Amanda Marie was born and raised in Washington State, and has lived all over the United States – most recently in Brooklyn, New York.  A third-generation bartender and first-generation college student, their graduate work focuses on the implications and relationships that develop through the murky world where the formal and informal economy intersect, as well as the way gender and hegemonic masculinity inform reactions to job loss. After a strange, varied, and mostly interesting career in both the coffee and spirits industries, they decided to return to school and recently graduated with a bachelor’s in history from Hunter College in New York City where their studies were mainly focused on the history of the Americas in the 19th and 20th century.  Their department named them the Paula Kaplowitz Enns memorial scholarship recipient for exceptional undergraduate student.  

Project Statement 

By the time the Northern Spotted Owl was added to the endangered species list, the forests of the Pacific Northwest were already the site of record layoffs in the already unstable and dangerous logging industry.  

This project seeks to look at how the conflict between the perceived and actual causes of job loss in the timber industry has resonated in affected families to this day, and how it informs the sense of political and gender identity– not just for the masculinized workforce of the sawmill and timber camp, but also the women engaged in both the formal and informal economies of these communities– through oral history interviews, letters to newspaper, and other forms of community created testimony.