Sam P. Kellogg

PhD candidate in the department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University.

My research and teaching span the history of media, technology, and infrastructure, as well as topics in philosophy and social theory. I focus on understanding relations between media and the environment: how media technologies shape knowledge about, cultural norms towards, and beliefs regarding environmental issues, and how environments in turn condition media systems and their use. I have a special interest in mountain environments, and understanding communication and transportation issues in uneven terrain. My dissertation articulates a history of 'topographic media' across the mountains of the American West.

I also work as a trekking guide and consult on the full range of issues related to planning, preparing for, carrying out, and returning from long-distance solo and group expeditions on foot. I view my classroom and outdoor teaching as deeply interconnected, and bring my theoretical training to bear in how I approach the outdoors, just as nights spent beneath the stars inform my practice at the blackboard.