Mrill Ingram
Participatory Action Research Scientist
1535 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706
Projects
- Cover crops
- Narrative and foodways
- Hazelnuts
Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Mrill Ingram is Participatory Action Research Scientist at UW-Madison working on sustainable and integrated agricultural systems. She is also pursuing research on environmental art–science collaboration. She has a 2022 book with Temple University Press, “Loving Orphaned Space, the art and science of belonging to Earth.” It’s a geographer’s take on the enormous amount of overlooked and abused space around us and a call to recognize the undervalued labor, especially art-science collaborations, creating new ways humans occupy those spaces and negotiate being citizens of Earth. She also has a 2013 co-authored book from MIT Press on the use of narrative analysis to understand grassroots environmental action.
Mrill combines research and practice in a career dedicated to understanding environmental issues. Her research interests include sustainable agriculture, environmental networks, human-nonhuman relationships, and participatory research. Previously, Mrill was web editor for The Progressive magazine, a curator for Upworthy and edited the journal Ecological Restoration for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum. She also worked with the Farley Center for Peace, Justice and Sustainability promoting land access and technology support to new and overlooked farmers, and worked as Sustainability Research Scientist with the Environmental Resources Center at UW-Madison where she did research and outreach on issues related to agricultural sustainability. She has also written about science as a journalist, and worked as an educator and editor with the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, and with Bottle Biology project at UW-Madison.
She gained her M.S. in Geography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona.
Selected publications
Books
Ingram, M. Forthcoming. Loving Orphaned Spaces: The Art and Science of Belonging to Earth. Temple University Press.
Lejano, R., M. Ingram and H. Ingram. 2013. The Power of Narrative in Environmental Networks. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Williams, P. & M. Ingram. 1993. Bottle Biology: an ideabook for exploring the world through soda bottles and other recyclable materials. Kendall-Hunt: Dubuque, Iowa.
Scholarly and popular articles
Lejano, Raul, Helen Ingram and Mrill Ingram. 2018. “Narrative in the Policy Process.” In Handbook on the Policy Process, Rob Hoppe, Hal Colebatch (Eds.) Edward Elgar.
Ingram, M. H. Ingram, and R. Lejano. 2015. “Environmental Action in the Anthropocene: The Power of Narrative Networks.” Journal of Environmental Policy and Planning 21:5, 492-503.
Ingram, M. 2015. Material Transformations: Urban Ecological Art and Environmental Justice. In, Restoring Layered Landscapes: History, Ecology, and Culture, D. Havlick and M. Hourdequin, Eds. Oxford University Press. Pp: 222-238.
Hawkins, H., S. Marston, M. Ingram, E. Straughan. 2015. The art of socio-ecological transformation. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 2015 Special Issue on FUTURES: Imagining Socio-Ecological Transformation. 105(2): 331-341.
Ingram, M., H. Ingram, and R. Lejano. 2014. “What’s the story? Creating and sustaining environmental networks.” Environmental Politics 23(6): 984-1002.
Ball, L. and M. Ingram. 2015. Lillian Ball’s Ecological Art: Advocating for Wetlands and People. A conversation between artist Lillian Ball and writer Mrill Ingram. Advocating Creatively: Bringing together the perspectives of social change pioneers from around the world.
Ingram, M. 2012. Sculpting Solutions: Art–Science Collaborations in Sustainability. Environment Magazine July/August.
Ingram, M. 2012. Washing Urban Water: the Politics and Diplomacy of Environmental Art. Gender, Place and Culture. Published online 20 February. DOI:10.1080/0966369X.2013.769429.
Ingram M. 2011. “Fermentation, Rot, and Other Human-Microbial Performances.” In Political Ecologies of Knowledge, M. Turner, M. Goldman and P. Nadadsy, eds. University of Chicago Press. Pp: 99-112.
Ingram, M. 2010. “Keeping Up with the E. coli: Considering Human-Nonhuman Relationships in Natural Resources Policy.” Natural Resources Law Journal. Fall, Vol. 51.
Ingram M, J. Stier, E. Bird. 2008. “Relax! It’s Just a Dandelion: Perceived Benefits and Barriers to Urban Integrated Pest Management.” Journal of Extension 46(1) Article # FEA4.
Ingram, M., S. Glass, M. Wegener, M. Farrior and B. Herrick. 2008. “The Worm, the Plant and the People: Invasive Networks and Creative Restoration at the University of Wisconsin Arboretum.” Illustrated Paper prepared for the American Association of Geographers meeting, San Francisco, CA.
Ingram M. 2007. “Disciplining Microbes in the Implementation of U.S. Federal Organic Standards.” Environment and Planning A 39 (12): 2966-2882.
Ingram M. 2007. “Biology and Beyond: The science of back-to-nature farming in the U.S.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 97(2): 298-312.
Ingram M. & H. M. Ingram. 2005. “Credible Edibles: The Development of Federal Organic Regulations.” In Routing the Opposition: Social Movements and Public Policy D. Meyer, ed., Minnesota University Press, Minneapolis. Pp: 121-148.
Ingram, M. 2002. “Producing The Natural Fiber Naturally: Technological Change and the U.S. Organic Cotton Industry.” Agriculture and Human Values 19(4):325-336.
Ingram, M., S. Buchmann, and G. Nabhan. 2002. “Our Forgotten Pollinators: Protecting the Birds and the Bees.” In Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture. A. Kimbrell (ed.). Island Press, Washington, D.C. Pp: 295-301.