Dr. Carolyn Fornoff

Biography

Carolyn Fornoff’s research explores cultural responses to the environmental crisis in Latin America, with a particular focus on Mexico and Central America. She examines how art can help narrate and make sense of issues such as climate change, which are often temporally expansive and difficult to perceive with the naked eye. Fornoff is the co-editor of volumes in environmental humanities, including 'Timescales: Thinking Ecological Temporalities' and 'Pushing Past the Human in Latin American Cinema'. Her upcoming book, 'Subjunctive Aesthetics: Mexican Cultural Production in the Era of Climate Change', traces how contemporary filmmakers and writers in Mexico have shifted away from art’s evidentiary function regarding environmental crises to engage with subjunctive registers and the hypothesis of uncertainty. Fornoff has received honorable mentions for the 2025 LASA Mexico Forum Book Humanities Prize and the LASA Environment Book Prize. Before joining Cornell, she was on the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She serves on various advisory boards and committees, including the Humanities Council and the Environment Sustainability curriculum committee, and is on sabbatical for the 2025-2026 academic year.

Research Interests

Experience