Originally from Los Angeles, CA (Fernandeño and Chumash land), Ava Guihama Olson holds a B.A. in American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley (Ohlone land). Their undergraduate work focused on organized crime, sex work, pornography, sexual war crimes, and the image of the Asian woman in American culture. As a doctoral student in the ESSP program, they research rhetorical, ecological, and eschatological modes of extinction, carnivore policy, white American identity formation, the American west/"frontier" and novel ecosystems. Outside of academia, they also hold a degree in creative writing, with work published in The Offing and {m}aganda magazine, as well as by Roost Books.  

2024 Krohn Fellow for Environmental Humanities
2023 Departmental Citation Winner, UC Berkeley
2022 Adam Z. Rice Fellow for American Studies
2017 California Governor's Medallion for Creative Writing