Rachel Herring

Bio

Rachel Herring (Choctaw Nation) investigates how to disrupt extractive capitalism and neoliberal sustainability strategies through decolonial approaches to energy. She employs ethnographic methods to investigate how energy infrastructures reflect and reproduce systems of power, and how infrastructure may instead serve as a tool of self-determination. Previously, she has recommended policy alternatives for domestic mining with the Department of Energy’s Indian Energy Program, and has explored impacts of critical mineral extraction on Native land as a Kathryn Wasserman Davis Conflict Transformation Fellow. As a Fulbright Fellow and National Geographic Explorer, Rachel explored the intersection between the clean energy transition and the depopulation crisis in rural Japan. She was named a Next Generation Photographer by the 2024 Japan Photo Award in Kyoto, and her work has appeared in the New York Times. She holds an MA in International Environmental Policy from the Middlebury Institute, and a BA from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study.

Education & Certifications

• M.A., Middlebury Institute of International Studies, International Environmental Policy, Japanese (2023)
• B.A., New York University, Gallatin School of Individualized Study (2016)