Kristin George Bagdanov received her PhD in Literature from U.C. Davis, where she studied the relationship between cultural production, energy crises, and social movements. Her dissertation, “Nuclear Poetics: Energizing Social Forms in Cold War America” explores how poet-activists shaped the anti-nuclear movement in the U.S. during the 1970’s and 80’s. Specifically, it explores how Black, Indigenous, queer, feminist, and anti-capitalist writers theorized America’s radioactive nation-building project. These writers demonstrate how nuclear power both extends and intensifies white supremacist, patriarchal, capitalist, and settler logics and in turn form new imaginaries and alliances to resist and reconfigure these structures of oppression.

Articles relating to her project appear in Oxford Literary Review and Symplokē. She also earned her M.F.A. in poetry from Colorado State University and has two poetry collections: Fossils in the Making (2019, Black Ocean) and Diurne (Tupelo Press, 2019), winner of the 2019 Sunken Garden Poetry Prize. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Clean Energy Leadership Institute, Phi Kappa Phi, Lilly Graduate Fellows, the Bilinski Foundation and the Vermont Studio Center.

She currently works with the Building Decarbonization Coalition as the Manager of Policy Research and Knowledge Sharing to help realize the goal of zero-emission buildings in the U.S. Follow her on Twitter at @KristinGeorgeB.

Fossils in the Making

 Black Ocean

Diurne

Tupelo Press & Small Press Distribution