Garth Sabo

Biography

Garth Sabo is the Director of the Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities (CISAH) at Michigan State University. He has taught literature, writing, and humanities courses at Kent State University, Jackson College, and MSU, where he completed his doctorate in American literature and waste studies. He currently teaches courses throughout MSU’s Integrated Arts and Humanities (IAH) curriculum on topics including climate fiction, graffiti, experimental art, infrastructure, the medical humanities, and the art and literature of the American Midwest. In addition to his classroom teaching, for which he received the Fintz Award for Teaching Excellence in the Arts and Humanities in 2020, Garth also participates in mentorship programs for graduate teaching assistants through CISAH’s Innovative Online Pedagogy and Curriculum program, as well as synchronous and asynchronous training for incoming IAH instructors.

Garth’s research focuses on literary and cultural depictions of waste, trash, and the human microbiome. His recent publications include essays published in Arizona Quarterly and Midwestern Miscellany, with a forthcoming article and editor’s note in CR: The New Centennial Review. He has also contributed book chapters on the global waste crisis and the new urban gothic, entanglements of trash and tackiness, and the literature of Y2K to various edited collections and is currently working on a monograph on ecocritical approaches to scatological literature titled Bowels of the Earth: Excrement in the Anthropocene.