Phillip Drake

Phillip Drake is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Kansas. His research focuses on Environmental Literature, Animal Studies, Marxism, Science and Technology Studies, Environmental Rhetoric, Political Ecology, and Southeast Asia. He holds an office in Wescoe Hall, Room #3028.

Dr. Drake’s teaching interests span Environmental Literature and Rhetoric, Animal Studies, Cultural Studies, Marxism, Ecocriticism, Political Ecology, Science and Technology Studies, Science Fiction, Disaster Studies, Critical Theory, and Southeast Asian Studies. He actively integrates interdisciplinary approaches to explore intersections between literature, environment, and socio-political dynamics.

His research explores themes such as zoonotic diseases, disaster justice in Indonesia’s mud volcano crisis, biopolitical governance of rabies in Bali, and Marxist critiques of nonhuman agency. He has contributed to understanding environmental narratives, cultural representations of disasters, and the ethical dimensions of human-animal relationships through a lens of critical theory and posthumanism.

Drake’s work frequently engages Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia, analyzing how disasters reshape political landscapes, cultural narratives, and legal frameworks. His scholarship bridges literary analysis with environmental and social justice, emphasizing the role of art and rhetoric in shaping societal responses to ecological crises.