paperhand Puppet Intervention. Composer, Band Member, Music Director. Co-composed, arranged, directed and performed live score for popular outdoor theater performances. Directed 7-piece band.

2014 NPR’s “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me,” Advertising Short. Composed cue for promotional video.

2012 City of Frogs, Paperhand Puppet Intervention. Composer, Band Member. Co-composed, arranged, directed and performed live score for popular outdoor theater performances seen by 10,000+ people over course of run.

2012 Café Sense, Vittles Films. Composed and recorded original score.

2012 The New Obsolete, American New Wave. Composer for feature-length documentary.

2011 The Serpent’s Egg, Paperhand Puppet Intervention. Composer, Band Member. Co-composed, arranged, directed and performed live score for popular outdoor theater performances seen by 10,000+ people over course of run.

2010 Islands Unknown, Paperhand Puppet Intervention. Composer, Band Member. Co-composed, arranged, directed and performed live score for popular outdoor theater performances seen by 10,000+ people over course of run.

2009 Love and Robots, Paperhand Puppet Intervention. Composer, Band Member. Co-composed, arranged, directed and performed live score for popular outdoor theater performances seen by 10,000+ people over course of run.

I spend a lot of time painting, cooking, baking, reading cozy mysteries, gardening, and doing some form of physical activity, such as hiking, walking, and running. I also picked up knitting again! During my final years at Penn State, I took pottery classes, which were incredibly fun and something I hope to continue here in Bar Harbor. I also started making my own watercolor paint for fun, so if you ever want to chat about painting, food, cozy mysteries, and gardening, you can find me in the Writing Center, at TAB, or the red bricks with a cup of tea reading a book or doing some work in the sun. 

Before COA

My academic journey is non-traditional. In high school and as an undergrad, I worked as a chef for several years in Sweden where I grew up. The restaurant business was fast paced and physically and mentally demanding. I loved it but I knew after a while that I couldn’t do it for the rest of my life.

I grew up in a working class immigrant community, and I wanted to understand more about multilingualism and second language learning, so I returned to grad school to study TESOL and Applied Linguistics at ISU. That’s where I learned more about second language writing, writing studies, and rhetoric and composition. I pursued my doctorate at Penn State where I studied Applied Linguistics and primarily taught academic writing and literacy courses to multilingual and international students.

Course Areas

Writing/literacy education, applied linguistics, TESOL, second language learning and teaching, qualitative research methods, discourse studies, interactional analysis, multilingualism, migration

More Information about my Courses

My courses are activity and discussion based. They focus on develop practices. I create space for students to pursue what they are interested in, while critically examining various topics. A core aspect of my courses is that we examine current social issues through the lens of language and discourse. For instance, how do pervasive ideas and beliefs about “correct” English overlook the variations within the language? How do the complexities of a language shape the writing we do? These are the types of questions that are addressed in my writing/literacy courses to learn about the links between language, writing, literacy, culture, and society.

• B.A., History, Uppsala University, Sweden
• M.Ed., English and History Education, Uppsala University, Sweden
• M.A., English Studies, specialization in TESOL/Applied Linguistics, Illinois State University, USA
• Ph.D., Applied Linguistics, Pennsylvania State University, USA

My research lies in the intersection of writing, literacy, discourse studies, and multilingual/second language studies. I’m primarily trained as an applied linguist and a social scientist.  Applied linguistics is shaped by research in many other fields that deal with language and discourse, such as education, linguistic anthropology, psychology, adult literacy, migration studies, and so on. 

People tend to think that I teach creative writing, but this is not the expertise I have. Instead, my expertise lies in understanding writing education and literacy development. The types of questions that guide my work include: how do people learn how to write? What do people’s literacy practices look like and how might these evolve and shift as they learn another language? In what ways does someone’s life experiences shape their language and literacy learning? What social, cultural, political, and historical factors shape how we use language (and writing)? 

As a social scientist, I’m specifically trained as a qualitative researcher. I analyze written, spoken, and multimodal discourse. I have primarily used interviews and observations to collect data when conducting research, but I have explored other methods, such as autoethnography. My most recent research project examined how (im)migrant women learned how to write and develop their literacy in a community-based English literacy program. Other projects I’ve worked on address multimodality and classroom discourse. I have also done work in Conversation Analysis (CA) and specifically examined the organization of talk in classroom discourse. 

In my work, language, writing, and literacy are oriented to as a social practice and social action. This means that language is not merely a tool for communication, i.e., sharing information, but to accomplish actions. For instance, when having dinner, asking someone if they “can pass the salt?” doesn’t typically ask for their ability to do it, rather, it asks them to bring the salt to you so you can use it. That’s an action. Briefly put, then, my work focuses on the role of language and literacy and what we do with them in various everyday, academic, and professional contexts, as well as how people learn and teach language and literacy.

I was recently joined the Academic Advisory Board for Hancock County Technical Center (HCTC). As a member, I provide resources and support for the writing and literacy components of the academic program. I’ve been a member since September 2025. 

Special Issues
Sánchez-Martín, C, & Khor, S.Y. (2024). Surviving, thriving, and resisting: Reimagining the ordinary lives of TESOLers. TESOL Journal (15)S1, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.853

Journal articles, peer-reviewed
Khor, S. Y. (In preparation). Developing rhetorically savvy writers: (Im)migrant women’s literacy learning through genre-based instruction in a community-based English program. 

Wang, T., He, Y., Liu, S., Wang, Y., Hall, J.K., & Khor, S.Y. (2025). Building affiliation in the L2 classroom: The role of side sequences. Classroom Discourse.

Khor, S. Y., & Canagarajah, S. (2024). (Im)migrant women’s translingual literacy practices as problem-solving and learning resources: Perspectives from a community-based English literacy program. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2024.235270

Hall, J. K., Wang, T., & Khor, S. Y. (2020). The links between the linguistic designs of L2 teacher questions and the student responses they engender. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 8(3), 25-40.

Books
Hall, J. K., He, Y., & Khor, S.Y. (2023). The practical nature of L2 teaching: A conversation analytic perspective. Routledge.

Book chapters
Khor, S. Y., & Sánchez-Martín, C. (2024). Redefining leadership in TESOL through multimodal collaborative autoethnographic inquiry: Perspectives from transnational women. In D. Rashed & D. Suarez. Female leadership identity in English language teaching: Autoethnographies of global perspectives. Brill.

Khor, S. Y., Sánchez-Martín, C., Seloni, L., Rahman, M., & Yigitbilek, D. (2024). Multilingual writing teacher identities and institutional ecologies: A collaborative narrative inquiry. In M. Tseptsura & T. Ruecker (Eds.), Nonnative English speaking teachers of U.S. College Composition: Exploring identities and negotiating difference. The WAC Clearinghouse/University Press of Colorado.

Khor, S. Y., & Sánchez-Martín, C. (2021). Multimodality and writing for international multilingual students: Connecting theory and practice. In S. B. Pandey & S. Khadka (Eds.), Multimodal composition: Faculty development programs and institutional change. Routledge.

Other, non-reviewed articles
Khor, S.Y. (In preparation). Pineapple tarts. 

Course Areas

philosophy, ethics

• PhD, Interdisciplinary in Philosophy and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Maine, 2015
• MA, Philosophy, University of Oregon, 2008
• MPhil, Human Ecology, College of the Atlantic, 2005
• BA, Human Ecology, College of the Atlantic, 2000

Spring 2020. “The Many, the Wise, and the Marginalized: The Endoxic Method and The Second Sex.” Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy. 35(2): 317-335.

Spring 2018. “Appropriations of Informed Consent: Abortion, Medical Decision Making, And Antiabortion Rhetoric.” International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics 11 (1): 44-75.

Before COA

• Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, Purchase College (SUNY), 2011-2017
• Resident Professor, Organization for Tropical Studies, 2009-2011
• Coordinator, Organization for Tropical Studies Research Experience for Undergraduates at La Selva Biological Station, Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí, Costa Rica, 2007-2008

Course Areas

botany, ecology, statistics

Personal Websites

Professional profile – ORCID

Office Hours

Tues 1-2:30 in TAB (drop in) or by appointment

• PhD, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, 2008
• BA, Biology and Music, Carleton College, 2000

M.T. van der Sande, L. Poorter, G. Derroire, M.M. do Espirito Santo, M. Lohbeck, S.C. Müller, R. Bhaskar, M. van Breugel, J.M. Dupuy-Rada, S.M. Durán, C.C. Jakovac, H. Paz, D.M.A. Rozendaal, P. Brancalion, D. Craven, F. Mora Ardilla, J.S. Almeida, P. Balvanera, J. Becknell, B. Finegan, R. Gomes César, J.L. Hernández-Stefanoni, D. Kennard, S.G. Letcher, E. Marín-Spiotta, R. Muñoz, C. Reyes-García, L. Sanaphre-Villanueva, L.P. Utrera, G.W. Fernandes, F.S. Álvarez, J.L. Andrade, F. Arreola, V. Boukili, G.A.L. Cabral, J. Chave, R. Chazdon, G. Colletta, M.D. Magalhães Veloso, B. de Jong, E. Lebrija-Trejos, V. de Souza Moreno, D.H. Dent, S. DeWalt, E. Díaz García, Y. Roberta Ferreira Nunes, V. Granda, J. Hall, R. Lobo, O. Lopez, M. Martínez Ramos, J.A. Meave, S. Ochoa-Gaona, E.V.S.B. Sampaio, A. Sanchez-Azofeifa, H. Mancini Teixeira, M. Toledo, M. Uriarte, S.J. Wright, K. Zanini, and F. Bongers. 2024. Tropical forest succession increases tree taxonomic and functional richness but decreases evenness. Global Ecology and Biogeography. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13856

Ortega M.A., L. Cayuela, L., D. M. Griffith, A. Camacho, I.M. Coronado, R.F. del Castillo, B.L. Figueroa-Rangel, W. Fonseca, C. Garibaldi, D.L. Kelly, S.G. Letcher, J.A. Meave, L. Merino-Martín, V.H. Meza, S. Ochoa-Gaona, M. Olvera-Vargas, N. Ramírez-Marcial, F.J. Tun-Dzul, M. Valdez-Hernández, E. Velázquez, D.A. White, G. Williams-Linera, R.A. Zahawi, and J. Muñoz. 2024. Climate change increases threat to plant diversity in tropical forests of Central America and southern Mexico. PLOS ONE 19: e0297840. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0297840

Ngute, A.S.K, D. S. Schoeman, M. Pfeifer, G.M.F. van der Heijden, O.L. Phillips, M. van Breugel, M.J. Campbell, C.J. Chandler, B.J. Enquist, R.V. Gallagher, C. Gehring, J.S. Hall, S. Laurance, W.F. Laurance, S.G. Letcher, W. Liu, M. J.P. Sullivan, S.J. Wright, C. Yuan, and A.R. Marshall. 2024. Global dominance of lianas over trees is driven by forest disturbance, climate and topography. Global Change Biology 30: e17140; https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17140.

Arroyo-Rodríguez, V., K.F. Rito, M. Farfán, I.C. Navía, F. Mora, F. Arreola-Villa, P. Balvanera, F. Bongers, C. Castellanos-Castro, E.L.M. Catharino, R.L. Chazdon, J.M. Dupuy-Rada, B.G. Ferguson, P.F. Foster, N. González-Valdivia, D.M. Griffith, J.L. Hernández-Stefanoni, C.C. Jakovac, A.B. Junqueira, B.H.J. Jong, S.G. Letcher, F. May-Pat, J.A. Meave, S. Ochoa-Gaona, G.S. Meirelles, M.A. Muñiz-Castro, R. Muñoz, J.S. Powers, G.P.E. Rocha, R.P.G. Rosário, B.A. Santos, M.F. Simon, M.Tabarelli, F. Tun-Dzul, E. van den Berg, D.L.M. Vieira, G. Williams-Linera, and M. Martínez-Ramos. 2023. Landscape-scale forest cover drives the predictability of forest regeneration across the Neotropics. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 290: 20222203. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.2203

Tian, L., Y. Tong, Y. Cheng, M. Li, S.G. Letcher, R. Zang, and Y. Ding. 2023. Drought diminishes aboveground biomass accumulation rate during secondary succession in a tropical forest on Hainan Island, China. Forest Ecology and Management 544:121222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2023.121222

Tian, L., S.G. Letcher, Y. Ding, and R. Zang. 2022. A ten-year record reveals the importance of tree species’ habitat specialization in driving successional trajectories on Hainan Island, China. Forest Ecology and Management 507: 120027; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2022.120027.

C.C. Jakovac, J.A. Meave, F. Bongers, S.G. Letcher, J.M. Dupuy, D. Piotto, D.M.A. Rozendaal, M. Peña-Claros, D. Craven, B.A. Santos, A. Siminski, A.C. Fantini, A.C. Rodrigues, A. Hernández-Jaramillo, A. Idárraga, A.B. Junqueira, A.M. Almeyda Zambrano, B.H.J. de Jong, B. Ximenes Pinho, B. Finegan, C. Castellano-Castro, D.C. Zambiazi, D.H. Dent, D. Hernán García, D. Kennard, D.  Delgado, E.N. Broadbent, E. Ortiz-Malavassi, E.A. Pérez-García, E. Lebrija-Trejos, E. Berenguer, E. Marín-Spiotta, E. Alvarez-Davila, E. Valadares de Sá Sampaio, F. Melo, F. Elias, F. França, F. Oberleitner, F. Mora, G.B. Williamson, G. Dalla Colletta, G.A.L. Cabral, G. Derroire, G. Wilson Fernandes, H. van Der Wal, H. Mancini Teixeira, H.F.M. Vester, H. García, I.C.G. Vieira, J. Jiménez-Montoya, J.S. de Almeida-Cortez, J.S. Hall, J. Chave, J.K. Zimmerman, J. Edison Nieto, J. Ferreira, J. Rodríguez-Velázquez, J. Ruíz, J. Barlow, J. Aguilar-Cano, J.L. Hernández-Stefanoni, J. Engel, J.M. Becknell, K. Zanini, M. Lohbeck, M. Tabarelli, M.A. Romero-Romero, M. Uriarte, M.D.M. Veloso, M.M. Espírito-Santo, M.T. van der Sande, Mi. van Breugel, M. Martínez-Ramos, N.B. Schwartz, N. Norden, N. Pérez-Cárdenas, N. González-Valdivia, P. Petronelli, P. Balvanera, P. Massoca, P.H.S. Brancalion, P.M. Villa, P. Hietz, R. Ostertag, R. López-Camacho, R.G. César, R. Mesquita, R.L. Chazdon, R. Muñoz, S.J. DeWalt, S.C. Müller, S.M. Durán, S. Venâncio Martins, S. Ochoa-Gaona, S. Rodríguez-Buritica, T.M. Aide, T. Vizcarra Bentos, V. de S. Moreno, V. Granda, W. Thomas, W.L. Silver, Y.R.F. Nunes, L. Poorter. 2022. Strong floristic distinctiveness across Neotropical successional forests. Science Advances 26:abn1767. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abn176

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Ding, Y., R. Zang, S.G. Letcher, W. Liu, and X. Lu. 2016. Aboveground and belowground competition affect seedling performance and allometry in a tropical monsoon forest. New Forests 47: 529–540.

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Lu, X., R. Zang, Y. Ding, S.G. Letcher, W. Long, and Y. Huang. 2015. Variations and trade-offs in functional traits of tree seedlings during secondary succession in a tropical lowland rain forest. Biotropica. 46: 404-414.

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Ding, Y., R. Zang, S.G. Letcher, S. Liu, and F. He. 2012. Disturbance regime changes the trait distribution, phylogenetic structure, and community assembly of tropical rain forests. Oikos 121: 1263-1270.

Ding, Y., R. Zang, F. He, and S.G. Letcher. 2012. Recovery of woody plant diversity in tropical rain forests in southern China after logging and shifting cultivation. Biological Conservation 145: 225-233.

Letcher, S.G., R.L. Chazdon, A.C.S. Andrade, F. Bongers, M. van Breugel, B. Finegan, S.G. Laurance, R.C.G. Mesquita, M. Martínez-Ramos, and G.B. Williamson. 2012. Phylogenetic community structure during succession: evidence from three Neotropical forest sites. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 14: 79-87.

Chazdon, R.L., A. Chao, R.K. Colwell, S.-Y. Lin, N. Norden, S.G. Letcher, D.B. Clark, B. Finegan, and J.P. Arroyo. 2011. A novel statistical method for classifying habitat generalists and specialists. Ecology 92: 1332-1343.

Shumway, S.W., Letcher, S.G., Friberg, A., and DeMelo, D. 2010. RainforestPlants: a web-based teaching tool for students of tropical biology. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 91: 257-261.

Letcher, S.G. 2010. Phylogenetic overdispersion of angiosperm communities during tropical forest succession. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 277: 97-104.

Letcher, S.G., and R.L. Chazdon. 2009. Rapid recovery of biomass, species richness, and species composition in a forest chronosequence in northeastern Costa Rica. Biotropica 41: 608-617.

Letcher, S.G., and R.L. Chazdon. 2009. Lianas and self-supporting plants during tropical forest succession. Forest Ecology and Management 257: 2150-2156.

Chazdon, R.L., S.G. Letcher, M. van Breugel, M. Martínez-Ramos, F. Bongers, and B. Finegan. 2007. Rates of change in tree communities of secondary Neotropical forests following major disturbances. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Series B 362:273-289.

Palomaki, M.B., R.L. Chazdon, J.P. Arroyo, and S.G. Letcher. 2006. Juvenile tree growth in relation to light availability in second-growth tropical rain forests. Journal of Tropical Ecology. 22:223-226.

Letcher, S.G. 2005. Common Plant Families of La Selva Biological Station. Lulu Press, Morristown, N.C.

Miller, D.S., S. Letcher, and D.M. Barnes. 1996. Fluorescence imaging study of organic anion transport from renal proximal tubule cell to lumen. American Journal of Physiology-Renal Fluid and Electrolyte Physiology 40: F508-F520.

Other Publications

• Letcher, S.G. 2016. Good news on rain forests: they bounce back strong, storing more carbon than thought. The Conversation, Feb. 3 2016.
• Letcher, S.G. 2015. Metaphors and thresholds. Kinnickinnick, October 2015. Rachel Colwell (ed.) 
• Letcher, S.G. 2014. Comment on “The Mammoth Cometh,” Reply All, New York Times Magazine, March 2, 2014. [online comment chosen for publication by the editor] 
• Letcher, E.L. and S.G. Letcher. 2010. The Barefoot Sisters: Walking Home. Stackpole Books.
• Letcher, E.L. and S.G. Letcher. 2009. The Barefoot Sisters: Southbound. Stackpole Books.

Besides reading, writing, and teaching, I garden when I can, tend the plants in my office, and spend time thinking about psychology, education, religions, social identities, ecology, and the meaning of life. I am married to a software architect and the mother of two intelligent and wonderful grown sons.

I’ve spent many years as an academic dean of one sort or another.  I’ve also been a soccer mom and have run sections of professional organizations.  

Before COA

I earned the B.A. in Literature and Philosophy from Hampshire College in 1974, an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Massachusetts/Boston in 1988, a second M.A. in Women’s Studies from Brandeis University in 1993, and the Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Brandeis in 1994. From 1993 to 1995 I was an adjunct and then visiting faculty member at both Boston College and Brandeis University.  During the years between my undergraduate education and graduate school, I had a wide range of professional experiences, including as a technical writer and computer assistant.

Course Areas

19th and 20th Century American Literature, Women’s Literature, Minority, Cultural and Feminist Theory

More Information about my Courses

Students in my classes engage actively in literary studies and literary works, experiencing all of their component parts. My courses all involve reading, thinking, discussing, and writing. Students are theorists and thinkers already; my goal and practice involves fanning the flames. After all, books contain the world and provide a window onto and into that world. In my classes, we read.

• Ph.D. English and American Literature, Brandeis University, 1994
• M.A. Brandeis University, 1993
• M.A. University of Massachusetts, Boston, 1988
• B.A. Hampshire College, 1974

I see myself first and foremost as a teacher and mentor. I came to COA in 1995 and have served many years as one of the college’s academic deans. My research on 19th and 20th century American women’s and minority literature is highly interdisciplinary and I have a wide diversity of literary, historical, and scientific passions, particularly the exploration of otherness and consciousness in narrative form and the power of language to represent and transform.

The long list below shows the diversity of my scholarly interests.  Conferences are a wonderful way to keep my scholarship alive.

“Twelve Strange Men: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in Zora Neale Hurston’s Trial.”Law and Legal Figures in Twentieth Century Ethnic American Fiction. American Literature Association Annual Conference. May 2015

Co-Chair, “Literary Landscapes: Historical, Psychological, and Ecological Reimaginings of Place. Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) Annual Conference. April 2015

“Using the Sidekick in the Feminist Cause?  Laurie King’s Mary Russell Remakes of Sherlock Holmes.”  Popular Culture Association (PCA) Annual Conference. April 2015

Chair, “America’s Mythic Landscapes and Iconic Places: Human/Nature Intersections.” NeMLA Annual Conference. April 2014

 “Claiming Nature: Sarah Orne Jewett’s Proto-Ecofeminist Argumentation.” Ecofeminist Readings of 19^th Century American Women’s Fiction.  NeMLA Annual Conference. April 2014

Chair, “Constructions of Landscape in American Literature I:  Human/Nature Intersections.”  NeMLA Annual Conference. March 2013

 “Contemporary Humans and Nature:  Barry Lopez’ ‘Winter Count’ and Remembering Places through Cognitive Dissonance. ” NeMLA Annual Conference. March 2013

“The Limits of Biblical Self-Authorization:  Sarah Grimké’s Letters on the Equality of the Sexes.”  Roundtable. NeMLA Annual Conference. March 2013

Chair, “The Question of Voicing in Nineteenth-Century American Women’s Literature.” NeMLA Annual Conference. March 2012

“A Country Doctor and Female Authority:  Sarah Orne Jewett’s (Anxious) Influences.”  Women and Medicine Session, NeMLA Annual Conference. March 2012

“Willa Cather’s Literary Ecology in O Pioneers!,” Literary Landscapes: Representation and Imagination Session, NeMLA Annual Conference. April 2011

Chair, “Contemporary Women’s Novels: The Changing Story?,” NeMLA Annual Conference. April 2011

“The Christian Indians: Wrestling With Conversation in the Native American Literature Classroom,” Native American Literature Session, NeMLA Annual Conference. April 2010

Chair, “Urban Places: The Literary Ecology of American Cities,” NeMLA Annual Conference. April 2010

“Agatha Christie and ‘The Purloined Letter’.” PCA Annual Conference. April 2010

“The Silent Partner and Deafness: A Story of Three Women,” Deafness in American Literature Session, NeMLA Annual Conference. February 2009

Chair, “Methods of Literary Ecology in American Literature: The Constitution of Place,” NeMLA Annual Conference. February 2009

Chair, Mystery and Detective Area Hosted Discussion of James Lee Burke’s The Tin-Roof Blowdown.  PCA Annual Conference. April 2009

Chair, “Investigating New Orleans: The Work of James Lee Burke. PCA  Annual Conference. April 2009

“Chandlerian Reprise or Revision: Gender and Romance in James Lee Burke‘s Dave Robicheaux Series,” PCA Annual Conference. April 2009

“The Complex Environment of Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God as Complete Literary Ecology” Nature and Environmental Writers (NEW-CUE) Biennial Conference. June 2008

Chair, Poetry Session, NEW-CUE Biennial Conference. June 2008

“Traveling in Tibet with Eliot Pattison,” PCA Annual Conference. March 2008

“Desire and Danger:  Negotiating the Real Reader through Representations in Susanna Rowson’s Charlotte Temple,” NeMLA Annual Conference. April 2008

Chair, “”From the Country to the City:  Literary Ecology in American Realism and Naturalism, NeMLA Annual Conference. April 2008

“Collaborating on the Scholarly Essay” with Julia Gregory. NeMLA Annual Conference. March 2007

“Echoes of – or answers to – the lost Lenore?  Edgar Allen Poe’s Theory of Dead Women and Three Twenty-First Century Women’s Mysteries.” PCA Annual Conference. April 2005

“Different Sexes, Different Series:  Dana Stabenow’s Male and Female Leads and Lives.”   PCA Annual Conference. April 2003

“Mongrels, Shadows, and Stories in Mirrors:  Cities as Sanctuaries in Gerald Vizenor’s Dead Voices.”  “Imagining Native Americans Off the Reservation” Panel.  NeMLA Annual Conference. March 2003

Chair, “Nineteenth-Century American Women:  The Short Fiction.” Two panels.  NeMLA Annual Conference. March 2003

“Women Who Run with the Wolves:  Dana Stabenow’s (Re)Gendering Plots.” PCA Annual Conference. April 2001

Chair, “Ethnicities, Regions and Nature Writing:  Complicating the Landscapes of American Realism 1860-1920.”  NeMLA Annual Conference. March 2001

“Teaching Cooke, Davis, Woolson, Freeman, Austin, Sin-Far—and Jewett—in Maine: Regionalism and Women Authors in Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy.” NeMLA Annual Conference. March 2001

“The Problem of Female Awakening in A Lost Lady:  Despair, Desire and Landscape as Interacting Spiritual Frontiers.” Women in the Spiritual West Conference. April 2000

“Historical Events in Contemporary International Women’s Novels:  A Case Study of the Intersection of Historical Vision and Women’s Plots,.” “Historical Events, Historical Figures, Contemporary Fictions:  The Historical Vision of Contemporary Novelists” Session.  NeMLA Annual Conference. April 2000

Chair, Nineteenth-Century Periodical Literature and the Evolution of the American Novel:  Reading Proliferating Narrative Forms, Technologies, and Identities. NeMLA Annual Conference. April 2000

“The Radical Work of Marketing Compromises, or:  Can Mainstream Publishing be a (Lesbian) Feminist Act?  Examining the Case of Katherine Forrest.” Popular Culture Association. April 2000

“Women in the City:  An Evolution of Realism through Women’s Plots from Fanny Fern to Stephen Crane.” American Realism Session, NeMLA Annual Conference. April 1999

Chair, Roots, Regions, and Realisms:  Appalachian Literature and American Community.  NeMLA Annual Conference. April 1999

“Women and Evil:  The Modern Female Detective.” Popular Culture Association. April 1999

Chair, City/Country:  American Literary Landscapes, NeMLA Annual Conference. April 1998

“Illness, Rage, and the Question of Plot:  The Risks and Rewards of Heroine Survival.” Nineteenth-Century American Women:  Communicating Through Illness Session, NeMLA Annual Conference. April 1998

“Environmental Literature:  The Literary Ecology of Team-Teaching.” Society for Literature and Science Annual Conference. October 1997

Chair, American Women Writers Section:  “Imagining Science.” NeMLA  Annual Conference. April 1997

“Indians, White Women, and Removals:  the Migration of Story in (Re)Publications of Mary Rowlandson’s Captivity Narrative.” American Studies Association Annual Conference. October 1996

Chair, African American Women Writers Section, NeMLA Annual Conference. April 1996

“O My Frontier:  Willa Cather and the American Literary Landscape.” American Women Writers Section, NeMLA Annual Conference. April 1996

“Discovering or Creating the Shape of Time?  Reading The Time Machine through Einstein’s Dreams.” Literature and Science Section, NeMLA Annual Conference. April 1995

“The Narrative and the Shape of Time” Society for the Study of Narrative Literature Annual Conference. April 1995

Chair, Willa Cather Section, NeMLA Annual Conference. April 1994

“The Masculine Rescue of the Feminine in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon  and Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day.” African American Women Writers Section, NeMLA Annual Conference. April 1994

“Problematic Novels of Female Awakening:  From Edna Pontellier to Myra Henshawe,.” Willa Cather’s Women Panel Philological Association of the Carolinas. March 1994

“Feminism, Religion and the Instruments of Women’s Voicing.” Antebellum America Panel LeMoyne Forum on Religion and the Literary Imagination. October 1993

“Breaking the Bonds of Form:  The Sketch and the Emergence of the Mother’s Voice in Fanny Fern’s Ruth Hall.” Nineteenth-Century American Literature Section, NeMLA Annual Conference. March 1993

“The Power of Feminine Consciousness: Authority, Voice and Myth in Their  Eyes Were Watching God.” Mid-Atlantic Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference. October 1992

“Awakening to Death and Life: Feminine Consciousness and the Problem of Desire in The Awakening and A Lost Lady.” Willa Cather Section,  NeMLA Annual Conference. April 1992