Meet the six School of Liberal Arts community members who have received 2026–27 A Studio in the Woods residencies. The six residents will take advantage of the retreat's unique natural setting that gives scholars the time, space and quiet to step away from their usual routines and immerse themselves in their projects. Surrounded by the woods along the Mississippi River, residents can slow down, follow new ideas and develop creative and scholarly work.
Olivia Apatini
Apatini is a senior majoring in English and Communication with a concentration in Creative Writing. She enjoys writing personal essays and poetry, much of which is heavily influenced by New Orleans. Olivia has been building a collection of poems during her time at Tulane, and plans to expand and refine those pieces during her retreat.
Amanda Bertana
Bertana is an assistant professor in Sociology and research fellow with the Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne. During her A Studio in the Woods residency, she will refine her manuscript, Coastal Futures: Managing Adaptation in a Changing Climate, which examines how climate change adaptation often replicates traditional approaches to capitalist development.
Brad Bolman
Assistant Professor of History and Environmental Studies, Bolman's research focuses on the history of science, technology, and medicine and environmental history, with attention to the ways that we come to know and live with nonhuman organisms under capitalist economic systems. While in the Woods, he will be working on his next book, Rotten Beauty: A Fungal History of the World.
Daniel C. Burston
Burnston is an associate professor in the Philosophy Department, a faculty member in the Tulane Brain Institute, and the director of the Tulane Cognitive Studies Program. He will spend his residency writing a book integrating philosophical and neuroscientific perspectives on decision.
Emily Rains
Rains is an assistant professor of International Development in the Department of Political Science. During her time at A Studio in the Woods, she will develop her book on political life in Indian informal settlements, which seeks to explain why claim-making varies across marginalized communities and how that variation shapes their development over time.
Laura Richens
In addition to her role as Carroll Gallery curator and adjunct assistant professor at Tulane, Richens is an artist and works primarily in relief prints, letterpress, and other works on paper. While at A Studio in the Woods, she plans to study the diverse array of plants there, both native and invasive species, exploring their vast array of forms and structures as models and inspiration for new unfolding and unfurling book forms.