Jayson Maurice Porter

Jayson Maurice Porter was born in Maryland like his great-grandmother Winona Amanda Spencer Lee (1909-2012), who worked family farm land on the Eastern Shore until the early 2000s. His research specializes in environmental politics, science and technology studies, food systems, and racial ecologies in Mexico and the Americas. He is also an editorial board member of the North American Congress for Latin America (NACLA) and Plant Perspectives: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 

He is working on a book manuscript with Duke University Press on the history of race, violence, and environmental change in Guerrero, Mexico through oilseeds crops, such as cotton, sesame, and coconuts. You can also find his essays and articles in Washington Post, Black Perspectives, Distillations, Environment and Society, and more. Most recently, his co-authored essay with Brian Williams titled, "Cotton, Whiteness, and Other Poisons," won the Environmental Humanities 2023 Best Article Prize. Outside of academia, he loves to connect with other black environmental educators, write creative non-fiction stories, and design environmental-literacy curricula for broader audiences of all ages.