ECOLOGIES OF BELONGING AND DISPLACEMENT
During the summer semester of 2026, I participated in the UHP (University Honors Program) Discover Program. I interviewed for the Ecologies of Belonging and Displacement project with Dr. Laura Zanotti and was shortly selected as the research assistant.
My role consisted of two goals:
1. To co-create a public facing syllabus and collaborative glossary on works across the humanities and social sciences on ecologies of belonging and displacement.
2. To assist in reviewing best practices for global classrooms and assist with co-developing pedagogical modules for an immersive hybrid workshop experience that would support training in “Environmental Humanities, Migration, and Sustainability,” to be co-taught across UC and partner universities.
The research process involved rapid literature reviews, website analysis, and seven expert scholar interviews. With the help from Amy Koshoffer and Dr. Laura Zanotti, I was taught how to navigate each foundationally and effectively. The information was then collected and organized into individual documents to help me form themes for the syllabus. The final product was then created on ArcGIS Experience to serve as a space for instructors and students to explore climate change, ecological shifts, and mobility as they intersect with questions of belonging, identity, history, ethics, and lived experience.
Ecologies of Belonging and Displacement is a project that houses a shared space between the humanities and the social sciences on understanding of belonging and displacement during periods of ecological instability and human mobility. I have learned that people can view life, place, and their relationship to the environment in very different ways. Some of these beliefs and systems can have consequences for the environments we live in. This made me think more deeply about the importance of having a sense of care and shared relationship with the Earth. If we do not see ourselves as connected to the environments and communities we depend on, it becomes much harder to create sustainable and responsible ways of living.
