My public essays and public discussions highlight ideas about the urban environment and how we interact and connect with nature in an unnatural world.

Essay Courtney Humphries Essay Courtney Humphries

I love my air conditioning. But it’s complicated

As more of us adopt an air-conditioned lifestyle in places that once didn’t require it, we face a larger moral question: How can we properly respond to a warming world that we don’t personally experience?

WBUR Cognoscenti, August 27, 2024

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UMass Boston Commencement Remarks

As the Graduate Student Speaker at the University of Massachusetts Graduate Commencement Ceremony on May 27, 2022, I discussed how my research on Boston’s waterfront helped me to connect more to my community, my city, and my natural environment.

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Rising Seas: Planning for the Future

I participate in an interdisciplinary panel discussion that explores sea level rise and its implications for coastal areas, including cities like Boston.

John F. Kennedy Library Forum

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Negotiating the shoreline

An interactive tour of one of the most important maps in the history of Boston Harbor's environmental management.

Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center

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Mapping vacant lots in Boston

One of the legacies of Boston’s history of redlining and racial segregation is a large number of vacant lots in neighborhoods with large populations of Black residents, such as parts of Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan.

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Living on Earth: Boston’s Rising Tides

Boston Harbor is subject to tides as large as 12 feet, and most of its original tidal flats were filled in the late 1800s. As sea level rises, storm surges combined with high tide are putting more and more of downtown Boston at risk of flooding. Journalist Courtney Humphries and Host Steve Curwood discuss.

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