Juliana Chow is thrilled to guide Ecology & Legacy students in a program that amplifies their environmental studies through place-based experiential learning attentive to diverse identities, cultures, sciences, and histories. She loves how the program welcomes students from all disciplinary interests from architecture or dance to biology and chemistry and gives them the opportunity to develop environmental awareness with curiosity and open minds. Becoming ecologically minded (Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “becoming Indigenous” or Aldo Leopold’s “thinking like a mountain”) is at the center of Ecology & Legacy—and at the center of how to live sustainably. Like many of us, she recognized that the challenges posed by climate change and environmental degradation, more generally, require interdisciplinary skills and deep attention and care. Yet it is ultimately the particularities of home and language that drew her into many different fields and professions of the environmental humanities. After earning a master’s in geography focusing on environmental policy, she worked for an environmental non-profit near her hometown that focused on birds and citizen science. After a brief stint studying Chinese in Taiwan, she went on to doctoral studies in literature that led her to write an academic book about how nineteenth-century American writers and thinkers engaged with biogeographic theories of diaspora to imagine survival for species and races from passenger pigeons and coral to Indigenous peoples and African Americans. She loves spending time with her family and learning how to garden in the Wasatch oasis zone.  

I grew up in rural British Columbia and attended college on the Canadian prairies, finishing my undergraduate degree at the University of Manitoba. After completing my MA (also at Manitoba), I lived in London and Montreal for several years before moving to the US to begin graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, where I received my Ph.D. in early modern English literature in 2015. In Honors, I have taught a diversity of courses, from our traditional sequence in the Intellectual Traditions of Antiquity, the Middles Ages, and Modernity, to courses on topics such as “The Network” and the literature and history of West Africa. In recent years and as part of my role as Faculty Director of the Integrated Minor in Human Rights and Resources, my interests have turned to the American continent and in particular, the languages, cultures, and literature of Latin America (a space that can be understood as encompassing part of the United States). For me, the minor is a remarkable opportunity to consider the intertwined relationship of human rights, human culture, and the natural environment of places such as Mexico and the Intermountain West. The opportunity to do this work alongside motivated students from diverse disciplines such as engineering, biology, philosophy, Latin American studies, and nursing has been a particular treat, giving me the chance to consider the minor theme from many different angles and helping us create a program where students can find a home both socially and intellectually, no matter what their particular background may be. For me, some of the greatest pleasures of Honors are found in these kinds of intellectual diversity and interdisciplinarity, and therefore I welcome conversations with prospective and current students about topics relating to the HRR minor; Mexico; my research interests, which historically have focused on the relationship between technology and religion; and really, whatever happens to be on your mind!

Melissa Watt has a joint faculty appointment in the School of Medicine (Department of Population Health Sciences) and the Honors College. This dual appointment allows her to be a bridge for Honors students who are interested in health-related careers. Dr. Watt is an accomplished population health researcher, with a strong track record of funding from the National Institutes of Health and over 160 publications in peer-reviewed journals. She currently has active research projects in Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Mali, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the United States. Prior to joining the University of Utah in 2020, she was faculty at Duke University’s Global Health Institute, where she directed a Masters of Science in Global Health. As the inaugural director of the Honors Integrated Minor in Health, Dr. Watt is delighted to be creating opportunities for Honors  students to explore health from an inter-disciplinary perspective and outside of the confines of the clinical setting. In the Utah track of the minor, she supports students to get hands-on experience through community engaged learning at the Fourth Street Clinic. In the Global track of minor, she directs a 5-week Learning Abroad program in South Africa where students explore the intersection of health and ecology across the unique landscapes of South Africa. Dr. Watt says of the minor: “This program not only enhances individual academic and personal development, but also cultivates a community where students support each other's growth. Together, students are empowered to drive positive change in society, laying the foundation for lasting impact beyond their time in the Honors College.