The Texas coast is home to the beach that raised me. Even though I no longer live on the Gulf Coast, my experience growing up in the shadow of industrialized seas still motivates how I move through the world today. I am currently focused on pairing my creative practice with marine humanities scholarship.
I will defend my dissertation at the University of Wisconsin—Madison in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology program this Spring (2026) and join the University of Cincinnati in the Fall as thier first Assistant Professor of Blue Humanities. Broadly, my interests coalesce at the intersection of knowledge-making and meaning-making. Currently, my research focuses on the role of the marine sciences and structures of global ocean governance in shaping how humans have valued and made decisions about Earth’s saline spaces.
contact: snewton4(at)wisc(dot)edu