Zane Frentress

My work explores socioecological fluidity and the ways that people and water continuously shape one another. In my research, I ask "where is 'home' when home is no longer a livable place?" and seek to understand how the climate crisis is reshaping the physical, social, and affective geographies of home and identity for people driven to migrate--at least in part-- by climate change. Because of my experiences growing up in New Orleans, I find myself drawn to explore the complexities of social ecologies and change in fluid places such as waterways, wetlands, and coastlines. I am interested in how queer praxis, intersectional feminist theories, and mixed methods in research can support ways of living within transitional places. 

I am a Climate and Culture Research Fellow with the organization Imagine Waterworks in New Orleans, where I am part of a team collaborating with coastal communities in Louisiana, climate organizers, researchers, and partners at LSU, NASA, NOAA, NOPP, and others to monitor sea level rise in Louisiana as part of the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network: Sea Level Rise Sentinels project. I am also a 2024 Monroe Fellow with the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South, along with Klie Kliebert, executive director of Imagine Waterworks. I hold a B.A. from Northwestern University.