Area of Specialization: Nature

My work is grounded in a commitment to help illuminate a way out of the current human-nature crisis – a transformation from dominant binary ideologies and mastery practices, of humans as separate from and superior to nature, to ways of thinking, communicating, acting, and being as humans living in cooperative interdependence within and alongside nature. My analysis is critical and deeply grounded in community and ecological needs.

Current Research: 

I’m currently working on two major research projects:

1. Connected Community Voices: I'm principal investigator for a collaborative, community-based participatory action research project with Conservation Voters of New Mexico, The Wilderness Society, UNM Resource Center for Raza Planning, and Arts de Aztlan, for which I recruited a team of a dozen interdisciplinary graduate students. We are working with rural and urban Hispanic communities to help identify their environmental meaning systems, and to aid in empowering these communities to have a stronger voice in environmental politics and policy.

2. I am entering the 5th year of a long-term ethnographic study focused on the interplay of communication, tourism, and endangered wildlife at the Canada-U.S. Pacific border. My study is centrally concerned with the ways communication in this controversial international tourism setting constructs views of and actions toward endangered whales and their ecosystems. My dissertation was based on early fieldwork.

Selected Published Work:

•      Milstein, Tema. (2009). ‘Somethin’ tells me it’s all happening at the zoo:’ Discourse, power, and conservationism. Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture. 3 (1), 25-48.
•      Milstein, Tema. (2008). When whales “speak for themselves”: Communication as a mediating force in wildlife tourism. Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture. 2 (2), 173-192.
•      Milstein, Tema. (2008). The nature inside our heads: Exploring possibilities for widespread cultural paradigm shifts about nature. Drain: Journal of Contemporary Art and Culture (Sustainability Issue), 10.
•      Milstein, Tema. (2007). Watching endangered orcas: The role of communication in balancing marine tourism and sustainability. International Coastal and Marine Tourism Congress Proceedings. Auckland: School of Hospitality & Tourism and the New Zealand Tourism Research Institute. 104-113.
•      Milstein, Tema. (2007). Human Communication's Effects on Relationships with Animals . In Marc Bekoff (ed.) Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships: A Global Exploration of Our Connections with Animals. (Vol. 3, pp. 1044-1054). Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group.


Selected Presented Work:

•      Milstein, Tema. "Whale of a 'Show' or 'Encounter?': Lived Metaphor and Eco-Cultural Experience." Co-Sponsored by Environmental Communication and Performance Studies Divisions. National Communication Association, November 2008. San Diego, CA.
•      Milstein, Tema. "EcoCultural Conversations: Killer Whale Tales and Other Discourses of Human-Nature Relations." Communication and Journalism Department Colloquium, September 2008. UNM.
•      Milstein, Tema. "Watching Endangered Orcas: The Role of Communication in Balancing Marine Tourism and Sustainability." Fifth International Coastal and Marine Tourism Congress. September 2007. Auckland, New Zealand.
•      Milstein, Tema. "When 'There Are No Words' and When Whales 'Kind of Speak for Themselves:' An Ethnographic Exploration of Communication as a Mediating Force in Canada and U.S. Whale Watch Tourism." Conference of Communication and Environment. June 2007. Chicago. IL.
•      Milstein, Tema. "The Power of Pointing and Naming: A Study of the Communicative Act of Whale Identification. Conference of Communication and Environment. June 2007. Chicago. IL.
•      Milstein, Tema. "The Nature Inside Our Heads: Exploring Possibilities for Widespread Cultural Paradigm Shifts about Nature." Cultural Studies Association. April 2007. Portland, OR.
•      Milstein, Tema. "Survive, Critique, and Create: Guideposts for Promoting Social Justice and Environmental Justice through Radical Pedagogy, Eco Pedagogy, and Public Scholarship." Communication and Instruction Interest Group. Western Communication Association. February 2007. Seattle, WA.
•      Milstein, Tema. First Place Top Competitive Paper of the Environmental Communication Division. "‘Somethin' Tells Me It's All Happening at the Zoo:' Discourse, Power, and Conservationism in the Contemporary Zoo." National Communication Association, November 2006. San Antonio, TX.
•      Milstein, Tema. "Questioning the Discourse: A Critical Exploration of the Interplay of Dominant and Resistant Messages about Animals at the Zoo." Language and Social Interaction Division. International Communication Association, May 2005. New York, NY.
•      Milstein, Tema. "Critical Inquiry and the Human-Nature Relationship." Critical Inquiry Symposium, March 2005. Department of Communication, University of Washington.
•      Milstein, Tema. "Zoo Discourse: Differing Views of the Other." Communication Department Alumni Graduate Work Showcase, October 2004. University of Washington. Seattle, WA.