Sydney Noel Moss

Sydney Noel Moss is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM). Grounded in organizing experiences in the U.S. and participatory action research with Indigenous communities in Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru, she hopes to leverage her position as an academic researcher in collaboration with Indigenous communities in the Andes-Amazon region to advance territorial self-determination in climate adaptation, water, and biodiversity interventions in the landscape. 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, small funds, and long-standing cultural practices of collaboration. As a Ph.D. 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.