NICHOLAS C. KAWA
Smith Laboratory 4030
Dept. of Anthropology
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH 43210
Phone: (614) 292-4149 Fax: (614) 292-4155
nckawa@gmail.com kawa.5@osu.edu
EDUCATION
PhD University of Florida, Anthropology 2011
MA University of Florida, Anthropology 2008
BA University of Arizona, Anthropology and Spanish Magna Cum Laude 2002
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Environmental anthropology, the Anthropocene, human-plant relations, anthropogenic soils, waste management, sanitation, climate change, social network analysis. Areas of interest: Amazonia, U.S.
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
Associate Professor 2023-Present The Ohio State University, Dept. of Anthropology
Assistant Professor 2016-2023 The Ohio State University, Dept. of Anthropology
Assistant Professor 2013-2015 Ball State University, Dept. of Anthropology
Visiting Assistant Professor 2012-2013 Ball State University, Dept. of Anthropology
Visiting College Lecturer 2011-2012 University of Akron, Dept. of Anthropology and Classical Studies
FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS, AND AWARDS
Early-Career Faculty Excellence Award 2023 College of Arts & Sciences, The Ohio State University
National Science Foundation Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Grant 2022 “Training Scientists to Tackle Grand Challenge Societal Problems through Convergent Action in Transdisciplinary Teams” National Science Foundation; Role: co-PI; $499,734
InFACT Linkage and Leverage Grant 2020 “How can soil health indicators inform farmers’ soil conservation practices and climate adaptation strategies?” The Ohio State University; Role: co-PI; $34,153
Wenner-Gren Post-PhD Research Grant 2019 “Waste or Resource? The Contested Use of Human Excreta in Midwestern Agriculture” Wenner-Gren Foundation; Role: PI; $16,700
InFACT Linkage and Leverage Grant 2018 “Transforming Human Waste into Agricultural Resource in Central Ohio” The Ohio State University; Role: PI; $32,790
Sustainable and Resilient Economy Seed Grant 2017 “Restoring Ecosystems with bio-based wastes for BLended Soils (REBLS)” The Ohio State University; Role: Co-PI; $50,000
InFACT Linkage and Leverage Grant 2017 “Making Maya Milpa: Maize Farming, Agroecological Research, and Food Security in Belize and Ohio State” The Ohio State University; Role: Project Member; $32,000
Programa de Apoio a Jovens Professores Doutores (MCTIC–Brazil) 2016 “Governança Ambiental em Rede: Coordenação da Política Pública e Uso de Recursos Naturais em Unidades de Conservação” Universidade Federal do Amazonas; Role: Project Member; $18,924
InFACT Linkage and Leverage Grant 2016 “Ohio’s Food and AgriCulture Vision for the Future: A Collective Impact Strategy and Research Agenda for InFACT and Ohio Food System Partners” The Ohio State University; Role: Project Member; $30,496
Ball Brothers Foundation Rapid Grant 2015 “The Old West End Community Garden-Park” Ball Brothers Foundation; Role: PI; $5,000
ASPiRE Junior Faculty Research Award 2014 “No-Till Farming and the Culture of Soil Conservation in Indiana” Ball State University; Role: PI; $7,000
Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Award 2009-2010
U.S. Dept. of Education; Role: PI; $23,550
Tropical Conservation and Development Field Research Grant 2009 University of Florida; $3,000 (Declined)
Charles Wagley Research Fellowship 2007 University of Florida, Latin American Studies Program; $2,000
Grinter Fellowship 2006-2008 University of Florida, Dept. of Anthropology; $6,000
Florida Graduate Grant 2006 University of Florida; $2,000
SAHRA Water Harvesting Grant 2002 University of Arizona; $2,000
PUBLICATIONS
Books
Kawa, N.C. 2016. Amazonia in the Anthropocene: People, Soils, Plants, Forests. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Journal Publications (& other peer reviewed works)
Beck, J. Flad, R., Alex, B., Caramanica, A., Costopoulos, A., Kawa, N.C., Marwick, B., Warriner, C. et al. Conditional acceptance. Changing the Landscape of Archaeological Publishing. Current Anthropology.
Singh, P., Kawa, N.C., Sprunger, C. 2023. “More Questions Than Answers”: Ohio Farmers’ Perceptions of Novel Soil Health Data and Their Utility for On-Farm Management. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems.
Kawa, N.C. 2022. Who Gets to Be an Author? Anthropology of Work Review 43(2): 7279.
Kawa, N.C. 2021. Making Sense of Sewage Sludge as a Renewable Resource in the Urban US. Antropologia Portuguesa. 38: 43-62.
Kawa, N.C. 2021. “The Anthropocene.” Oxford Bibliographies in Anthropology. John L. Jackson, Jr., ed. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kawa, N.C., Arceño, M.A., Goeckner, R., Hunter, C., Rhue, S.J., Scaggs, S.A., Biwer, M.E., Downey, S.S., Field, J.S., Gremillion, K., McCorriston, J., Willow, A., Newton, E., and Moritz, M. 2021. Training Wicked Scientists for a World of Wicked Problems. Humanities & Social Science Communications 8: 189.
Kawa, N.C. 2021. A “Win-Win” for Soil Conservation? How Indiana Row-Crop Farmers Perceive the Benefits (and Trade-offs) of No-Till Agriculture. Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment 43(1): 25-35.
Barboza, M., Kawa, N.C., Junqueira, A.B., Oyuela-Caycedo, A. 2021. Open Air Laboratories: Amazonian Home Gardens as Sites of Experimentation, Collaboration, and Negotiation across Time. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 62: 101302.
Hoelle, J.A., and Kawa, N.C. 2021. Placing the Anthropos in the Anthropocene. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 111(3): 655-662.
Kawa, N.C. 2020. Plants that Keep the Bad Vibes Away: Boundary Maintenance and Phyto-Communicability in Urban Amazonia. Ethnos 86(2): 228-244.
Kawa, N.C., Ding, Y., Kingsbury, J., Goldberg, K., Lipschitz, F., Scherer, M., and Bonkiye, F. 2019. Night Soil: Origins, Discontinuities, and Possibilities for Bridging the Metabolic Rift. Ethnobiology Letters 10(1): 40-49.
Amazonas, I.T., Kawa, N.C., Zanetti, V., Linke, I., and Sinisgalli, P. 2019. Using Rich Pictures to Model the ‘Good Life’ in Indigenous Communities of the Tumucumaque Complex in Brazilian Amazonia. Human Ecology 47(3): 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-019-0076-5
Crews, D.E., Kawa, N.C., Cohen, J.H., Ulmer, G.L., and Edes, A.N. 2019. Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Allostatic Load. Annals of Human Biology 46(1): 3-16.
Kawa, N.C., Clavijo Michelangeli, J.A., Clark, J.L., Ginsberg, D., and McCarty, C. 2019. The Social Network of U.S. Academic Anthropology and Its Inequalities. American Anthropologist 121(1): 14-29. [Reprinted in the 9th edition of Déjà Lu by the World Council of Anthropological Associations]
Kawa, N.C., Ulmer, G.L., and Silverstein, S.M. 2018. A Pretext for Plunder? Environmental Change and State-Led Redevelopment in the Peruvian Amazon. Anthropology Today 34(2): 13-16.
Kawa, N.C. 2016. How Religion, Race, and the Weedy Agency of Plants Shape Amazonian Home Gardens. Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment 38(2): 84-93.
Kawa, N.C. 2016. What Happens When We Flush? Anthropology Now 8(2): 34-43.
Kawa, N.C., Painter, B., and Murray, C.E. 2015. Trail Trees: Living Artifacts (Vivifacts) of Eastern North America. Ethnobiology Letters 6(1): 183-188.
Kawa, N.C., Clavijo Michelangeli, J.A., and Clement, C.R. 2015. Household Agrobiodiversity Management on Amazonian Dark Earths, Oxisols, and Floodplain Soils on the Lower Madeira River, Brazil. Human Ecology 43(2): 339-353.
Kawa, N.C. 2014. ‘Saving the Amazon’: Conservation, International Covetousness, and the Politics of Research. Anthropology Today 30(2): 21-24.
Kawa, N.C., McCarty, C., and Clement, C.R. 2013. Manioc Varietal Diversity, Social Networks, and Distribution Constraints in Rural Amazonia. Current Anthropology 54(6): 764-770.
Kawa, N.C. 2012. Magic Plants of Amazonia and Their Contribution to Agrobiodiversity. Human Organization 71(3): 225-233.
Kawa, N.C., Rodrigues, D., and Clement, C.R. 2011. Useful Species Richness, Proportion of Exotic Species, and Market Orientation on Amazonian Dark Earths and Oxisols. Economic Botany 65(2): 169-177.
Fraser, J.A., Junqueira, A.B., Kawa, N.C., Moraes, C.P., and Clement, C.R. 2011. Crop Diversity on Anthropogenic Dark Earths in Central Amazonia. Human Ecology 39(4): 395-406.
Kawa, N.C., and Oyuela-Caycedo, A. 2008. Amazonian Dark Earth: A Model of Sustainable Agriculture of the Past and Future? The International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic, and Social Sustainability 4(3): 9-16.
Book Chapters (editor reviewed)
Hoelle, J.A., and Kawa, N.C. 2022. Placing the Anthropos in the Anthropocene. In The Anthropocene; David R. Butler, ed. Pp.26-33. New York: Routledge. [reprint] DOI:10.4324/9781003208211-5
Kawa, N.C. 2020. A Mend to the Metabolic Rift? The Promises (and Potential Pitfalls) of Biosolids Application on American Soils. In Thinking with Soils; Juan F. Salazar, Céline Granjou, Anna Krzywoszynska, Matthew Kearns, Manuel Tironi, eds. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Kawa, N.C. 2020. Shit. In Anthropocene Unseen: A Lexicon; Cymene Howe and Anand Pandian, eds. Brooklyn, NY: Punctum Books.
Kawa, N.C. 2019. Pflanzenmagie. Über die Macht macher Pflanzen. In Von Pflanzen und Meschen; Kathrin Meyer and Judith Elisabeth Weiss, eds. Gottingen, Germany: Wallstein Verlag.
Oyuela-Caycedo, A., and Kawa, N.C. 2015. A Deep History of Tobacco in Lowland South America. In Master Plant: Tobacco in Lowland South America; Andrew Russell and Elizabeth Rahman, eds. Pp. 27-44. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Junqueira, A.B., Kawa, N.C., Fraser, J.A., and Clement, C.R. 2010. Explorando a relação entre agrobiodiversidade e Terra Preta de Índio no médio Rio Madeira, Amazonas, Brasil. In Agrobiodiversidade no Brasil: Experiências e Caminhos da Pesquisa; L.C. Ming, M.C.M. Amorozo, and C.W. Kffuri, eds. Recife: NUPEEA.
Journal Publications and Online Essays (editor reviewed)
Kawa, N.C. 2022. Human Waste…and Much More (commentary). Anthropology News.
Kawa, N.C. 2022. Ten Ways that Human Waste Isn’t Waste at All. Anthropology News 63(3): 8-10.
Moritz, M., and Kawa, N.C. 2022. The World Needs Wicked Scientists. American Scientist 110(4): 212.
Kawa, N.C. 2020. Reflexiones sobre la salud ambiental y la salud humana en el Antropoceno. Diálogos Transdisciplinarios Ancestrales 2: 9-15.
Kawa, N.C. 2019. Amazônia Urbana. Amazônia Latitude. May 2.
Caporrino, B., Kawa, N.C., and Zille, T. 2019. A virada ontológica e a Amazônia: um diálogo. Amazônia Latitude. March 26. Kawa, N.C. 2018. How Academic Hierarchy Shapes the Distribution of Precarity.
Cultural Anthropology website. 21 March.
Tumi Desi, R.D., Kawa, N.C., and Silverstein, S.M. 2017. Primer Viaje de Regreso a Casa. Amazônica: Revista de Antropologia. 9(1): 524-536. Veteto, J., and Kawa, N.C. 2017. The Fermentological Turn: Multi-Yeasties
Ethnography. Anthropology News website. September 22.
Kawa, N.C. 2017. El tunchi en la casa de Sandra. Anthropology and Humanism 42(1): 27-28. (Nominated for a 2017 Pushcart Prize) Kawa, N.C. 2016. American Confederates and the Birth of Archaeology in the Amazon
Basin. SAPIENS. 7 Nov.
Kawa, N.C. 2016. The Irony of the Anthropocene: Humans Dominate a Planet Beyond Our Control. The Conversation. 4 Oct. Kawa, N.C. 2016. Shit. Theorizing the Contemporary, Cultural Anthropology website. 6
April.
Kawa, N.C. 2015. Cobra Grande: An Amazonian Vision of Human-Environmental Relations. Engagement (Anthropology and Environment Society Blog). 10 Nov. Kawa, N.C. 2015. Gas Leaks Can’t Be Tamed. The Atlantic. 18 Sept. Kawa, N.C. 2014. Managing Uncertainty in Rural Amazonia: Climate Change, Crop
Diversity, and Social Networks. Anthropology News 55(4): e33-34.
Kawa, N.C. 2012. My Uncle Sandy. Tipiti: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America 9(2): Article 10. Kawa, N.C. 2008. Playing by the Rules: The Politics of Research in the Brazilian Amazon.
Anthropology News 49(6): 27-28.
Book Reviews
Kawa, N.C 2023. Horizon Work: At the Edges of Knowledge in an Age of Runaway Climate Change by Adriana Petryna. American Ethnologist 50(1):141-142.
Rissing, A.L., and Kawa, N.C. 2021. Porkopolis: A Conversation. Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment 43(1): 71-73.
Kawa, N.C. 2014. Na Primeira Margem do Rio: Território e Ecologia do Povo Xavante de Wedezé by James R. Welch, Ricardo Ventura Santos, Nancy M. Flowers, and Carlos
E.A. Coimbra Jr. Ethnobiology Letters 5: 40-41.
Kawa, N.C. 2010. Tropical Root and Tuber Crops: Cassava, Sweet Potato, Yams and Aroids by Vicent Lebot. Economic Botany 64(1): 86-87.
Kawa, N.C. 2008. The Chocolate Tree: A Natural History of Cacao by Allen M. Young. Culture and Agriculture 30(1&2): 63-64.
Technical Reports
Kawa, N.C. 2008. Uso e Manejo Contemporâneo de Terra Preta do Índio (TPI) em Borba, Amazonas, Brasil. Report submitted to the Brazilian National Research Council (CNPq).
Breuer, N.E., Adhikari, S., Brown-Salazar, R., Clavijo, J.A., HansPetersen, N.N., Kawa, N.C., Patarasuk, R., and Hildebrand, P.E. 2008. Extension Agent Perspectives of Climate Forecasts and the AgClimate Decision Support System. Southeast Climate Consortium Technical Report Series: SECC-08-01, Gainesville, FL.
CREATIVE WORKS & INSTALLATIONS
Kawa, N.C, Lipschitz, F., and Diles, J. 2019. Privy2: Biosolids & You. Public Installation and Demonstration Garden. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
Kawa, N.C., Lipschitz, F., Chen, C., Haugh, S., Normas Yakin, S., Rance, L. Tsitouris, L. 2019. Infrastructural Digest (Issue #2). Companion booklet to “Privy2” Installation.
Tanis, J., Veteto, J., Williams, M., Turtlington, T., Hey, M., Farr, E., and Kawa, N.C. 2017. Margaret’s Mead: Anthropological Inquiries into the Making and Sharing of Honey Wine. A Zine by Culture & Agriculture and Friends.
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Co-principal Investigator, Ohio, USA 2023-2026 Project: Training Wicked Scientists
Co-principal Investigator, Ohio, USA 2020-22 Project: How can soil health indicators inform farmers’ soil conservation practices and climate adaptation strategies?”
Principal Investigator, Ohio & Illinois, USA 2019-21 Project: Waste or Resource? The Contested Use of Human Excreta in Midwestern Agriculture
Principal Investigator, Ohio, USA 2018-19 Project: Transforming Human Waste into Agricultural Resource in Central Ohio
Principal Investigator, Iquitos, Loreto, Peru 2016 Project: Climate Change and Perceptions of Its Threat in Urban Amazonia
Principal Investigator, Indiana, USA 2014 Project: No-Till Farming and the New Culture of Soil Conservation in Indiana
Researcher, Borba, AM, Brazil 2009-2010 Project: Social, Economic, and Historical Dimensions of Agrobiodiversity Management in the Central Amazon (dissertation project)
Research Assistant, Borba, AM, Brazil 2010 Project: Lower Madeira River Archaeological Project Principal Investigator: Claide de Paula Moraes, Universidade de São Paulo
Researcher, Iquitos, Loreto, Peru 2009 Project: Conservation and Socio-Economic Development in Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo, Peru: A Brief Survey at the Community of El Chino.
Research Assistant, Southwest Florida 2008 Project: Extension Agents Perceptions of Seasonal Climate Forecasts and the AgClimate Decision Support System. Principal Investigators: Norman Breuer and Peter E. Hildebrand
Researcher, Borba, AM, Brazil 2007 Project: Uso e manejo de terra preta do índio para agricultura de subsistência e produção para o mercado (Master’s project)
Supervisors: Charles R. Clement, Augusto Oyuela-Caycedo, and Newton Falcão. Expedição Científica (Proc. EXC 007/07-C) CNPq – Brazil. Charles R. Clement, P.I.
Research Assistant, INPA; Manaus, AM, Brazil Project: Terra Preta Nova Project Principal Investigator: Newton Falcão, P.I. 2003
Researcher, Nogales, Sonora, Mexico Project: Ambos Nogales Revegetation Partnership Principal Investigator: Diane Austin 2001-2003
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 2016-Present Associate Professor, Dept. of Anthropology
• History of Anthropological Theory (Fall 2023)
• Wicked Science (Spring 2024)
• Communicating Anthropology (Spring 2024)
The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 2016-Present Assistant Professor, Dept. of Anthropology
• Peoples and Cultures: Intro to Cultural Anthropology (Fall 2016-17, 2022)
• History of Anthropological Theory (Fall 2016–22)
• Environmental Anthropology (Spring 2017, 2019-2022)
• Latin American Peoples and Cultures (Spring 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2021)
• Ethnobotany (Spring 2020-2023)
• Wicked Science (Spring 2023)
Ball State University, Muncie, IN 2012-2015 Assistant Professor, Dept. of Anthropology
• Anthropology, Culture, and Globalization (Summer 2013–Fall 2015)
• Ecological Dimensions of Culture (Fall 2012; Spring 2014; Fall 2014)
• Ethnographic Research Methods (Spring 2013)
• Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (Fall 2012; Spring 2013)
• Latin American Cultures (Spring 2015)
University of Akron, Akron, OH 2011-2012 Visiting Lecturer, Dept. of Anthropology and Classical Studies
• Human Cultures (Fall 2011; Spring 2012)
• Anthropological Theory (Fall 2011)
• Amazonia: People and the Environment (Spring 2012)
• Magic, Myth, and Religion (Summer Intersession)
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 2011 Teaching Assistant, Dept. of Anthropology
• Language and Culture (Spring 2011)
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 2008-2011 Teaching Associate, Dept. of Anthropology
• Introduction to General Anthropology (Summer 2008, Spring 2010; Summer 2010, 2011)
La Universidad Nacional de la Amazonia Peruana, Iquitos, Peru 2009 Visiting Instructor, Master’s Program in Protected Areas Mgmt.
• Social Dimensions of Natural Resource Management in Protected Areas
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 2007-2008 Teaching Assistant, Teaching Center
• Introduction to Soils in the Environment (Spring 2007; Fall 2008; Fall 2009)
• Plants, Plagues, and People (Spring 2008)
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS AND INVITED LECTURES
Invited Paper, “Welcome to the Anthropozine! DIY Scholarship as an Alternative to Peer-Reviewed Publication,” The Socio-Politics of Knowledge Production in Archaeology and Anthropology, Wenner-Gren Foundation Workshop (virtual), 12 Oct. 2023.
Keynote Lecture, “Plantas para alejar las malas vibras: Observaciones etnobotánicas de la Amazonía urbana.” Congreso Internacional sobre la Amazonia Peruana II, Iquitos, Peru. 23 Nov. 2022
Paper Presentation, “A Tactical Approach to Discard Studies? Thinking through Privy2” Discard Studies Conference, New York University. 16 Sept. 2022.
Invited Lecture, “Amazônia e o Antropoceno: Reflexões nos debates atuais,” Departamento de Antropologia, Universidade de Brasilia. 3 Nov. 2021.
Invited Lecture, “The Afterlives of Sanitation Waste in Urban Green Spaces of the Late Industrial US,” Biosocial Talks Series, University of Coimbra (Portugal). 20 July 2021.
Invited Lecture, “Wasted: An Inquiry into the Use of Human Excrement.” Marjorie Helen Stuart Lecture Series, Dept. of Anthropology, SUNY-Brockport. 22 April 2021.
Video Presentation, “Toward a Tactical Anthropology: Creating Space for Reckoning with Ecologies of Waste” (in collaboration with Luke Stettner). The Society for Cultural Anthropology Biennial Meeting. 5 May 2020. https://distribute.utoronto.ca
Invited Lecture, “The Other Side of Our Food System: The Use of Human Waste as an Agricultural Resource,” Dept. of Anthropology, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, 24 Feb. 2020.
Invited Lecture, “Privy2: Biosolids and You” (co-authored with Forbes Lipschitz and Justin Diles), Loose Talk Series, Knowlton School of Architecture, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 7 Feb. 2020.
Invited Speaker, “Trash or Treasure: Wastewater, Plastics, and Spent Brewing Grains,” (coauthors: Forbes Lipschitz and Justin Diles), Anthropology Public Outreach Program (APOP) Speaker Series, Seventh Son Brewing, Columbus, OH, 19 Nov. 2019.
Paper Presentation, “Challenging the Poo Taboo: Use of Treated Human Waste as an Agricultural Resource,” (co-authored with Forbes Lipschitz and Justin Diles), World Food Day at Thompson Library, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 17 Oct. 2019.
Invited Lecture, “In the Shit: A Metabolic Manifesto,” Dept. of Anthropology, Ball State University, Muncie, IN, 11 April 2019.
Paper Presentation, “Collaborative Design for Teaching about the Use of Human ‘Waste’ as an Agricultural Resource in the American Midwest,” (co-authored with Forbes Lipschitz and Logan Rance), Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting, Portland, OR, 23 March 2019.
Invited Speaker, “Close Encounters of the Fecal Kind,” Exploratory Seminar at the Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 24 August 2018.
Invited Lecture, “Amazonía en el Antropoceno,” Diálogos Antropológicos, Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía Peruana (UNAP), Iquitos, Loreto, Peru, 13 July 2018.
Keynote Lecture, “Can Our Waste Help Us Fight Hunger?” Ohio Youth Institute, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 16 April 2018.
Panel Co-Organizer, “Excrement, Sanitation, and the Looming Ecological Crisis,” American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Washington D.C., 30 Nov. 2017.
Paper Presentation, “Pure Shit: Human Excrement as Agricultural Fertilizer and Ethnographic Object,” American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Washington D.C., 30 Nov. 2017.
Invited Lecture, “Amazônia no antropoceno: Observações, questões e desafios,” Universidade Federal do Amazonas (UFAM), Manaus, AM, Brazil, 4 July 2017.
Invited Lecture, “Plants that Keep Bad Vibes Away (& Other Stories of Ecosemiotic Interplay in the Urban Amazon),” The Semiotics of Human-Plant Sociality Workshop, Rutgers University, 24 Feb. 2017.
Paper Presentation, “The Social Network of US Academic Anthropology,” co-authored with Chris McCarty and Jessica Clark, American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, 20 Nov. 2016.
Paper Presentation, “What Happens When We Flush?” Dimensions of Political Ecology Working Group Conference, Lexington, KY, 27 Feb. 2016.
Paper Presentation, “Floodplain Farms, Floating Gardens, and the Amphibious Expansion of Urban Amazonia,” co-authored with Sydney Silverstein, American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Denver, CO, Nov. 2015.
Paper Presentation, “Forests and Favelas: Situating Urban Amazonia in the Anthropology of Brazil,” The Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology, Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, Mexico, March 2015.
Invited Lecture, “Into the Bowels of the Anthropocene: Excrement and the Current Ecological Crisis,” The Anthropocene: Views from the Humanities Seminar Series, University of California– Santa Barbara, 20 Nov. 2014.
Paper Presentation, “Ethnobiology and the Anthropocene: A View from Amazonia,” Society of Ethnobiology Annual Meeting, Cherokee, NC, May 2014.
Paper Presentation, “The Big Snake: An Amazonian Vision of Human-Environmental Relations,” American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, Nov. 2013.
Plenary Panel Presentation, “Climate Change and Crop Diversity: Manioc Varietal Management in the Rural Amazon,” Society of Ethnobiology Annual Meeting, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, May 2013.
Paper Presentation, “Agrobiodiversity and the Burgeoning Barge Economy in Rural Amazonia,” Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting. Baltimore, MD, March 2012.
Paper Presentation, “Terra Preta do Índio: Um Modelo de Agricultura Sustentável do Passado e Futuro(?),” co-presented with Augusto Oyuela-Caycedo, Brasil – Vanguardas: Imagem e palavra/Fogo–Terra–Ar–Agua. Heinrich Boll Stiftung, Berlin, Germany, 2007.
INTERVIEWS AND MEDIA APPEARANCES
Interviewed by Rebecca Hersher for the story “Scientists Are a Step Closer to Defining When the Age of Humans Officially Began” featured on NPR’s Morning Edition. 13 July 2023.
Interviewed by Dana Drugmand of Desmog for the article “Montana Is Paying a Climate Denier to Give Expert Testimony in Upcoming Trial” 15 May 2023.
Sustainability Now! podcast episode “Nicholas Kawa / Humanure” 2 August 2021.
NPR Short Wave podcast episode “What Is the Age of Humans?”12 April 2021.
Interviewed by Rebecca Hersher for the story “Drawing a Line in the Mud: Scientist Debate When ‘Age of Humans’ Began” featured on NPR’s Morning Edition. 17 March 2021.
Interviewed by Sarah Wesseler of Yale Climate Connections for the article “As the planet warms, can we afford to treat poop as waste?” 8 April 2020.
Interview with Emma Lagan for A Story of Us podcast “Interview with Dr. Kawa (Cultural Anthropology).” 7 March 2019.
Interview with Daniel Kolitz for Giz Asks series in Gizmodo. “How Far Can You Get Away from Technology?” 2 July 2018.
Interview with Nivedita Kar for New Books in Anthropology podcast. “Amazonia in the Anthropocene: People, Soils, Plants, Forests.” 5 Sept. 2017.
Interview with Colleen Leonardi for Edible Columbus. “From the Amazon to Ohio.” 14 July 2017.
Interview with Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer on the Cultures of Energy podcast. Episode 51 – Nicholas Kawa. 5 Jan. 2017.
Interview with Matt DeMello for the SpareMin podcast. “Will Humans Survive the Challenges of the Anthropocene Era?” 6 Oct. 2016.
Interview with University of Texas Press, Q&A on ‘Amazonia in the Anthropocene’ 23 May 2016.
Interview with Ball State University Graduate Program “Meet Nick, an Anthropology Professor with a Green Thumb.” 2 Feb. 2015.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Honorary Member, El Foro Permanente de Estudios, Investigación y Saberes Transdisciplinarios Ancestrales (Cochabamba, Bolivia), 2020-Present
Editorial Board Member, Ethnobiology Letters, 2020-Present
Editorial Board Member, Amazônia Latitude (digital magazine), 2019-Present
Editorial Board Member, Anthropology of Work Review, 2016-2019
President, Culture and Agriculture Section of the American Anthropological Association, 2016-2018
President-Elect, Culture and Agriculture Section of the American Anthropological Association, 2015-2016
Secretary-Treasurer, Culture and Agriculture Section of the American Anthropological Association, 2012-2015
Student Representative and Webmaster, Culture and Agriculture Section of the American Anthropological Association, 2009-2011
Treasurer, University of Florida Ethnoecology Club, 2009
Secretary, Florida Anthropological Student Association, 2007
Secretary, University of Florida Ethnoecology Club, 2007
Ad-Hoc Peer Reviewer: American Anthropologist; American Ethnologist; Anthropological Quarterly; Anthropology Today; Cultural Anthropology; Culture, Agriculture, Food and the Environment; Current Anthropology; Ecology and Society; Economic Botany; Environment and Society: Advances in Research; Environmental Science & Technology; Ethnobiology Letters; Ethnos; Geographical Review; Human Organization; Human Ecology; Imaginations; Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture; Journal of Ethnobiology; Journal of Political Ecology; Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute; Science, Technology, and Human Values; World Development
UNIVERSITY AND DEPARTMENTAL SERVICE
Dept. of Anthropology Mentoring Committee, Chair, The Ohio State University, 20222023
Graduate Students of Anthropology Association, Faculty Advisor, The Ohio State University, 2021-2022
Abya Yala Student Organization, Faculty Advisor, The Ohio State University, 2020-Present
Socio-Ecological Systems Working Group, Faculty Convener, Dept. of Anthropology, The Ohio State University, 2018-2019
Ohio State Student/Farmworker Alliance, Faculty Advisor, 2018-2019
The Ohio State University Panel on Food Sustainability, Panel Member, 2017
Undergraduate Anthropology Club, Faculty Advisor, The Ohio State University, 2016-19
A Story of Us Podcast, Faculty Advisor, The Ohio State University, 2016-18
Anthropology Club, Faculty Advisor, Ball State University, 2013-2015
Yu-Gi-Oh Club, Faculty Advisor, Ball State University, 2013-2014
Committee Chair of PhD Students:
Maddison Elliott, The Ohio State University
Committee Member of PhD Students: Chengwei Chen, The Ohio State University Paromita Bathija, The Ohio State University Kyle Riordan, The Ohio State University Karina Sanchez, The Ohio State University Ben Mertus, The Ohio State University Prabhjot Singh, The Ohio State University Chelsea Hunter, The Ohio State University Ryan Goeckner, The Ohio State University Steven Rhue, The Ohio State University Butch Wright, The Ohio State University Alex Tuggle, The Ohio State University
Patrick Sours, The Ohio State University (degree completed; Spring 2023) Frances Sutton, The Ohio State University (degree completed; Fall 2022) Mark Anthony Arceño, The Ohio State University (degree completed; Fall 2020) Elizabeth Gardiner, The Ohio State University (degree completed; Summer 2020) Nicole Weiss, The Ohio State University (degree completed; Spring 2020) Iuri Amazonas, Universidade de São Paulo (degree completed; Summer 2019) Gordon Ulmer, The Ohio State University (degree completed; Spring 2018)
Committee Chair of Master’s Degree Students:
Prabhjot Singh, The Ohio State University, ESGP (degree completed; Summer 2021) Logan Rance, The Ohio State University, ESGP (degree completed; Spring 2020)
Committee Member of Master’s Degree Students:
Sonam Rustagi, The Ohio State University Ben Mertus, The Ohio State University (degree completed; Spring 2020) Julianne Stamer, The Ohio State University (degree completed; Summer 2019) Tannya Forcone, The Ohio State University (degree completed; Spring 2018) Jacob Hibbard, Ball State University (degree completed; Spring 2016) Eric Olson, Ball State University (degree completed; Spring 2016) Erin Steinwachs, Ball State University (degree completed; Spring 2015) Bradley Painter, Ball State University (degree completed; Spring 2015) Aaron Pape, Purdue University (degree completed; Spring 2015)
Undergraduate Honors Theses (Primary Advisor):
Cella Masso-Rivetti, The Ohio State University (degree completed; Spring 2020) Syamil Normas Yakin, The Ohio State University (degree completed; Fall 2019) Amber Horton, Ball State University (degree completed; Spring 2014)
Undergraduate Honors Theses (Committee Member):
Emily Nothnagle, The Ohio State University (degree completed; Spring 2021) Hannah Nelson, The Ohio State University (degree completed; Spring 2020) Nadia Debick, The Ohio State University (degree completed; Spring 2019)
COMMUNITY OUTREACH AND MENTORSHIP
Mentor, Community Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS), Columbus, OH, 2017-2018 Ohio Food Policy Network (OFPN) Governance Council Member, 2016-2017 Co-Founder and Volunteer, Community Circle Park, Muncie, IN, 2015-2016 Co-Founder and Volunteer, The HUB Community Garden, Muncie, IN, 2014-2016
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Anthropological Association Society for Applied Anthropology
LANGUAGES
English: Native Language Portuguese: Fluent Speaker, Advanced Reading and Writing Spanish: Fluent Speaker, Advanced Reading, Intermediate Writing