Will McKeithen

Will McKeithen (they/them) a teacher, researcher, and organizer currently living in Philadelphia on the ancestral lands of the Lenape. They completed their PhD in Geography at the University of Washington in Seattle. They have taught in the UW Honors Program, Geography Department, Contemporary History of Ideas Program, and as a Project for Interdisciplinary Pedagogy fellow with UW Bothell's Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Program. 

Will's research explores questions of health, nature, state violence, and kinship, with a focus on lands and peoples marginalized under US capitalism, White supremacy, heteropatriarchy, and mass incarceration. Their most recent research examines the paradox of prison healthcare, wherein the prisoner is both defined by their lack of citizenship and their constitutional right to healthcare. Other projects have included a collaboration with geographer Skye Naslund investigating the ties between racial capitalism and helminthic therapy - the use of parasites to treat allergies and autoimmune disorders - and their Master's work examining the queer ecologies of 'crazy cat ladies.' 

As a teacher, Will focuses on creating a classroom that is more than the sum of its parts. Through rigorous inquiry and inclusive collaboration, they work with students to co-create accessible tools needed for individual self-determination and collective liberation - critical thinking, active listening, local application, sustained curiosity, and ethical engagement.