Published on 4th July 2022

7 min read

Outdoor recreation is built on the imperative to explore. But the very idea of exploration is extractive and neocolonial. Joe Whitson proposes a different, more abundant way of thinking about our time outdoors.

Joe Whitson

Joe Whitson is scholar and public humanist whose work brings together political ecology, Indigenous studies, and digital humanities in projects that seek to address a range of environmental justice issues. His upcoming book, Marketing the Wilderness, looks at the how the outdoor recreation industry and Indigenous activists use social media to shape public land access, policy, and representation in the United States. Joe is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University in Chicago.