Research and Teaching Interests
Bioregional theory and practice, building sustainable communities, environmental perception, experiential education, Deep History, creative nonfiction, intentional communities and ecovillages, climate fiction, and nonviolent communication
Education
Ph.D. 1999, University of Oregon
M.A. 1993, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
B.A. 1991, Keene State College, New Hampshire
Background
Throughout his years as a teacher, Dr. Laird Christensen has embraced every chance to practice experiential and place-based education, learning with students the lessons that emerge from embedded engagement with local communities and ecosystems. This approach to teaching has led him to develop interdisciplinary field-based courses that engage students in learning about environmental policy, watershed restoration, field journaling, Deep History, and even to help facilitate meaningful community conversations about refugee resettlement. His publications span ecocritical research, creative nonfiction, and poetry that explore the intersectionality of human communities and bioregional identity, appearing in scholarly journals, anthologies, and environmental publications serving a wide range of audiences.
Beyond his work as an award-winning instructor, Dr. Christensen has built innovative academic programs focused on environmental studies and sustainability: he was founding director of the MS in Environmental Studies and the MS in Resilient and Sustainable Communities at Green Mountain College, and then served as Director of the MS in Environmental Studies and Sustainability at Prescott College. Through these programs he created professionally focused curricula that empower students to engage with environmental challenges on both local and global scales. He is excited to help students at Appalachian State University develop the skills and knowledge that prepare them to help their own communities develop more just and sustainable practices.
Having grown up in Oregon, Dr. Christensen has spent much of his life working in the woods, from his first job grading cedar to working as a ranger, and eventually engaging in defense of ancient forests. In 2008 he served as the Writer in Residence at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, a Long-Term Ecological Research site in the Oregon Cascades. He still volunteers as a trail steward, and celebrates the local more-than-human communities in his essays, poems, and songs.
Selected Publications
“A Bioregional Approach to Teaching Sustainability Online.” New Directions in Teaching and Learning. December 2025. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/tl.70014
“Letter to America.” Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built + Natural Environments (February 2017):http://www.terrain.org/2017/guest-editorial/letter-to-america-christensen/
“The Other Side of the Clear-Cut.” Forest Under Story: Creative Inquiry in an Old-Growth Forest. Ed. Nathaniel Brodie, Charles Goodrich, and Frederick J. Swanson. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2016: 137-48.
“Notes from the Great Transition.” Edge Effects (February 2016): https://edgeeffects.net/ great-transition/
“A Place in Mind.” Northern Woodlands (Winter 2013): 80.
“Teaching Bioregional Perception—at a Distance.” The Bioregional Imagination: Literature, Ecology, and Place. Ed. Tom Lynch, Cheryll Glotfelty, and Karla Armbruster. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2012: 377-90.
“A Tree Falls in the Forest.” Whole Terrain: Reflective Environmental Practice 12 (October 2012): 16-20.
Teaching about Place: Learning from the Land. Edited with Hal Crimmel. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2008.
Teaching North American Environmental Literature. Edited with Mark Long and Fred Waage. New York: Modern Language Association, 2008.
“Calamity Brook to Ground Zero.” Teaching about Place: Learning from the Land. Ed. Hal Crimmel and Laird Christensen. University of Nevada Press, 2008: 3-19.
“Northwest Passages.” Holding Common Ground: The Individual and Public Lands in the American West. Ed. Paul Lindholdt and Derrick Knowles. Cheney, WA: Eastern Washington University Press, 2005: 23-27.
“Writing Home in a Global Age.” World Literature Today 82:4 (July–August, 2008): 16-20.
“The Guerrilla Gatherers.” The Utne Reader (May/June 2004): 18-19.
“Writing the Watershed.” Teaching in the Field: Working with Students in the Outdoor Classroom. Ed. Hal Crimmel. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2003: 124-36.
“The Voice of Experience: An Interview with John Elder.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 10.1 (Winter 2003): 195-213.
“The Give and Take of Wildcrafting.” Whole Terrain: Reflective Environmental Practice 11 (2002/2003): 4-7.
“The Pragmatic Mysticism of Mary Oliver.” Ecopoetry: A Critical Introduction. Ed. J. Scott Bryson. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2002: 135-52.
“Spirit Astir in the World: Wendell Berry’s Sacramental Poetry.” Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature 52.2 (Winter 2000): 163-81.
Recovering Pine River. Written and edited with the Watershed Writing Collective. Alma, MI: WTW Publications, 2000.
“Not Exactly Like Heaven: Theological Imperialism in The Surrounded.” SAIL: Studies in American Indian Literatures 11.1 (Spring 1999): 2-16.
“Becoming Home.” Ecotone: The Journal of Environmental Studies 1:1 (Winter 1997): 4-15.
Podcasts
“Overcoming Climate Anxiety through Collaboration, with Laird Christensen.”Care More, Be Better - For a Regenerative Future. June 2024.
“The Power of Local: Small Actions, Big Impact on Climate Change, with Laird Christensen.” Climate Confident, with Tom Raftery. March 2024.
“Consumer Culture and Resilient and Sustainable Communities, with Laird Christensen.” A Sustainable Mind. September 2017.
Title: Department Chair and Professor
Department: Sustainable Development Department
Email address: Email me
Phone: (828) 262-7248