Professional Summary
Charles H. Turner Post-Doctoral Fellow
School of Environment and Sustainability
College of Arts & Sciences | University of Cincinnati
Hi y’all! My name is Nick Koenig and I study and teach on themes around the climate crisis, anti-colonial sciences, queer trans feminist geographies, creative pedagogies, and environmental justice. My academic work started with the plant life of the Appalachian Mountains where I completed a BS in Botany at Eastern Kentucky University followed by serving as an AmeriCorps Environmental Educator in Appalachia.
My graduate school studies then took me to the University of Cambridge where I completed an MPhil in Anthropocene Studies focused on the sociocultural and political ecologies of the American Chestnut tree extinction and subsequent impacts on Appalachian communities. Afterward, I studied for a PhD in Geography and MA in English at the University of Idaho mentored by Dr. Grant Harley in the Idaho Tree Ring Lab & Dr. Erin James in the Confluence Lab where I have brought an undisciplined approach to projects that have pulled from tree ring sciences, critical physical geography, narratology, climate pedagogies, abolition and Black geographies, anti-colonial studies, and jazz composition.
Following graduate school, I worked as social science Post-Doctoral researcher on a National Science Foundation grant at the University of Idaho in the Institute for Modeling Collaboration and Innovation with Dr. Tara Hudiburg & Dr. Kristin Haltinner focused on studying the barriers for rural communities in adopting climate-minded land management strategies with a specific focus on centering local Coeur d'Alene tribal voices and knowledges.
In January 2026, I joined the University of Cincinnati’s School of Environment & Sustainability mentored by Dr. Laura Zanotti & Dr. Amy Townsend-Small a part of the Charles Turner Post-Doctoral Scholar Program and I am thrilled to be returning to the plants, places, and peoples in and around the Appalachian region to explore more questions around the climate crisis and how best we can strive for collective climate liberation using community methods and creative, arts-based approaches!
Google Scholar Profile
Education
PhD: University of Idaho Moscow, Idaho, 2025 (Geography)
MA: University of Idaho Moscow, Idaho, 2025 (English)
MPhil: University of Cambridge Cambridge, UK, 2022 (Anthropocene Studies)
BS: Eastern Kentucky University Richmond, Kentucky, 2021 (Botany)
Keywords
Climate Justice, Environmental Science, Critical Physical Geography, Tree Ring Science, Narratology, Creative Pedagogies, Anti-Colonial Studies, Abolition Geographies, Narratology, Community Methods
Courses Taught
GEOG 101L: Introduction to Planet Earth Lab
GEOG 220: Geography of Middle Earth
GEOG 313: Global Climate Change
SOC 201: Introduction to Inequity & Inclusion
CORS 246: Climate Futures Catalyzing Change
ED 592: Decolonizing, Indigenous, & Action-Based Research Methods
ENGL 322: Climate Change Fiction
ENGL/GEOG 400: Mapping a Sense of Place
NR 4210: Advanced Field Ecology
-EVST-1012 ENVIR STUDIES II