Christopher D. Ryan

Advisor: Peter Groffman

Christopher received his bachelor's degree from the University of Florida where he double majored in Anthropology and in Women's Studies and Gender Research, with a minor in African Studies. Following graduation, he worked in the Agronomy Department of the University of Florida, which eventually led to him getting a Master's degree in Environmental Horticulture, with a minor in Agricultural Education and Communication.

This academic background in both the social and physical sciences led him to beginning a PhD in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Program of the CUNY Graduate Center, where he is currently a PhD candidate. His research specializes in the soil biogeochemistry of residential soils, particularly focused on yards and residential landscapes. More so, he is very interested in sociopolitical histories regarding long term environmental transformation yielding changes in carbon and nitrogen cycling. In particular, his research focuses on policies and initiatives that occurred at federal, municipal, and neighborhood scales to yield similar patterns of suburban sprawl across the United States. Additionally, he incorporates processes of Indigenous land dispossession as ultimate drivers of environmental transformation. He also works as an adjunct instructor teaching introductory classes in both earth and environmental sciences at both Brooklyn College and New York University.