Floating: ruminations from the open-air abyss

Brandi Jo Petronio Nyberg
Wed, 29 Apr 2026 13:45:47 PDT

This thesis is a collection of environmentally centered personal essays, some of which are also research driven. Many of the essays within are place-based and several reflect on what the word 'home' means. The research-driven essays involved conducting literature reviews within academic journals and, in some cases, weaving that information with personal narrative. Throughout the thesis, there is a loose narrative arc that follows the author's nomadic wanderings and search for home. Although a home is never quite found, the author does find a deeper meaning on what it means to call a place 'home.' While the order of essays jumps from one place to the next geographically, they are ordered in a chronological sense - although not completely. Throughout the collection, the author is in direct conversation with many writers who have inspired her own writing, including Edward Abbey, Henry Thoreau, Barry Lopez, and Terry Tempest Williams. The purpose of this project is not only to entertain readers but also to educate. The author hopes that her writing will encourage readers to strengthen their connection to place and the environment and become engaged with pressing environmental issues, such as mountaintop removal mining.