Student of the PhD program in Environmental Psychology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York
Jesse McLaughlin is a PhD student in Environmental Psychology at The Graduate Center and research associate with the Public Space Research Group (PSRG). McLaughlin’s research focuses on the human dimensions of urban wildlife conservation, specifically the conservation of migratory birds in New York City. He’s interested in urban public space as a more-than-human contact zone, as well as the ways in which migratory species trouble geopolitical boundaries. With PSRG, he’s researching the social and environmental psychological reverberations of Street Lab pop-up public space activations in the broader participating communities. Outside of his interest in public space, McLaughlin is working on a historical analysis of the first hemispheric-wide shorebird conservation institution through a political science lens. As Senior Advocacy Associate at NYC Bird Alliance (formerly named NYC Audubon), he leads grassroots and city- and state-level legislative advocacy for the protection of wild birds and their habitats across the five boroughs.
McLaughlin was awarded a 2022-2024 FAO Schwarz Fellowship for social impact in the environmental field and received his B.A. in Individualized Study from NYU Gallatin.
Research Interests: Wildlife conservation; Public space; Governance; Political ecology; Queer geography; Institutions; Migratory birds; Wildness; Endangered species; Ethnography; Qualitative methodology; New York City
Tenure: 2024 – present
