معرفی
Derek Woods is an Assistant Professor in Communication Studies & Media Arts within the Faculty of Humanities at McMaster University. He maintains significant cross-institutional affiliations with the Centre for Climate Change, the Global Nexus School for Pandemic Prevention and Response, and the Net Zero Carbon Steering Committee.
Dr. Woods' academic background includes a PhD in English and Critical Theory from Rice University, an MA in English from Rice University, and a BA Honours in English and Forest Science from the University of British Columbia. Following his doctoral work, he held a prestigious Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Society of Fellows at Dartmouth College before serving as Assistant Professor of English at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
His research centers on environmental media, science and technology studies, and critical theory, with particular focus on creating dialogue between sciences and humanities for anti-capitalist climate politics. Dr. Woods examines how environmental damage and restoration intersect with inequality and efforts to redistribute wealth and power, emphasizing that even urgent climate crises require careful reading of the concepts, metaphors, and narratives we use to understand our relations with nature.
His scholarly output demonstrates consistent engagement with scale theory, media ecology, and the political economy of ecological crises. Recent publications explore climate fiction, terraforming discourse, symbiosis theory, and the material-semiotic dimensions of environmental crisis, often bridging literary analysis with ecological science to examine how media forms shape environmental understanding.
- Society of Fellows Postdoctoral Fellowship, Dartmouth College
- Invited speaker at international venues across UK, Canada, Germany, France, Russia, and United States
Dr. Woods actively supervises graduate work and is open to serving on MA and PhD committees for projects relevant to his expertise across disciplines. His current book projects include 'Terrarium: A Media Theory of the Ecosystem,' 'What Is Ecotechnology?,' and 'The Cultural Politics of Symbiosis,' reflecting his ongoing commitment to interdisciplinary environmental scholarship.
