How to Apply to be a 25-26 Student Fellow

This year, we've brought together a working group of 7 faculty from a variety of disciplines who are developing projects related to our program theme. Students can either apply to the program and have us pair you with a faculty member, or you can review the projects (below) and indicate your preference for one or multiple of them.

To apply, review the call for applicants as well as the projects below and send an email to prf@up.edu with the following: 

#1: Your name, year, and major(s)/minor(s). Also confirm that your schedule will allow you to enroll in CAS 391 fall and spring semesters (the fall course is scheduled for T 6-6:55). Fellows must be able to participate in these courses.

#2: A response to the following questions in 1 page at most: 

• Why do you want to serve as a student fellow? 
• What academic interests, past experience, and personal strengths qualify you to participate in this year’s working group in particular and/or as a PRF fellow in general (see criteria on the call for fellows)?
• Optional: note which project(s) you are most interested in working on (you don't need to state a preference; we're happy to match you up with a project)
• Optional: If you have particular areas of interest or potential projects of your own in mind related to this year’s theme, you can describe them briefly as well.

#3: Your resume as an attachment.

Project #1: Be Here Now: Touching Grass in the 21st-Century
Faculty: Dr. Sarah Weiger (weiger@up.edu), English

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately” Thoreau famously asserts in the record of his years in a cabin on Walden pond, “and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” Legions of writers and adventurers have since framed their flight to the wild as a rejection of the unexamined life, the frippery of the social world, and the constraints of capitalism. Moreover, turning to nature in the 21st century has become a way of turning away from online experience: today, if someone tells you to “touch grass,” they’re telling you to turn off your phone. This project on wilderness literature, spiritual recreation, and mental health asks questions including: What does the 19th-century “camp cure” have to do with the 21st century “digital detox?” Can a “retreat” help us recreate our world, our selves? What might it mean to “live deliberately” in an algorithmic age? And, What is the relationship between our mental health and the health of the environment? Our work will involve the study of social media content that engages with mental health and environmentalism, research on the 19th-century genre of “self-help” and nature as a cure for so-called “nervous disorders,” and the creation of a retreat experience for UP students involving environmental literature, writing, and opportunities to “touch grass.”

Project #2: The Aesthetics of Regeneration after Wildfire: Visions of our Scorched Future
Faculty: Dr. Alexa Dare (dare@up.edu), Communication Studies

In this project, we will examine the visual dimensions of climate disaster. Paying particular attention to wildfire events, we will consider the various ways in which fire and its aftermath are represented visually. What I’m especially interested in are all of the implicit ways in which images of disaster contain within them ideas about future possibilities. In other words, this project will examine the “aesthetic future” of climate change. How does fire imagery envision a particular kind of future - a pyrofuture, in which the visuality of destruction contains within it clues about the new kinds of sociality and imagination made possible (even necessary) in the wake of wildfire? The project will proceed by first examining the most iconic images that circulate after high-profile wildfire events in both news media and social media. Our goal will be to understand the key dimensions (aesthetic and rhetorical) of this imagery. We will also consider the ways in which disaster has been portrayed in contemporary visual art. The goal, here, will be not just to understand the images, but to consider ways that visual culture might serve as a catalyst for new ways of thinking about climate futures. With this in mind, possible outcomes of this work could be an exhibit created in collaboration with wildfire-affected communities or a workshop designed to offer space and support for the creation of photography and art that documents or celebrates regeneration after wildfire.

Project 3: Que Más?: The Stories Behind the Stories of Climate Change
Faculty: Dr. Kali Abel (abel@up.edu), Environmental Studies

“There's a reason magical realism was born in Colombia. It's a country where dreams and reality are conflated where, in their heads, people fly as high as Icarus. But even magical realism has its limits.” The stories we tell about ourselves play a role in how we navigate the world around us, but so too do the stories that are told by others about us. Where community members in Medellin see themselves as progressive, transformational, and driven by a deep desire for peace and environmental conservation, the international community describes this community and its people as violent, dangerous, and driven by the drug trade at the cost of the environment. Mismatches in narrative occur just about everywhere we look, encouraging us to better understand the stories we tell about ourselves and others, how they are told, and why they matter when it comes to environmental change.

This project asks:

• What role does narrative about a community play in the ability of that community to respond to environmental change?
• How can the environmental humanities contribute to storytelling about communities in a manner that better reflects and supports the lived reality of communities that own these stories?

Potential activities:

• An exploration of story mismatches through community interviews (in Colombia or in Portland) that then inform a media series (i.e. humans of New York style), short documentary, journalistic piece, art presentation, etc.
• A short documentary film project centering on telling the story of a community with a mismatched narrative (either in Colombia or in Portland)
• An exploration of how the stories of people in communities vulnerable to climate change can be brought into the classroom to better understand the complexity of adaptation in a changing climate

Project 4: Capturing Change through Move UP
Faculty: Dr. Ruth Dittrich (dittrich@up.edu), Business

The MoveUP initiative at the University of Portland addresses a critical sustainability challenge: the waste generated during student move-in and move-out periods at the dorms. Large quantities of reusable furniture, appliances, and household goods are frequently discarded due to limited storage options, adding to landfill waste and financial burden on students and families. Move UP: Reduce & Reuse seeks to mitigate this issue by collecting, storing, reselling these items through a campus-based pop-up store and by donating items to community organizations. MoveUP has started in Spring 2025 and the documentation of the project through students will occur during the academic year 2025/2026.

This project aims to visually and narratively capture the background and impact of Move UP. Through photography, video storytelling, and interviews, the project will highlight the initiative's environmental benefits, the stories of the students and staff involved, and the broader cultural shift towards sustainable consumption on campus. Project goals and outcomes include:

• Showcasing Environmental Impact: Document how Move UP reduces waste, diverts usable items from landfills, and lowers the university’s carbon footprint.
• Highlighting Community Engagement: Capture the collaborative efforts of students, faculty, and local partners in promoting sustainability.
• Promoting Awareness: Develop visual and narrative content to engage the campus community and encourage greater participation in sustainability initiatives.

Project #5: Stitching a Greener Future
Faculty: Prof. Amanda Cardwell-Aiken (cardwell@up.edu), Performing & Fine Arts

Stitching a Greener Future is a collaborative project exploring the fashion industry’s environmental impact and sustainable solutions. The clothing industry is a major contributor to pollution, carbon emissions, and waste. Through hands-on workshops, discussions, and community partnerships, students will examine the global consequences of fast fashion and explore eco-friendly alternatives. Participants will create activities like clothing swaps, upcycling workshops, and an “Eco-Chic” fashion show, showcasng practical ways to reduce textile waste and make informed consumer choices. The project also includes collaborations with local sustainable fashion initiatives and digital media advocacy to raise awareness about ethical fashion. By combining research with real-world action, this initiative empowers students to rethink their relationship with clothing, embrace sustainable practices, and advocate for change. Students interested in Fashion and Sustainability can join us in creating a greener future, one stitch at a time!

Project #6: Laudato Si’ After 10 Years (Portland Edition)
Faculty: Dr. Rachel Wheeler (wheelerr@up.edu), Theology and Religious Studies

This project seeks to answer the question, “What influence has Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato Si’ had on the local Catholic community, in the ten years since its publication?” We'll connect with local Catholic parishes and schools to find out, interviewing members and documenting what we find, such as: changes in land, energy, and waste management decisions; changes to curricula and/or liturgies; emergence of new ministries, study groups, or environmental activism. We might also seek to discover whether the encyclical has had an impact beyond the Catholic community – in local Protestant and other-than-Christian communities. In terms of process, we'll first familiarize ourselves with Laudato Si’ itself and the potential ways a community might implement its principles and practices. The research team might then consider which of the encyclical’s principles and practices are most relevant to and implementable within our PNW context and anticipate what kinds of things local parishes and schools might have readily implemented – and what we might thus look for, while being open to what we find when visiting local communities. Implicit goals of this project include 1) comparing what we find with what the UP community itself is (or could be) doing to implement Laudato Si’ and 2) learning what obstacles, if Laudato Si’ has not been implemented, exist to implementation.  

Potential project outcomes may include:

• the creation of a website with a map that shows the different hubs where Laudato Si’ has enjoyed some kind of implementation, with a description (visual, audio, or textual)
• a photography exhibit open to the public or a traveling exhibit in the form of a PowerPoint presentation to be shared with participating communities, that pairs visual evidence from local Catholic communities with excerpts from Laudato Si’
• a workshop at the Washington Oregon Higher Education Sustainability Conference