maya weeks

I love giving talks and leading workshops for people of all ages.

Below is a smattering of recent guest lectures I have delivered and creative writing workshops I have facilitated.

Guest lecture at the University of California in Berkeley

In March 2025, I gave a guest lecture on intersections of feminist environmental justice research and artistic practice in Dr. Xioawei Wang’s Gender and Environment course at the University of California in Berkeley. In addition to performing a bit of poetry and speaking about research-based creative practice and arts-informed research, I led a creative writing exercise focused on responding to environmental justice theory for the students. Thank you, Dr. Wang!

Keynote talk at University of California in Davis Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute’s Bodega Marine Laboratory

In May 2024, I delivered a keynote talk, “Approaching the Unquantifiable: Creative Feminist Methods at the Water’s Edge” at the University of California in Davis Coastal and Marine Sciences Institute’s Spring Symposium at Bodega Marine Laboratory. This talk focused on using feminist qualitative and creative methods to do applied marine science work in the forms of artistic and social science research. Thank you to Brooke Benson and Tracie Hayes for inviting me to Bodega Marine Laboratory.

Guest lecture at Chaminade University of Honolulu

In February 2024, I gave a guest lecture on feminist environmental justice in the context of surfing at Chaminade University of Honolulu. My talk, “Water Shapes Me: On Surfing, Gender, and Creative Practice,” focused on parallels between surfing and creative practice with a justice lens and examined how those practices feed one another with attention to place. Thank you to Brianna Ortega, the force behind the incredible women’s surf project Sea Together, for having me in your Women and Surfing course!

Guest lecture at the University of California in Davis

In February 2024, I gave a guest lecture on creative oceanography in Dr. Hannah Palmer’s undergraduate survey course of approximately 100 students, The Oceans. As part of my presentation, I gave the students a creative writing prompt about place. Dr. Palmer said she “was blown away by their work and I am so impressed by your ability to bring this out of each of them.”

Workshop at Ojai Valley School Upper Campus

In December 2023, I facilitated an original 1.5-hour creative workshop, Narrating Climate Change with Creative Practice, for 50 high schoolers. After I presented briefly to the Upper Campus students at Ojai Valley School (OVS) on my background and research interests and performed a piece of my poetry, I walked students through a creative writing exercise using “found” language scavenged from articles. The students worked in small groups to draft, revise, and share their writing on the site-specific topics of pollution and good fire. Finally, they had the opportunity to share their pieces with the whole school on a volunteer basis. I am grateful to Paloma Sandoval for inviting me to OVS.