About Me
Aalayna R. Green is a conservation social scientist. She obtained her B.S. in Zoology from Michigan State University, and is currently pursuing her PhD in Natural Resources & the Environment, along with a minor in Feminist, Gender, & Sexuality Studies, at Cornell University. Aalayna is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a Cornell Sloan Fellow.
An emerging scholar in critical environmental justice studies, Aalayna's work examines processes of racialization and state-making within protected areas. Her areas of interest include environmental justice, conservation security, environmental peacebuilding, and the illegal wildlife trade. She grounds her work in critical feminist epistemologies so as to promote more gender-aware and socially-just conservation strategies. Her dissertation looks at processes of conservation violence in and around Botswana’s Chobe National Park, along with the broader Kavango-Zambezi (KaZa) Transfrontier Conservation Area.
In her free time, Aalayna can be found drinking a cinnamon oat milk latte with my book at a cafe or snuggling with her two cats, Lizzo and Snuggles.
Education
Cornell University
PhD in Natural Resources & the Environment, expected 2026
Graduate Minor in Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies
- Major Field: Human Dimensions of Natural Resource Management
- Minor Fields: African Studies, Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies
Michigan State University
B.S. Zoology, 2021
- Focus in Conservation Criminology & Public Policy
Research Interests
Conservation STate-Making & Militarized Conservation
Militarized conservation (e.g., shoot-on-sight policies) are short-term conservation solutions that further social inequality. These violent conservation policies depend on broader racializing social dynamics, which are reinforced through conservation state-making.
My doctoral and current research focuses on how conservation state-making through protected area expansion aids in racializing processes, thus making conservation violence justifiable. She works to counter militarized conservation strategies with interventions that address social inequality and food insecurity.
Current projects include:
- Developing fishing estuaries with activist group Namibian Lives Matter to safeguard Indigenous livelihoods threatened by shoot-on-sight policies.
- Qualitative textual analysis of news and media articles to understand the race-making narratives of conservation state-making.
Critical Environmental Justice:
Local & International Perspectives
Environmental injustices impact communities around the world, but achieving environmental justice requires tailored, culturally aware, and intersectional approaches. Critical environmental justice allows for deep interrogation into how individuals' exposure to environmental injustices is connected to their intersecting identities.
Current projects include:
- Climate justice and urban heat reduction initiatives in New York City Burroughs with the Cool Trees Team based out of Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell University.
- Water filtration education and access with the Benton Harbor Community Water Council.
Conservation Justice
Justice is a critical component of ethical conservation and can serve as a counter to colonial manifestations. Pursuing justice within conservation practice, however, involves an active recognition of violent legacies, an innate awareness of intersectionality, and a culutral-awareness of human-environment relationships.
Current projects include:
- Theoretical thinkpiece on the relationship between conservation and white supremacy.
- A guide on practicing socially-just and gender-aware conservation
- Cultural awareness as a necessary component of human-wildlife conflict and coexistince.
