Sydney Noel Moss

Sydney is a PhD candidate in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM). Grounded in her experiences organizing in the U.S. and participatory action research with Indigenous, rural, and urban communities in Colombia and Peru, she hopes to leverage her academic research to support an increase in community participation and self-determination in climate adaptation and biocultural restoration projects. Working with the knowledge that these projects often further colonial land relations, her research draws on transformative educación popular, centers community and territorial plans for buen vivir, and generates support for existing community structures, such as existing coalitions, governance structures, and long standing cultural practices of collaboration. As a PhD student, Sydney explores Indigenous ecologies, ethnobotany, political ecology, critical restoration, climate and water justice, and decolonial geography. She is currently collaborating with partners in Latin America to co-define participatory research rooted in local cosmovisions that are generative, strengths-based, and ultimately supportive of community self-determination. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science from Loyola University Chicago and a Master’s degree in Development Engineering: Community-Based Ecosystem Stewardship from the University of California in Berkeley.

Contact:
snmoss@berkeley.edu