Faculty Feature: Adrienne Cachelin
Adrienne Cachelin is an Associate Professor in the School of Environment, Society, and Sustainability and serves a faculty affiliate for the Environmental Humanities Program. Adrienne Cachelin also serves as the Director of the SPARC Environmental Justice Lab. Adrienne Cachelin also recently accepted a new position as the Faculty Director for Community Engaged Learning at the University of Utah.
How does your research relate to environmental humanities? The University of Utah's environmental humanities program emphasizes environmental justice, Indigenous solidarity, and community engagement. How does your research relate to any of those three areas?
I think of myself as a bit of an academic mutt. My degrees span political science and environmental studies, education, and parks and recreation, where I studied how alternative language framing influences critical thinking and persuasion in environmental education.
My research integrates community-based methods, and my projects broadly fall under the umbrella of environmental justice. They include the impact of intergenerational farming on aging in place; food sovereignty and lack of access to land; how counterstories in public spaces such as libraries can foster understanding and empathy for unsheltered communities; participants’ experiences of reverse mentorship in hospital development; and belonging in secondary-education third spaces.
Why did you establish the SPARC Environmental Justice Lab? How do you approach community engagement through the SPARC EJ Lab?
Throughout my teaching, I have maintained a strong commitment to community-engaged learning. Pedagogically, it is both a source of learning and a place to apply it. From a social change perspective, embracing different kinds of knowledge and knowers democratizes the process of science. If knowledge is power, then knowledge-making—or research grounded in diverse knowledges and lived experiences—is justice.
The SPARC Lab grew out of a dream: that undergraduates could understand and participate in community-based research and, if they were enthusiastic about the work, sustain it beyond a single semester through different courses and funding sources. Developed alongside community members—whether geographic, professional, or interest-driven—and sometimes under the mentorship of graduate students, this work can become action research that informs policy or practice. SPARC stands for Student Pathways, Action Research, and Critical Community Engagement. The “critical” is the most important part of the framework: it requires an examination of how power and oppression can and do shape research when researchers are not reflective.
You recently began a new position as the Faculty Director for Community Engaged Learning at the University of Utah. What is your vision for community engagement at the U?
As you start any new position, the first step is listening. While I have a lot of experience with community engaged research, especially in collaboration with University Neighborhood Partners, I’m not an expert on community engaged research looks like in health sciences. While I have a lot of experience with community-engaged research focused on environmental justice issues, I don’t know everything about community-engaged research in fine arts. For these reasons, I don’t have a great answer for the full vision. However, I feel that community-engaged learning has powerful pedagogical and practical implications based on my experiences. I am excited to develop more of a vision for community engagement at the U with Jim Agutter, the Senior Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies, and Kellie Mieremet, the Community Engaged Learning Program Manager.