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Alison Laurence

Alison Laurence is a cultural historian, essayist, educator, occasional lyricist, and eternal Midwesterner, though she now resides in California. She holds a PhD in History and Science Studies from MIT, where she delighted in the official mascot—that engineer of nature—the beaver. Her academic and public writing fixates on museums, animals, and extinction. She’s currently at work on a nonfiction book about dinosaurs as modern American monsters. Alison is a lecturer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an editor for Contingent Magazine. 

  • Alison Laurence

    To Become a Fossil

    Some people made long pilgrimages to marvel at this superlative specimen. Other people, like the girl growing up in a nearby suburb, got to know SUE through happy proximity. And because her grandma—my grandma—volunteered at the Field Museum. What I’m…