Assistant Professor, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California, Riverside

kmiyake@ucr.edu
https://keithmiyake.info

Current Position

2018–Present
University of California, Riverside
Assistant Professor, Department of Ethnic Studies
Program faculty, Labor Studies Program
Affiliated faculty, Department of Society, Environment, and Health Equity

Education

2016
Ph.D., Earth and Environmental Sciences, The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), New York, NY
2004
B.S. Engineering, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont CA

Publications

  • Miyake, Keith K. (forthcoming) The Racial Environmental State: Contested Spaces of Resistance. University of Washington Press.
  • Miyake, Keith K. (2024) “Abolition-Democracy and the Future of Climate Change” Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space. https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486241287028
  • Miyake, Keith K. (2024) “The Art of Reimagining Borders in Patricia Vázquez Gómez’s BorderXer” Social & Cultural Geography. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2024.2334964
  • Miyake, Keith K. (2023) “Carceral Jaguar Geographies along the US/México border and the Case for Border Abolition” Local Environment. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2023.2206641
  • Miyake, Keith K. (2021) “The racial environmental state and abolition geography in California’s Central Valley.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. 39(4):590–608. http://doi/10.1177/02637758211025985
  • Miyake, Keith K. (lead author), A.R. Maroko, K.L. Grady, J.A. Maantay, and P.S. Arno. (2011) “Not just a walk in the park: Methodological improvements for determining environmental justice implications of park access in New York City for the promotion of physical activity.” Cities and the Environment. 3(1):article 8. http://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cate/vol3/iss1/8

Grants and Fellowships

Fellowships

2016–18
Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of California, Davis
Faculty Mentor: Julie Sze, American Studies Department
2013–16
Graduate Center Digital Fellowship, The Graduate Center, CUNY
2013–14
Center for Place, Culture and Politics Dissertation Fellowship, The Graduate Center, CUNY
2012
Provost’s Office University Fellowship, The Graduate Center, CUNY
2009–12
Enhanced Chancellor’s Fellowship, The Graduate Center, CUNY

Grants

2013
Advanced Research Collaborative Knickerbocker Award, The Graduate Center, CUNY
2012
Advanced Research Collaborative Summer Research Grant, The Graduate Center, CUNY

Professional Service

  • Inland Empire Labor & Community Center Advisory Council
  • Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space Editorial Board Member

Presentations

Invited Lectures and Panels

2025
And Water Brings Tomorrow Film screening and Round table with the filmmaker
Round Table Moderator, Culver Center for the Arts, Riverside, CA
2024
“The racial environmental state and abolition geography in California’s Central Valley”
Pomona College, Claremont, CA
2022
“Abolitionist Border Ecologies: Jaguar and Migrant Entanglements along the US/México Border”
Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside
2022
“‘Joining Forces’ to Build Relationships and Change Everything”
School of Medicine Structural Competency Conference: “How We Heal: Advocating for Environmental Justice in Medicine,” University of California, Riverside
2017
“Environmental Law and the Racial Environmental State”
Interdisciplinary Research Seminar Series, Aoki Center for Critical Race and Nation Studies, University of California, Davis
2016
“Police, Pollution, and Prisons: Environmental Justice and the Racial Environmental State”
Environmental Studies Program, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA

Conference Organizing

2025
Affirming Multivocal Humanities, conference co-organizer, “Let Me Define My Terms: An Undergraduate Research Symposium”, sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, University of California, Riverside

Conference Presentations

2024
“Abolition-Democracy and the Future of Climate Change”
American Studies Association Annual Conference, Baltimore, MD
2024
“Abolition Geography and the Future of Climate Change”
American Association of Geographers Annual Conference, Honolulu, HI
2023
“Jaguars and the Case for More-Than-Human Border Abolition”
American Association of Geographers Annual Conference, Denver, CO
2022
“Asian/American Geographies”
American Association of Geographers Annual Conference, Virtual
2021
“Borders, Conservation, Coloniality, and the Nonhuman”
Asian American Studies Association Annual Conference, Virtual
2021
“Tracing the ‘Subject(s)’ of Revolt, Insurgency, Revolution…”
American Studies Association Annual Conference, Virtual
2021
“Reterritorializing Race: Borders, Migrants, Coloniality, and the Nonhuman”
American Studies Association Annual Conference, Virtual
2018
“Abolition and the Limits of the Racial Environmental State”
Critical Ethnic Studies Association Conference, Vancouver, BC
2018
“California State of Racial Capitalism”
Critical Ethnic Studies Association Conference, Vancouver, BC
2018
“Environmental Justice, Abolition, and the Racial Environmental State”
Association of American Geographers Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA
2018
“Critical Race Theory and the Future of Geography in the Classroom”
Association of American Geographers Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA
2018
“Ecologies of Resistance Within and Against the State”
Association for Asian American Studies, San Francisco, CA
2017
“Environmental Injustice, Racial Capitalism, and the State, Oh My!”
Association of American Geographers Annual Conference, Boston, MA
2015
“Carceral Environments and the Racial Environmental State:
American Studies Association Annual Conference, Toronto, ON
2015
“Racializing Environmental Policy: Urban Renewal and the National Environmental Policy Act”
Association of American Geographers Annual Conference, Chicago, IL
2014
“The Present and Future of the Digital Graduate Center”
The CUNY Integrative Technology Conference, New York, NY
2013
*“Surviving or Thriving: Asian American Studies at CUNY”
Asian American/Asian Research Institute (AARI) Annual Conference, New York, NY
2013
“Encountering Empire in Environmental Epistemologies”
Critical Ethnic Studies Association Annual Conference, Chicago, IL
2013
“A Biopolitics of Place: The Institutionalization of Environmental Justice”
Association of American Geographers Annual Conference, Los Angeles, CA
2013
“Geography Towards Revolution: in Honor of Professor Neil Smith”
Association of American Geographers Annual Conference, Los Angeles, CA
2013
“U.S. Empire and the Institutionalization of Environmental Knowledge”
Association for Asian American Studies Annual Conference, Seattle, WA
2012
“Myths & Realities for Asian Pacific American Faculty & Students”
CUNY Faculty Diversity and Inclusion Conference, New York, NY
2012
“Critical Reflections on Environmental Impact Assessment”
Association of American Geographers Annual Conference, New York, NY
2011
“Fostering Student-Based Media: A Look at the OpenCUNY.org Academic Medium”
The CUNY Integrative Technology Conference, Annual Conference, New York, NY
2010
“Radical Pedagogy in the Classroom: A view from the graduate student”
Association of American Geographers Annual Conference, Washington, D.C.
2010
“The Relationship between Park Accessibility and Socio-demographic Factors in New York City: A Mixed-Methods Assessment of Park Accessibility”
CUNY Nature, Ecology, and Society Annual Colloquium, New York, NY

Teaching Experience

Undergraduate Courses

  • Introduction to Ethnic Studies
  • Introduction to Asian American Studies
  • Introduction to Geography
  • Race, Class, and Gender
  • Race and Environment: Nature, Colonialism, and Justice
  • Theory in Asian American Studies
  • The US Prison Industrial Complex

Graduate Courses

  • Racial Capitalism
  • Sociocultural Theories in Ethnic Studies
  • Race and State Violence
  • Race, Environment, Resistance

Additional Teaching Experience

2005
High School Teacher and Resident Advisor, Harvey Mudd College Upward Bound, La Jolla, CA
2004
Middle school math and science teacher, North Park Middle School, Pico Rivera, CA
2004
Student math teacher, Etiwanda High School, Etiwanda, CA

Other Professional Experience

2013–16
GC Digital Fellow, Digital Scholarship Lab, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Part of the The Graduate Center, CUNY Digital Humanities Initiative. Responsibilities include leading workshops, advising students and faculty in digital humanities praxis, collaborating on digital scholarly projects, and supporting digital initiatives throughout the university.
2010–13
Graduate Assistant and Web Developer, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Responsibilities included organizing lectures and symposia, digital video production, web development, and other administrative tasks.
2009–13
Freelance GISc Consultant, North Star Fund, New York, NY
Responsibilities included developing web- and print-based maps of power outages and the resulting projects funded through a legal settlement.
Project website: https://kaymmm.github.io/GreeningWesternQueens
2006–10
Senior Staff Engineer, ARCADIS-US, Costa Mesa, CA
Responsibilities included designing and monitoring environmental remediation systems, oversight of field operations and technical staff, project management, and maintaining and developing environmental data collection and storage systems.
2005–06
Co-Founder and Educational Director, Prodigy Learning Studio, Beijing, China
After-school educational enrichment and activity center startup. Responsibilities included general business operations, developing educational curricula, publicity and outreach, and investor relations.
2001–02
Development and Research Assistant, Asian Pacific Community Fund, Los Angeles, CA
Responsibilities included conducting community health-needs assessments, grant writing and reporting, and developing client relation management database.

Workshops and Resource Guides

2015
Introduction to Programming with Python
Basics of using the Python programming language including syntax, structure, and build environments.
2015
Digital Storytelling with Maps: CartoDB
Introduction to the use of CartoDB for basic GIS. Workshop and online tutorial cover data management and creating various types of maps.
2014
Introduction to the Command Line
Digital scholarship workshop on basic use of the command line (shell).
2014
Introduction to DHBox
Digital scholarship workshop introducing the DHBox (Digital Humanities in a Box) teaching and learning suite.
2014
Digital Storytelling Using StoryMaps
Digital scholarship workshop introducing the use of basic thematic maps to visualize data using the ESRI StoryMaps platform.
2013–14
Github for Everyone: Intro to Git and Tracked Online Collaborative Development
Digital scholarship workshop introducing the basics of online collaborative development software using Git and the Github platform.
2013–14
Introduction to Cloud Storage and Data Management
Digital scholarship workshop on using cloud storage and other digital tools for data management and other scholarly activities.
2013–14
Organizing Your Research with Zotero and Mendeley
Workshop on the basics of setting up and using Zotero and Mendeley Desktop citation management software for research and writing.

Professional Affiliations

  • Association for Asian American Studies
  • Association of American Geographers
  • American Studies Association