Phoebe Wagner

MPS Class of 2024, Global Development

  • She/her
  • Grand challenge: Social-ecological systems and land justice
  • Where she calls home: Portland, Oregon, USA
  • Connect: pdw35 [at] cornell.edu (pdw35[at]cornell[dot]edu) | LinkedIn

Phoebe Wagner has a background in conservation, transnational migration,  Indigenous education, and organic farming. As an MPS student in Global Development, Phoebe seeks to address land sovereignty through a social-ecological systems approach. Phoebe is a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellow in Hindi, with plans to conduct her participatory capstone research at Bija Vidyapeeth in Dehradun, India. 

Prior to attending Cornell, Phoebe worked at The Nature Conservancy in operations, government relations, and on diversity, equity, inclusion and justice. She also volunteered weekly with Growing Gardens at the Columbia River Correctional Institution in the facility’s organic garden and accredited sustainable gardening classes, and served on the board of Ecotrust Redd, a working hub for the regional food economy. She previously worked at Bergsmyrene Gård, a Biodynamic farm in Norway, and at the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO). Phoebe began teaching yoga ten years ago, and currently teaches classes at Noyes Fitness Center. This year, she is serving as the Graduate Conference Assistant for the South Asia Program, coordinating logistics for "The Next Monsoon: Climate Change and Contemporary Cultural Production in South Asia."  

Phoebe holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociocultural Anthropology and History from Willamette University, with focuses on Indigenous studies and immigration. For her undergraduate honors thesis, she conducted participatory research with immigration social service providers and wrote "Humanitarianism in a Neoliberal Age: Refugee Services in Salem, Oregon." While working at IRCO, she conducted research on the health benefits of community gardening in immigrant and refugee services. Both projects were presented at Society for Applied Anthropology annual conferences. She calls Portland, Oregon home.

Learn more about the MPS in Global Development.