Contact Information
Climate Museum
630 9th Avenue, Suite 1010
New York, NY, 10036
bbyrd@climatemusem.org | bbyrd1@ucsc.edu __________________________________________________________________
Academic Appointments
August 2026 – Present Scholar in Residence, Climate Humanities &
Social Justice, Climate Museum, New York City, NY
2025-2026 Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Climate Humanities & Social Justice, Climate Museum, New York City, NY
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Education
Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz
Feminist Studies, Designated Emphasis: Critical Race & Ethnic Studies, 2025
B.A. New York University
Social & Cultural Analysis, 2019
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Publications
Articles
w/Christopher Lang, “All That’s Left Behind: Black Ecological Interventions on Waste and Plastic,” On_Culture, 17, October 2024.
“Why abolition now?” Interface: a journal for and about social movements, Roundtable, Volume 13 (2): 246 – 262, December 2021.
Book Chapters
“Black Feminist Ecologies as Afrofutures,” Afrosouthernfuturism!, University of Mississippi Press (Forthcoming 2027).
Poetry
“After Nikki Giovanni’s Bay Leaves” Darling Nikki: An Anthology of Creative Works Dedicated to the Memory of Nikki Giovanni, (Forthcoming 2026).
“Reach Back,” Fluid by Nature: Texture, Memory, & Ecology of the Black South, SISTORIES Literary Magazine, August 2025.
“afloat,” Los Angeles Review of Books Pub Mag, Summer 2021.
Fiction
“Planet Blue,” an excerpt, Fluid by Nature: Texture, Memory, & Ecology of the Black South, SISTORIES Literary Magazine, August 2025.
Other
Inner Resilience Toolkit, North Carolina Climate Justice Collective, October 20, 2025.
Inner Resilience Toolkit, North Carolina Climate Justice Collective, October 20, 2025.
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Teaching Experience
Spring 2026 Professor/Fellow, “Climate Humanities & Social
Justice,” Climate Museum & City College of New York
Fall 2024 Teaching Assistant, “Women and the Law,” University of California, Santa Cruz
Spring 2023 Teaching Assistant, “Reproductive Justice,” University of California, Santa Cruz
Winter 2023 Teaching Assistant, “Feminism and Social Justice,” University of California, Santa Cruz
Fall 2020 Teaching Assistant, “Intro to Feminisms,” University of California, Santa Cruz
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Presentations, Panels, and Interviews
Panels + Programs
October 30th 2026 Discussant, “Conversation on ‘We Can’t Dream Alone,’” Brooklyn Botanic Garden
July 10th 2026 Chair + Organizer, “A Black Feminist Climate Arts Salon,” Climate Museum
April 14 2026 Panelist + Organizer, “Stronger Together: Uniting Immigrant Justice and Climate Justice in New York City,”
Department of Environmental Studies, New York University
Fall 2022 Panelist, “What’s Graduate School?” UC Santa Cruz,
Feminist Studies
Spring 2021 Moderator + Organizer, “Plastic Justice with Kristal
‘Ocean’ Ambrose,” UCSC African American Resource and
Cultural Center and UCSC People of Color Sustainability Collective
Spring 2020 Moderator + Organizer, “Red & Black on Turtle
Island: Community Dialogue on Afro-Native Identities and Solidarities” UCSC African American Resource and Cultural Center and UCSC American Indian Resource Center
Conferences & Symposiums
March 26 2026 Paper Presentation, “Black Feminist Speculative Fiction
and Alternatives to Digital Surveillance” Scholar Papers Panel, 18th Annual National Black Writers’ Conference, City College of New York
March 2025 Paper Presentation, “A Black Feminist Explores Causes
and Conditions,” (De)Colonizing the Buddha Field: White
Supremacy, Asian & BIPOC Diaspora, and Buddhism, Burning Refuge, Harvard Divinity School
March 2023 Paper Presentation, “Black Speculative Fiction and Alternatives
to Digital Surveillance” Black in 3033: Theorizing Racialized
Futures and Place Making in Digital Geographies, Association
of American Geographers
November 2022 Moderator, “Networked Affects: Cringing at Queers on
Social Media,” National Women’s Studies Association
Spring 2021 Paper Presentation, Black Geographies Lab Symposium, UC
Santa Cruz
Interviews
March 3 2021 Chris Benner, Breanna Byrd, Christopher Lang, “Q&A with
Breanna Byrd & Chris Lang, Graduate Student Interns for the
AARC and POCSC,” Institute for Social Transformation
& KSQD
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Fellowships, Awards, and Grants
2025-2026 Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Climate Humanities & Social Justice, Climate Museum, New
York, NY
2025 – 2026 Fellow & Artist in Residence Climate Justice and
Art, North Carolina Climate Justice Collective,
North Carolina
April -August 2025 Fellow & Contributing Editor, Luminary
Fellowship, SISTORIES: An Interactive Black
Feminist Literary Magazine, North Carolina
Fall 2019 – August 2025 Fellow, Cota Robles Fellowship, University of
California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA
Summer 2024 Public Fellow, The Humanities Institute, University
of California Santa Cruz, CA, Warrenton, NC
Spring 2022 Fellow, Feminist Studies Departmental
Qualifying Exam Fellowship, University of California,
Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA
Summer 2021 Fellow, Los Angeles Review of Books Workshop, Los
Angeles Review of Books, Los Angeles, CA
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Professional Experience
10/2023- 06/15/2025
Graduate Editorial Intern, World Reader Series Duke University Press, Durham, NC
10/2019 – 12/2022
Graduate Program Coordinator UCSC African American Resource & Cultural Center, Santa Cruz, CA
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Languages
English (Fluent)
Spanish (Intermediate)
Mandarin (Intermediate)