Dr. Nathan Jandl works to cultivate, advance, and communicate sustainability initiatives at UW–Madison, with the broader goal of creating a vibrant culture of sustainability in higher education. As Associate Director, he works alongside the Director of Sustainability and the Director of Sustainability Education and Research to develop institutional sustainability strategy, build partnerships, support Office of Sustainability programs, and collaborate with campus leadership. Nathan also directs strategic communication efforts for the Office of Sustainability, co-supervises the student intern communications and podcast teams, and plays an active role in UW System sustainability efforts with colleagues across the state.
Prior to joining the Office of Sustainability, Nathan served as Director of Communications for the UW–Madison Department of English (as a graduate student project assistant), where he was responsible for outreach, alumni engagement, and website and social media management. During this period, he was an active member of the Center for Culture, History, and Environment, where he helped to launch and edit the interdisciplinary digital magazine, Edge Effects. As Managing Editor, Nathan gained extensive experience in shaping environmental content for a wide and diverse audience. Nathan’s editorial background also includes a decade of experience as a freelance editor. He has worked on both critical and creative projects, including scholarly articles and academic manuscripts, nonfiction, novels, and poetry.
Nathan earned his B.A. in English from Middlebury College in 2005. After working as a carpenter, a public relations professional, and an internet service migration specialist, he returned to the world of language and environmental studies. In 2016, he received his Ph.D. in English from UW-Madison. His academic work addressed the environmental humanities and 20th-century American literature and art.
Selected publications:
- Review of Robert M. Myers’s Reconciling Nature: Literary Representations of the Natural, 1876-1945 (Environmental History, 2020).
- “Training the Sustainers: An Undergraduate Sustainability Intern Program” (Sustainability: The Journal of Record, 2020).
- Should Environmentalists Learn to Take a Joke? (Public Books, 2019)
- On The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable by Amitav Ghosh (Kenyon Review Online, 2018)
- Sustainable Affect: The Social Dimensions of Environmental Attachment in DeLillo’s White Noise (Modern Philology, 2016)