A More Intimate Ecology: Reframing the Relationship between the Researcher and the Research(ed)

Abstract

Ecology is vast and varied, not just in academic subfields but in how individuals equip themselves with it. In this work, I am trying to access a more intentional and intimate ecology by inserting queer theory to rupture Western scientific training that has created a structured ecology that often prevents researchers from fully engaging with the ecosphere. In this article, I move beyond scientific understandings of human and nonhuman animal relationships to reimagine ecology as a more intimate field. I argue that complete insertion in, rather than removal from, science creates a stronger approach that facilitates a deeper connection with study organisms and non-human beings. I then use this connection to analyze (1) a core concept in ecology, human-wildlife conflict, as a constructed concept and (2) the urban coyote as a Queer ecological being that may be used to understand the experience of a marginalized and oppressed body in academia. This work rethinks what ecology could be to traditional ecologists by demonstrating how an urban ecologist explores human-non-human connections and interactions through the lens of queer theory.

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