Jayson Porter

Jayson Maurice Porter is an environmental writer and historian who received his PhD from Northwestern in 2022 and is a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Maryland, College Park. In addition to his academic work, he is writing a book tentatively titled Held: Multispecies histories of black relations to place and power.

More from Jayson Porter

Black and white photo of a man standing beside a cross-section of an enormous tree

Distillations Magazine

Proxies for Justice

The climate history of tropical regions has been chronically understudied. Correcting the record will require new methods and new mindsets.

Color illustration of a desert scene with a car in the foreground and storm clouds on the horizon

Distillations Magazine

Everyday Monsoons

Washes and other gaps in the Sonoran Desert.

Black and white photo of girl with a cotton plant

Distillations Magazine

Rings of Fire

Arsenic cycles through racism and empire in the Americas.

Group of eleven older men posing with a large taxidermy fish

Distillations Magazine

Fish Hacks

Often dismissed as a “trash fish,” the porgy anchors black maritime culture.