Research Interests

Ethnobotany, mutual aid, herbalism, and basketry.

Biography

Michelle Glowa, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Anthropology and Social Change department. In her teaching she draws together the learning from land-based and land defense movements that work to cultivate other possible worlds. Michelle approaches her research with over two decades of experience working as a part of environmental and food justice movements in the United States and Mexico.

Her interest in human-nature relations and alternative economic systems has influenced her research perspective which is focused on empowering movement storytelling and the creation of spaces of self-reflection within movements that address reconceptualizations of human relationship to land, ecologies, ownership, and domination, from urban gardens to Indigenous anti-extractivism campaigns. Specifically, she has focused on the dynamics of land access and property rights, shifting land use and development, and the role of both autonomous and third sector organizations in food justice organizing.

Michelle researches and works to produce alternative learning spaces and tools that de-center traditional educational hierarchies and uplift the voices and narratives excluded from dominant pedagogies. Most recently she has worked with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band in their campaign to protect the sacred landscape, Juristac, from a proposed mine, including an effort to develop a curriculum and work to introduce this to local schools. She has also been an active collective member in the Santa Cruz Free Skool project, a grassroots educational project creating opportunities to learn from each other, to foster communities of mutual support, and to grow autonomy.

She received her B.S. in Natural Resource Management and Political Science from Colorado State University and her Ph.D. in Environmental Studies from University of California Santa Cruz in 2014.

Education

B.S. Natural Resource Management and Political Science, Colorado State University

Ph.D. Environmental Studies, University of California Santa Cruz

Courses

Global Social Movements, Living Politics of Water, Alternative Economic Systems, Political Ecology, Integrative Seminar, Activist Skills in Sustainable Food Production, Ethnobotany and Anthropological Approaches to Knowing Plants

Publications

Glowa, K.M. (2025). Degrowth and the anarcha-feminist politics of mutual aid herbalisms: Landed relations of care, solidarity and responsibility. Degrowth Journal, 3. Special Issue: Anarchy and Degrowth.

Lopez, V., Rodriguez, C., & Glowa, K.M. (2025). The Study of Indigenous Landscape and Seascape Stewardship Practices: Taking it to the Next Step. In The Study of Indigenous Landscape and Seascape Stewardship on the Central California Coast: The Findings of a Collaborative Eco-Archaeological Investigation.

Glowa, K.M. (2022). A Garden’s Place. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development.

Glowa, K.M., & Roman-Alcalá, A. (2020). Diverse Politics, Difficult Contradictions: Gentrification and the San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance. In Alison Hope Alkon, Yuki Kato, & Joshua Sbicca (Eds.), Back to the City: Food and Gentrification in North America. New York University Press.

Glowa, K.M. & Roman-Alcalá, A. (2020). Surveying the Landscape of Urban Agriculture’s Land Politics: Civic, Ecological, Heritage-Based, Justice-Driven, and Market-Oriented Fields. In Hamutahl Cohen, Monika Egerer (Eds.), Urban Agroecology: Interdisciplinary Research and Future Directions. CRC Press.

Glowa, K.M. (2020). Academic Advisor and Associate Producer. No Place to Grow [Film]. Small Pumpkin Productions. Cal Humanities Community Stories Grant recipient.

Glowa, K.M., Egerer, M., & Jones, V. (2018). Agroecologies of displacement: a study of land access, dislocation, and migration in relation to sustainable food production in the Beach Flats Community Garden. Journal of Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 43(1), 92-115. https://doi.org/10.1080/21683565.2018.1515143 

Glowa, K.M. (2017). Urban Agriculture, Food Justice and Neoliberal Urbanization: Rebuilding the Institution of Property. In Alison Alkon and Julie Guthman (Eds.), The New Food Activism: Opposition, Cooperation and Collective Action. UC Press.

Gray, L., Guzman, P., Glowa, K.M., and Thomas, A. (2013). Can home gardens scale up into movements for social change? The role of home gardens in providing food security and community change in San Jose, California. Journal of Local Environment.

Works in Progress

Lopez, V., & Glowa, K.M. Assimilation is Surrender - a history with former Chairman of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band.

Gilbert, D.E., Roman-Alcalá, A., & Glowa, K.M. Fields Ungovernable: Anarchism and Critical Agrarian Studies. In Handbook of Critical Agrarian Studies (2nd Ed.).

Selected Community Resources, Exhibits, and Presentations

Amah Mutsun Land Trust Willow Tending Day: Ethnobotany and Management Practices. 2026.

Cattle, oil, and construction at Juristac: the development of settler-colonial environmental regimes and Amah Mutsun Tribal Band resistance. American Association of Geographers. 2026.

Renegotiating Relationships with Foraging Plants and Fungi through an Anti-colonial Lens. Santa Cruz Herbal Mutual Aid Walk. 2025.

The Harrington-Herrera Costanoan Botanical Archives Digitization Project. 2024.

Kūkulu Exhibit: Santa Cruz in Solidarity with Mauna Kea. University of California, Santa Cruz. 2022.

Sargent Ranch Quarry Draft Environmental Impact Report: Key Topics and Areas of Concern for Comment Writers. 2022.

Protect Juristac curriculum. 2020. https://www.protectjuristac.org/curriculum 

Mirando al Futuro: The Beach Flats Community Garden Exhibit. Museum of Art and History, Santa Cruz. 2018-2021. https://www.santacruzmah.org/exhibitions/mirando-al-futuro-the-beach-flats-community-garden