Consumption
Literacy Project
Healthy SOil. Healthy plants. Healthy Bodies.Healthy Planet.
Photo Credit: Jared Chambers

Austine A. Luce, PhD.
Founder and Executive Director


Dr. Luce is dedicated to raising awareness around the critical analysis of the infinite relationships between humans, natural resource consumption, and the labor economy. She is an environmental scientist and educational anthropologist. Her work focuses on holding space for youth to have voice in the learning process through thinking politically, personally, creatively, and critically into the relationships between school, self, and the context of their lives. The mission of Consumption Literacy Project (CLP) grows from the roots of her dissertation research around an innovative digital and storied pedagogy designed, in the spirit of Paulo Freire, to work with all students to see themselves as active, literate participants in the classroom and the world.
Dr. Luce began teaching at the University of Colorado at Denver in 2006, including coursework in general education environmental science, Masters level teacher education, and continuing education courses. Courses incude the following: Introduction the Environmental Sciences Lab (2006-2013); Integrated Social Studies and Science of Elementary Teachers (2006-2009); Integral Ecology and Sustainable Development (Crestone CO 2008-2010); Environmental Studies in Colorado Archaeology (Mesa Verde, CO 2009); Education, Culture, and the Environment: A Journey through the Ojibwe Homeland (Manitoulin Island, Ontario Canada 2009). Outside of the classroom, Luce has worked on innovating environmental science curriculum, self-published a student journal (The Lifebook), designed digital media and arts-based student assessments. Luce has presented her research and work with the Society for Applied Anthropology, American Educational Research Association, and the National Association for Environmental Education. She has been a guest speaker for various courses in Anthropology, Education, and Environmental Science on the University of Colorado at Denver campus. She received her doctorate in 2014.
In her heart, Dr. Luce is an earth lover, a mother, an artist, and environmental scientist, and educational anthropologist, a gardener, a farmer, a founding neighborhood coop member, an active community member, a scholar, a volunteer, and an activist for sustainable empowered change in her life, and therefore the world.