Jane Robbins Mize

Jane Robbins Mize is an Assistant Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), specializing in twentieth-century North American literature and environmental humanities. Her research examines the intersections of colonization, industrialization, and environmental justice. She holds a PhD (2023) and MA (2021) from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA (2015) from the University of Texas at Austin.

Research Interests: Mize’s work focuses on settler industrialization, human-environment relations, and the carceral state. Her current book project, Water Works: Experimental Encounters with Settler Industrialization, analyzes large-scale infrastructure projects like the Los Angeles Aqueduct and Hoover Dam to explore retheorized human-water relationships. She collaborates with the Products of Our Environment working group, addressing prison abolition and environmental justice.

Awards:

• Diane Hunter Dissertation Prize (University of Pennsylvania)
• Mellon Humanities + Urbanism + Design Research Award
• Lois P. Rudnick Writing Residency

Teaching & Grants: Teaches courses on environmental justice, American Empire narratives, and water studies. The Mellon award supports her urbanism-focused research. Her courses include Survey of Literature II and Theories of Water (graduate).

Labs/Teams: Member of Products of Our Environment, a collective of incarcerated and non-incarcerated scholars advancing prison abolition through environmental frameworks.