Kristopher R. Cleland

Graduate Lecturer

Higher Education; Environmental Sustainability; AI's Impact on Education and Sustainability; Food Insecurity, Sovereignty, & Waste; Qualitative Methods; Pedagogy; Critical Theory; and Evaluation

I am a Sociology PhD Candidate and Graduate Lecturer at George Mason University, and a first generation college student with working-class origins in Covington, Louisiana.

I obtained my B.A. in Sociology in 2016 from Southeastern Louisiana University (SLU) while working full-time as a department manager at a regional grocery store. I obtained my M.S. in Applied Sociology in 2018 from the same university while working there as a Research Assistant for the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice.

Learning as an end-in-itself is great, but merely interpreting the world does little to change it for the better. I believe we must take what we learn in the academy, determine what is unjust and just about the world through the free exchange of ideas, and—based on that knowledge and those ideas—make the world a better place.