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About Me
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I am researcher, writer, photographer, and outdoor adventurer. I completed a PhD in Environmental Studies from the University of Colorado-Boulder in 2021 (see my dissertation here). My research is grounded primarily in the environmental humanities, drawing especially from philosophy, but also literary studies and social theory to work on conservation and environmental and related social issues. My research is often practically oriented (including policy).
I employ writing and photography, paired with academic research, and often with a dash of adventure, to tell stories that convey the immense environmental challenges we are presently facing. My expedition highlights include Crossing Iceland in 2024, Lhotse in 2019, Greenland in 2021, the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in 2022 and 2025, the three highest volcanoes in Ecuador in 2013, and thousands of miles in Alaska. I have published in The Hill, Global Policy, Arctic Today, Environmental Values, the Fairbanks News-Miner, the George Wright Proceedings, GlacierHub by Columbia University's Earth Institute, and on the Pulitzer Center website. I have been featured in the Washington Post, on Denver 9 News, and on Alaska Public Radio. I created a multimedia exhibit, which was on display for 1.5 years on the University of Colorado campus in Boulder. I was a part of a panel discussion, which took place at this exhibit. I had a prior piece displayed on campus as a part of Mapping Home/Collecting Truths: Works by Indigenous and International Artists as part of Documenting Change: Our Climate (Past, Present, Future). I have given presentations on my various journeys in Missoula, MT; Boulder, CO; Anchorage, AK; and Talkeetna, AK; and on my academic work at conferences in Anchorage, AK; Reykjavik, Iceland; Akureyri, Iceland; Tempe, AZ; Delhi, India; and Norfolk, VA. See my YouTube playlist of talks and lectures that I have given. Last Substantial Update of this Website: November 2025 |
Presenting as a guest lecturer at the Greenhouse Center for Environmental Humanities at Stavanger University in Norway.
All content on this website unless specifically indicated is the copyright of Chris Dunn.
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I am presently seeking employment. Skills: research, writing, planning and logistics, teaching, policy, photography.
If you have use for a photographer/writer/humanistic researcher who is field-hardened and savvy with international travel and research (including expedition planning) on any future endeavors, Arctic or otherwise, please reach out or otherwise get in touch.
RECENT PROJECTS, PUBLICATIONS, AND NEWS
Do Clouds have Politics? Reflections on Aesthetic Encounter, Nature, and Power | 2025 | The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics | Author Chris Dunn
Sensing, Storytelling, and the Sacred: Two Creative Multimedia Projects Exploring Arctic Change | 2025 | Book Chapter in Artistic Dialogues with the Arctic North Environmental Change and Identity in Transition | Author Chris Dunn
Polar Early Career World Summit Synthesis Report. Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) International Directorate and Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO) | Contributor Chris Dunn
Sensing, Storytelling, and the Sacred: Two Creative Multimedia Projects Exploring Arctic Change | 2025 | Book Chapter in Artistic Dialogues with the Arctic North Environmental Change and Identity in Transition | Author Chris Dunn
Polar Early Career World Summit Synthesis Report. Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) International Directorate and Polar Science Early Career Community Office (PSECCO) | Contributor Chris Dunn
I am excited to announce that I am currently living in Akureyri, Iceland hosted by the Stefannson Arctic Institute on an NSF-Arctic Fulbright grant until August 2024. My project title is "Applying the Environmental Humanities to Conservation Management and Policy in Iceland".
Direct Encounters with Arctic Landscapes Panel Discussion Video (11/2022)
I arranged and participated in this panel discussion last fall on the challenges and adventures of working in the Arctic, alongside two earth scientists, a scholar of Scandinavian language and historic climate, and a very accomplished Arctic photographer.
I arranged and participated in this panel discussion last fall on the challenges and adventures of working in the Arctic, alongside two earth scientists, a scholar of Scandinavian language and historic climate, and a very accomplished Arctic photographer.
New Photos: I created a new Flickr account devoted purely to Alaska, featuring Alaska 2022 (Gates of the Arctic and Fairbanks) + Alaska from 2006 to 2019 and a Flickr account devoted entirely to Iceland.
RECENT EXPLORATIONS*
Crossing Iceland (2024)
A 12-day, approximately 240-mile (386 km) self-supported hike and float (packrafted about the last 40 miles) sea-to-sea across Iceland from the south coast to a fjord on the north coast. Most of the route was on trails, some on dirt roads, some on river, while a couple of sections were cross country in trailless wilderness (among the highlights).
A 12-day, approximately 240-mile (386 km) self-supported hike and float (packrafted about the last 40 miles) sea-to-sea across Iceland from the south coast to a fjord on the north coast. Most of the route was on trails, some on dirt roads, some on river, while a couple of sections were cross country in trailless wilderness (among the highlights).
Colorado River Through the Grand Canyon (2022 + 2025)
Photos from 2022 21-day and 2025 25-day self-supported river trips down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.
Also see this video I created from a series of timelapses I shot during these trips.
Photos from 2022 21-day and 2025 25-day self-supported river trips down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.
Also see this video I created from a series of timelapses I shot during these trips.
Greenland - Nuussuaq (2021)
I spent summer 2021 in Greenland and Iceland (and briefly Denmark) on two related grants: one for a journalism project on behalf of the Pulitzer Center, the other for a photography and media project on behalf of the University of Colorado-Boulder's Nature Environment Science and Technology (NEST) Studio for the Arts.
I spent summer 2021 in Greenland and Iceland (and briefly Denmark) on two related grants: one for a journalism project on behalf of the Pulitzer Center, the other for a photography and media project on behalf of the University of Colorado-Boulder's Nature Environment Science and Technology (NEST) Studio for the Arts.
This website is a place for me to bring together my disparate interests and projects.
All photographs are by the author unless otherwise noted (usually when they are of the author) and are the property of Chris Dunn.
All photographs are by the author unless otherwise noted (usually when they are of the author) and are the property of Chris Dunn.
*“We don’t live on the Earth. We live in the Earth. Or rather in the EAIRTH"..."And we, imbibing and strolling through the same air, do not then live on the eairth but in it. We are enfolded within it, permeated, carnally immersed in the depths of this breathing planet.”
-David Abram (Source) + Becoming Animal
*When I use the term "exploration", I mean it in a personal sense (discovery for myself, or at a unique moment in time [everywhere after all--even crowded cities--endlessly await rediscovery--by new eyes and in new moments]), not in an absolute sense. With few exceptions (notably Antarctica), almost everywhere on earth has had other people around for a long time (though to varying degrees - high mountain tops or places like the interior of the Greenland Ice Sheet for instance were far less visited and populated, and undoubtedly at least some pockets of the earth were never visited or populated). It is an enlightening experience though when on an isolated ridge in what feels like the middle of nowhere to wonder if anyone has set foot there but never knowing for sure. What is significant is that the landscape itself is left in such a condition that it isn't evident. Some places ought to be kept that way.
*banner photo by Susan Brown
-David Abram (Source) + Becoming Animal
*When I use the term "exploration", I mean it in a personal sense (discovery for myself, or at a unique moment in time [everywhere after all--even crowded cities--endlessly await rediscovery--by new eyes and in new moments]), not in an absolute sense. With few exceptions (notably Antarctica), almost everywhere on earth has had other people around for a long time (though to varying degrees - high mountain tops or places like the interior of the Greenland Ice Sheet for instance were far less visited and populated, and undoubtedly at least some pockets of the earth were never visited or populated). It is an enlightening experience though when on an isolated ridge in what feels like the middle of nowhere to wonder if anyone has set foot there but never knowing for sure. What is significant is that the landscape itself is left in such a condition that it isn't evident. Some places ought to be kept that way.
*banner photo by Susan Brown