Erin James joined the English Department at the University of Idaho in 2012. Her first book The Storyworld Accord: Econarratology and Postcolonial Narratives (University of Nebraska Press, 2015) explores the intersections of ecocriticism, postcolonialism, and narrative theory and questions the role narratives stand to play in a response to today’s environmental crisis. Her second book, Narrative in the Anthropocene (Ohio State University Press, 2022), considers the links between storytelling and anthropogenic climate change. In addition to these two books, Erin co-edited Environment and Narrative: New Directions in Econarratology (Ohio State University Press, 2022) with Eric Morel.

Erin has also published essays in Poetics Today, The Language of Plants (U of Minnesota Press 2017), the Journal of Narrative Theory, the Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Literature, The Bioregional Imagination (U of Georgia P 2012), and Teaching Ecocriticism and Green Cultural Studies (Palgrave 2012).

At the University of Idaho, Erin teaches courses on world literatures in English, postcolonial literatures and theory, ecocriticism, and the environmental humanities, narratology and narrative theory, and critical theory. She is also the co-founder and co-director of the interdisciplinary Confluence Lab, which used interdisciplinary methods to study environmental issues in rural communities. She also serves as the co-coordinator of the Mentoring Program for the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment and sits on the Executive Council of the International Society for the Study of Narrative.

• Narrative Theory
• Environmental Humanities
• Postcolonial Literatures and Theory

• Narrative in the Anthropocene. Ohio State University Press, 2022.
• Environment and Narrative: New Directions in Econarratology. Ohio State University Press, 2020.
• "Afterword: Econarratology Then, Now, and Later." SubStance, s50.3 (2021): 150-161.
• "The Value of 'Old' Stories: A Response to Marco Caracciolo's 'Negotiating Stories in the Anthropocene'", DIEGESIS 9.2 (2020)L 34-44.
• "Nonhuman Fictional Characters and the Empathy-Altrusism Hypothesis." Poetics Today 40.3 (2019): 579-596.
• “What the Plant Says: Plant Narrators and the Ecosocial Imaginary.” The Language of Plants: Science, Philosophy, Literature. Patricia Vieira, Monica Gagliano, and John Ryan, eds. University of Minnesota Press, 2017.
• The Storyworld Accord: Econarratology and Postcolonial Narratives. University of Nebraska Press, 2015.

• Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Grant, "Pacific Northwest Just Futures Institute for Racial and Climate Justice" (in collaboration with University of Oregon and Whitman College, ($4.52 Million;). The UI portion of this project is "Stories of Fire: A Pacific Northwest Climate Justice Atlas" (Co-PI; (340,437)
• National Science Foundation Advancing Informal STEM Learning Grant, "Communicating Fire: Integrative Informal STEM Learning Through Participatory Narratives" ($299.911)
• CLASS Summer Research Grant, University of Idaho, 2022 and 2018
• Excellence in Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Efforts, University of Idaho 2020-2021
• President's Mid-Career Award, University of Idaho, 2019-2020
• Office of Research and Economic Development Start-Up Funds, Confluence Lab, 2018 ($2,000)
• Excellence in Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Efforts, University of Idaho, 2020-2021
• Teaching Excellence Award, University of Idaho, 2016-2017
• Alumni Award for Excellence, University of Idaho, 2016
• Seed Grant, University of Idaho, 2014 ($12,000)
• Summer Faculty Research Stipend, University of Idaho, 2012 ($5,000)