I’m Ryan Howzell, and I’m a researcher, writer, and creative from Oakland, CA. I’m currently based in Brooklyn, NY.

I pursue interdisciplinary, research-informed projects (across writing, policy, dramaturgy, live performance, and sound) that explore questions of process and ethics, intersectional identity, power and control, and queer experience, with curiosity, experimentation, and humility.

These days, I’m most interested in work: how we do it, what we want out of it, the selves we bring to it, and who we meet through it. As a research and creative practice, I like seeing how deep and wide the rabbit hole goes. Explore this site to learn more about my research and projects.

I have written, performed, and dramaturged new work for: The Bushwick Starr, The Brick, Brooklyn Art Haus, The Tank, New York Fringe, Fresh Ink Theatre (Boston, MA), and New York University.

I also regularly write profiles of interdisciplinary artists forThe Online Gallery.

As a policy advocate and researcher, my original work has been commissioned, published, and featured by:

KALW Public Radio

KQED Public Radio

Cultural Studies Association

The Ida B. Wells Center for Investigative Reporting

Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting

The City and County of San Francisco

PEN America 

Online News Association

The Sacramento Bee

My original research has also been written up by the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic.

I am currently pursuing an M.P.A. in Public Policy at New York University, where I’m also Deputy Director of a media ethics program for student and career journalists. In 2020, I graduated from Yale (over Zoom) magna cum laude with a B.A. in History. I’m also a former workplace organizer with UAW Local 2320.

I believe the best work is as accessible as it is rigorous and love my hometown (Oakland, CA!), choirs, my grandma’s tortillas, and my other grandma’s barbecue.