My name is Hannah Eisler Burnett (she/they), and I am a cultural anthropologist, writer, and editor. I received my PhD in Anthropology from the University of Chicago in March 2023, and my dissertation examined how large-scale environmental change affects the way residents think about property, race, and place in Louisiana’s Mississippi River Delta. Broadly, my scholarship addresses questions about social difference that emerge at the intersection of science, technology, and law in coastal places. Raised on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, my work is inspired by the strength and care embodied by the people there who have built enduring communities of solidarity in the wake of numerous environmental disasters.

I am currently based at Cornell CALS in New York City, as the Jamaica Bay Coastal Resilience Specialist and Extension Associate for New York Sea Grant. I am also a Visiting Scholar at Brooklyn College and NYU Tandon School of Engineering. In these roles, I conduct community-engaged research, advise on interdisciplinary scholarship, and manage a portfolio of projects that center community concerns in work towards urban flood resilience.

Prior to my position with New York Sea Grant, I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering in the Department of Technology, Culture, and Society. I am also a contributing writer and editor at the Center for Humans and Nature, where I was previously Communications & Editorial Associate. I maintain an art practice as well, and have collaborated on research and art projects related to themes of water, toxicity, global trade, and capital. My scholarship and art have won awards from the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology and the University of Chicago, and my work has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation, among others.