Michael Ziser

Michael Ziser is an Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Davis, where he has taught since 2003. His interdisciplinary scholarship bridges literary studies and environmental humanities, focusing on pre-Civil War North American writing and visual arts through frameworks of ecocriticism and more-than-human agency.

His academic foundation includes:

• Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 2003
• B.A., University of California, Berkeley, 1996

Professor Ziser's research explores agrarianism, eco-phenomenology, food studies, and bioregionalist thought, with particular emphasis on nonhuman nature's representation in cultural production. His book manuscript Continent Ajar: Environmental Practice and Early American Writing pioneers methodologies for more-than-human literary histories, intersecting with science studies, religious studies, and media theory.

His 2004-2009 publications reveal consistent engagement with environmental themes across historical periods—from early American pomology and ornithology to contemporary climate justice. Key threads include wilderness conceptualization, animal semiotics, and literature's entanglement with scientific practices, demonstrating how ecological concerns permeate cultural production from colonial to modern eras.

As inaugural director of UC Davis' Environmental Humanities Research supercluster, he cultivates cross-disciplinary collaboration, notably organizing the 2009 conference California, the University, and the Environment. His Art of Regional Change fellowship develops community partnerships in Calaveras County and West Sacramento, applying university resources to regional environmental challenges. He also serves as Reviews Editor for Eighteenth-Century Studies.

Through initiatives like the Environmental Humanities supercluster, Professor Ziser integrates faculty and graduate researchers across disciplines to address ecological issues via collaborative scholarship and community-engaged projects, emphasizing practical applications of environmental humanities.