Jai Bashir
What prompted you to pursue your Master’s in Environmental Humanities?
My decision to study Environmental Humanities was primarily motivated to carve out more time in my academic career to mediate on questions about the intimacy between human culture and the non-human world. My early twenties were defined by community-making and activism, and I joined the program in order to find more connective tissue between praxis and theory surrounding climate change and uncertainty.
What was your academic and employment background coming into the program?
I had just finished three bachelor's degrees at the University of Utah: an Honors Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies, Bachelor of Arts in English. and Bachelor of Arts in Gender and Sexuality Studies. Additionally, I minored in Urban Ecology.
While at the U, where did your academic interests lie and how did your coursework support these interests?
I was interested in the juncture between postcolonial and diaspora studies, animal studies and writing poetry.
What are you doing now that you have graduated from the EH program?
I am an MFA candidate in Poetry at Columbia University in the City of New York.
What advice do you have for current and prospective Environmental Humanities students?
To quote the great visionary, Gary Snyder, " Find your place on the planet. Dig in, and take responsibility from there."
After two years in the program, what would you give as a concise explanation of the Environmental Humanities to someone who knows little about the field?
Environmental Humanities is the study of the interactions, systems and theories surrounding human culture's relationship to the more-than-human.
Casey Clifford
What prompted you to pursue your Master’s in Environmental Humanities?
I was interested in finding a way to combine my interests in both environmental studies and art. I saw an EH poster hanging at the Environmental Studies department at SCU, and I was intrigued.
What was your academic and employment background coming into the program?
I had recently graduated from Santa Clara University and was working as an archaeological illustrator.
While at the U, where did your academic interests lie and how did your coursework support these interests?
I was interested in using art to help engage people in environmental issues.
What are you doing now that you have graduated from the EH program?
I have been working for the Natural History Museum of Utah, which I think is a great use of skills gained at EH. As a technical writer, I research topics pertaining to natural history and the environment, and then communicate them to the public in easily digestible ways.
What advice do you have for current and prospective Environmental Humanities students?
Something that I wish I could have done was to enter the program with a strong sense of what I wanted to get out of it. Knowing your thesis/project topic ahead of time is important to truly take advantage of everything EH has to offer.
After two years in the program, what would you give as a concise explanation of the Environmental Humanities to someone who knows little about the field?
Studying the environment with a humanities lens – researching the history, present, and future of the environment through stories and art.
Dan Hohl
What prompted you to pursue your Master’s in Environmental Humanities?
As an avid outdoor recreationist I had spent years enjoying the outdoors through climbing, skiing, and hiking. I felt a connection to the nonhuman world and a responsibility to give back to it in some way. Environmental Humanities provided me the opportunity to use my passion for outdoor sports in a way that contributed to environmental advocacy and stewardship.
What was your academic and employment background coming into the program?
I came into Environmental Humanities straight after finishing my undergraduate degree in Environmental Earth Science at the University of California, Berkeley.
While at the U, where did your academic interests lie and how did your coursework support these interests?
My interests and my project focused on the connection between climbing and environmental thinking and advocacy. I took several classes from the Parks, Recreation, and Tourism department to learn more about how recreation and environmentalism has been studied.
What are you doing now that you have graduated from the EH program?
I am living in Aspen, CO where I work as a guide in the Elk Mountains and a ski instructor. In my free time I have continued to explore the mountains of Colorado and volunteered with the Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers to steward the landscapes that attract people to the Roaring Fork Valley.
What advice do you have for current and prospective Environmental Humanities students?
The Environmental Humanities greatest strength is its openness to new ideas. Students can take their studies into whichever direction they are passionate about. Do not be afraid to pitch unusual topics to your committee members. Additionally, your cohort is undoubtedly full of intelligent, kind people who you should look to for support both academically and personally.
After two years in the program, what would you give as a concise explanation of the Environmental Humanities to someone who knows little about the field?
The Environmental Humanities explores the relationships between humans, nonhuman beings, and the Earth as a whole. It does so with techniques ranging from artistic works to academic surveys.
Jack Stauss
What prompted you to pursue your Master’s in Environmental Humanities?
Over the years of living and working in Utah, I realized that the greatest issues of our time both locally and abroad dealt with the degradation of the natural world and our disconnect from it. Through my undergraduate work, and experiences recreating in the wilderness I wanted to take the next steps in educating myself on how to better confront the issues we faced and how I could better communicate them to a larger audience.
What was your academic and employment background coming into the program?
I did my undergraduate work at Westminster College in Environmental Studies; I interned for Salzburg Global Seminar, Summit Land Conservancy; I ski bummed for a year; and I worked for a couple bigger companies (in the three years between undergrad and grad school).
While at the U, where did your academic interests lie and how did your coursework support these interests?
I dabbled in several different fields of study. My fellowship and much of my curriculum was in the PRT department. I studied land management strategies here in the West as well as best use, both for resources as well as recreation ( I took a course called “Wildlands Land Management, and another about federal designations). I liked the dovetail of this with environmental history and philosophy that we learned in EH with those more practical applications. It was a really nice merger of disciplines. I also studied creative writing (obviously) and film making. My thesis utilized all of these components.
What are you doing now that you have graduated from the EH program?
I work for a small environmental non-profit called the Glen Canyon Institute. GCI works on Colorado River policy and restoration projects in the Glen Canyon region of the River Basin. Our objective is to restore as much of Glen Canyon as possible. We accomplish this by commissioning research about the river and water use, then we share our findings through the media and at public events and summits. At GCI, I am a day-to-day administrative assistant, as well as the outreach coordinator.
What advice do you have for current and prospective Environmental Humanities students?
My main advice would be to: get as much out of Foundations and Methods as you can, and use it to inform an idea for your thesis as quickly as you can. That way you can be selective about what courses you will take for the rest of your time at the U and get the most bang for your buck. I would also say, take any opportunities that come up: apply for grants or scholarships for internships, work with a professor on a project, go to events. Stay engaged.
After two years in the program, what would you give as a concise explanation of the Environmental Humanities to someone who knows little about the field?
This is the million dollar question isn’t it? When people ask me what EH is, I tell them that it is a multi-disciplinary program that allows students to have a deep foundation in a broad array of environmental issues; then lets them use these tools to focus on one subject that is important to them. The point of that whole exercise to me is to be better at explaining complex and intersecting issues to people that might not have the privilege to see them as we do.
Francesca Varela
What prompted you to pursue your Master’s in Environmental Humanities?
I majored in Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon, and my favorite classes were by far humanities courses -- environmental ethics, environmental literature, environmental writing, and environmental history. After graduating, I felt like I wasn't quite done learning yet, and I wanted to make myself as appealing as possible to future employers, so I decided to get my master's degree. As I researched environmental studies master's programs, I just happened to stumble upon the EH program, and I knew immediately that it would be the perfect fit! As someone whose two biggest passions are writing and the environment, a program like EH that let me combine them was a dream come true.
What are you doing now that you have graduated from the EH program?
I'm the Digital Coordinator at the Oregon League of Conservation Voters! This is an environmental non-profit in Portland, Oregon that helps inform voters about pro-environment candidates/measures in state elections, and we also help create momentum around bills concerning the environment. As the Digital Coordinator, I'm basically a communications person -- I write and send out emails, keep up the website/blog, and manage social media.
Tell us a little about your novels/publication histories. Where has that taken you recently? Is your EH thesis project on its way to publication?
I've published three novels so far. My first,Call of the Sun Child, was published my junior year of college, and my second, Listen, was published in March 2016, just a few months before I started the EH program. Both of them have strong environmental themes. My newest book, The Seas of Distant Stars, was just released in August, and it's a sci-fi novel about a girl who grows up on an alien planet. I wrote it during my senior year of college, so it took a while to finally come out! For my EH thesis I returned to my environmental writing roots and wrote a cli-fi (climate change science fiction) novel set in the future. I'm currently editing it -- I've added a few extra chapters so far and need to go back and look it over some more, but I do hope to get it published, eventually!
What advice do you have for current/prospective Environmental Humanities students?
My advice would be to take advantage of everything the program has to offer! Go see all the guest speakers, go on all the "field trips," exchange ideas with your cohort, ask tough questions, think deeply. This is an amazing time in your life and the memories will stay with you forever. Also, start working on your thesis early! It makes things way less stressful later on.
After two years in the program, what would you give as a concise explanation of the Environmental Humanities to someone who knows little about the field?
I usually tell people that the Environmental Humanities is simply a study of the humanities disciplines - like philosophy, history, ethics, art, literature - but with a focus on the environment. I also sometimes tell people it's pretty much an environmental writing program, because that's what it was for me! But one of the best things about EH is that you can mold it to your own interests, and your own passions. I'll always be grateful for my time in the Program!
Josh Wennergren
What prompted you to pursue your Master’s in Environmental Humanities?
I received my undergrad in Environmental Studies from Westminster College. At that time, Jeff McCarthy was the chair for Westminster’s Environmental Studies program. My work in that program—and particularly with Jeff—steered me toward Environmental Humanities. After undergrad, I went to work for the Utah Society for Environmental Education (USEE) for 4 years. I always had my eye on the EH program. When I heard Jeff took over as Director, I made contact with him. Conversations with him led me to apply to the program. Two years later, I graduated.
My ambitions were a bit vague (as they still are, and will likely remain vague for many decades haha), but I knew that I loved writing, I cared deeply about the ominous state of the planet, and I wanted a degree that opened more doors than it closed.
What was your academic and employment background coming into the program?
A degree in Environmental Studies with a cultural emphasis from Westminster College, worked at a ski shop for 13 years, worked at USEE for four years, first as a coordinator, then manager, then interim executive director, and many other odd jobs and gigs along the way…
While at the U, where did your academic interests lie and how did your coursework support these interests?
My academic interest were mostly in creative writing and non-fiction writing. I did a lot of research centered on questions of the wild, human interaction with megafauna, human spirituality and nature, and extinction.
What are you doing now that you have graduated from the EH program?
I am the Director of the Center for Educational Access at Utah Humanities. It is an administrative job overseeing two programs aimed at improving higher education opportunities for marginalized communities.
What advice do you have for current and prospective Environmental Humanities students?
This program (like many grad programs) is NOT about checking a bunch of boxes and deadlines. You do not walk away as a lawyer or a dentist. Be prepared to pave your own path. It is open, interdisciplinary, and full of possibility. Do some serious thinking about what you are interested in, and how you want to cultivate and hone those interests in a creative academic setting. In other words, it is what you make it: the results—employment and creative output—will depend on your ability to generate a vision for yourself, and utilize this program as a valuable resource to color that vision.
As much as you can, try to avoid having to work other jobs while in the program. I juggled 2 part-time jobs, and regretted it.
After two years in the program, what would you give as a concise explanation of the Environmental Humanities to someone who knows little about the field?
In the environmental humanities, we employ traditional humanities –philosophy, literature, religion, art, music, history, language studies, cultural geography, anthropology, etc. – to understand the environmental crisis, its many layers and manifestations, and possible responses to it.
Michael McLane
What prompted you to pursue your Master’s in Environmental Humanities?
I wanted to work with Steve Tatum on a graduate level. I had taken courses from him a decade earlier as an undergraduate and always hoped to work with him again at some point. I moved back to Salt Lake after finishing my MFA and the recession caught up to me and I found myself between jobs. Meanwhile, I had begun researching and writing about nuclear testing and related environmental issues in the West. As such, it seemed like an ideal time to go back to school.
What was your academic and employment background coming into the program?
I had completed bachelors degrees in both English and Anthropology at the University of Utah and had also completed an MFA in Creative Writing at Colorado State University. As for employment, I'd spent a number of years working for both the Utah State Archives and for several bookstores in Colorado and Utah, including Ken Sanders Rare Books.
While at the U, where did your academic interests lie and how did your coursework support these interests?
As the employment record above implies, I have a love of both history and literature, so those were at the forefront of my studies (and were complemented well by my fellowship at the American West Center). Two courses -- Paisley Rekdal's class "Mapping Salt Lake City" and Tatum's Border Literature course were particularly important to work I did in EH and to projects I'm still involved with.
What are you doing now that you have graduated from the EH program?
I've been getting a lot of mileage out of my EH project, portions of which have been published in various places in the last few years. Since 2012, I've had a fantastic job with Utah Humanities overseeing their literary programming around the state. I get to work with amazing community partners throughout Utah and with authors from around the country. I'm heading to New Zealand in 2019 to begin a PhD program at the International Institute for Modern Letters at Victoria University, and I couldn't be more excited about it.
What advice do you have for current and prospective Environmental Humanities students?
Campus life is great, but can be dangerously insular. Get out into the community, especially if you're new to SLC, and get involved. I don’t' think I've seen another program whose students are as widespread in terms of their employment or volunteer work with non-profit and community groups as EH's are. I find that remarkable. If ecology is at the heart of what we're there to study, then one would hope our lives reflect that. That seems to be the case with EH grads.
After two years in the program, what would you give as a concise explanation of the Environmental Humanities to someone who knows little about the field?
As it happens, I recently took part in a webinar about Environmental Humanities for program officers from humanities councils around the country and they asked me this same question for some promo materials.
Here's what I told them: EH is an interdisciplinary research approach combining the scientific disciplines such as hydrology, biology, geology, and climatology with humanities disciplines, particularly literature, history, and philosophy. Initially, such research was a focus for those working in eco-lit and eco-crit, environmental history, and the work of philosophers (such as Jane Bennett and Timothy Morton). However, collaboration between scientists and humanities scholars has grown exponentially in recent years. Likewise, it has become far more common for scientists to add creative or humanities-based components to their research. At the heart of all this work tends to be an ecological approach to issues or topics with the connectivity of systems, both concrete (ecosystems) and abstract (social justice) inextricable from the work.
Hannah Smay
What prompted you to pursue your Master’s in Environmental Humanities?
When I heard about the EH program at University of Utah, I was struck by how exactly the program appealed to my interdisciplinary curiosities in English and environmental studies. I knew I wanted to continue on into graduate school and EH offered an amazing opportunity to explore more deeply the paths I had found in college.
What was your academic and employment background coming into the program?
I earned a BA in Environmental Studies and English from Lewis & Clark College, where I wrote two theses: one on earthquake narratives in the Pacific Northwest and Japan and another on John Keats.
While at the U, where did your academic interests lie and how did your coursework support these interests?
I dedicated my studies to researching earthquakes in the American West. I was particularly interested in how indigenous people throughout the west kept oral traditions about seismic events across many generations and how the nuclear age directly spurred many advancements in seismology and geology. I sought courses in the history and communication departments to support my interests. The American West Center and the Floyd O’Neil Fellowship were crucial to allowing me to conduct historical and archival research.
What are you doing now that you have graduated from the EH program?
I work for an environmental non-profit called Idaho Conservation League in Ketchum, Idaho as their community engagement staffer for central and eastern Idaho. I engage folks around the state of Idaho in environmental issues including public lands, salmon restoration, water quality, and climate change.
What advice do you have for current and prospective Environmental Humanities students?
Find a topic or issue that lights a fire in your belly and dive in. Tap into the amazing resources at the University of Utah - both personally and academically. The gym, the library, the trails, the art museum, the career center are all worth your time. Spend time in the desert. Breathe. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good (and in Rebecca Solnit’s words, “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the fun”).
After two years in the program, what would you give as a concise explanation of the Environmental Humanities to someone who knows little about the field?
The Environmental Humanities seeks to understand and solve environmental problems by using the tools of the humanities - namely stories, values, communication, and historical prospectives. Environmental issues aren’t exclusively scientific. They are also emotional and controversial and the humanities have the tools to understand emotions and controversies.
Laura George
What prompted you to pursue your Master’s in Environmental Humanities?
I chose to study Environmental Humanities as a way to combine my passion for ecology and human-nature relationships with my love of writing and informal education. I was looking for a degree that would enhance my knowledge of environmental issues while also enhancing my ability to community those issues to a variety of audiences through both written work and in-person programming.
What was your academic and employment background coming into the program?
I majored in English as an Undergraduate with a minor in Ecology (though I took many more ecology classes than needed for my minor). For my English degree, my concentration was on creative writing with an emphasis on environmental poetry. While I loved creative writing, my field experiences in the ecological field fueled my passion for hands-on public engagement with science. Coming into the program I had most recently been working as a Youth Programming, Visitor Services, and Digital Curation Intern at Lake Clark National Park. Most of my employment background had been temporary positions like that at Lake Clark in which I engaged the public with scientific content or the natural environment in various ways whether it was as a camp counselor, a community center gardening project mentor, or a field guide at a nature center.
While at the U, where did your academic interests lie and how did your coursework support these interests?
I was primarily interested in youth environmental education, public engagement with conservation efforts, plants and their anthropological connections, and ways to include new demographics of people in the environmental sphere. The Environmental Humanities Foundations and Methods course both offered insights into each of these subjects. From there, my electives allowed me to take courses that spoke to each of those interests, such as a "Humans in the World of Plants" course. The EH Writing Seminar was also very useful in my pursuit to break down disciplinary boundaries to bring the humanities into environmental education.
What are you doing now that you have graduated from the EH program?
I am working in Nalini Nadkarni's lab in the University of Utah Biology Department as a program coordinator for STEM Community Alliance Program (STEMCAP). STEMCAP brings scientists and artists to juvenile detention centers to teach youth in custody about cutting-edge science, science and art collaborations, both academic and non-academic environmental or science related careers, and the importance of and empowerment of citizen science in conservation. My job is to help scientists cater their material to incarcerated youth, be the liaison between scientists and the detention centers and facilitate the programs in real time.
What advice do you have for current and prspective Environmental Humanities students?
Make the most of it! Don't be afraid to branch out and take classes in different departments than your peers. Your time will go by faster than you think. Find what you're passionate about and figure out a way to bring it together into one cohesive final project.
After two years in the program, what would you give as a concise explanation of the Environmental Humanities to someone who knows little about the field?
Environmental Humanities brings together a variety of disciplines and schools of thought and applies a broad range of lenses to the environmental problems of the past, present, and future. The environmental humanities aim to both study and act upon the environmental challenges that we face and aim to bring new groups of people along on the fight for a cleaner, more just, more sustainable future for the environments that we all inhabit.
Zak Breckenridge
What prompted you to pursue your Master’s in Environmental Humanities?
I already had a masters from the University of Chicago, where I studied critical theory and American and postcolonial literature. I wanted to pursue an academic career but wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to focus on. After that degree, I started reading some environmental history and nature writing, and felt that I wanted to study the entanglements of nature and culture in the U.S. I stumbled upon the term Environmental Humanities by chance, and a Google search led me to the University of Utah's EH Program website.
What was your academic and employment background coming into the program?
I studied critical theory and creative writing at Bard College at Simon's Rock and went on to get a masters in Humanities at the University of Chicago. I worked in a warehouse and then in product development in Chicago for a year, and at the time I applied to the University of Utah I was a Fulbright teaching assistant in Salzburg, Austria.
While at the U, where did your academic interests lie and how did your coursework support these interests?
I arrived interested in new materialist theory, literary criticism, and the literature of the U.S. West. I took EH courses, but was also able to take a few courses in the English department. Through my coursework I became interested in the environmental politics of the Progressive Era, and how they blended managerial discourses with race theory. The entangled histories of eugenics and conservation has become a central concern for my research going forward.
What are you doing now that you have graduated from the EH program?
I teach for the University of Utah's Water Center in their U.S.-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water. I teach a writing seminar to masters students in water engineering that come to Salt Lake City on exchange from their home university in Hyderabad, Pakistan.
What advice do you have for current and prospective Environmental Humanities students?
It's so important to stay active and maintain a social life. The program is demanding and the material is heavy. It's important to let loose and get some endorphins.
After two years in the Program, how would you define Environmental Humanities for those who are brand-new to the field?
I usually say that it responds to the gap between the certitude of climate science and the apathy of the public. The Environmental Humanities propose that environmental problems are also cultural and narrative problems, so humanists have an important role to play in confronting climate change, mass extinction, and environmental inequality.