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We're in the midst of defense season, one of the best times of the year!

Ten of our students successfully defended their master's projects and theses, and we celebrated their accomplishments at graduation on May 5. The Class of 2023 was full of bright, creative students with diverse interests. Research ranged from queer ecology on Fire Island, New York to lithium mining at Thacker Pass in Nevada. Students collaborated with Tribes such as the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation and spent deep time in politically charged landscapes such as the U.S.-Mexico border. We were inspired and impressed by their research and look forward to seeing what they do next!

Ross Chambless graduated from the Environmental Humanities Program in 2011. He is a writer, creative producer, and communications strategist. He is currently Communications and Community Engagement Manager for the Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy at the University of Utah. Previously he was Communications Director for the Democrats in the Utah House of Representatives, and a radio and podcast producer. Before receiving his MA in Environmental Humanities, Ross received his Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 2001.

Chris Ingraham is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and on the core faculty of the Environmental Humanities Graduate Program at the University of Utah. His work as an active teacher and researcher is in the areas of media aesthetics, environmental communication, and rhetorical theory. Generally, he tries to draw on the insights of these fields to think about the material, aesthetic, and affective practices that configure the environments we create and inhabit. Before becoming an academic, he worked for several years as a freelance writer. Though the arts remain central to his interests, his academic training across the humanities commits him to cross-disciplinary thinking with the belief that we should bring all available knowledge to the problems we're trying to understand.

Dr. Rachel Mason Dentinger is recently appointed faculty in the Department of History and she is the current Environmental Humanities Research Professor for the 2021-2022 term. Her research is in the history of science, in particular co-evolutionary studies, and how we study the relationships between insects and plants.