In 2024, Sarah received her Master's degree in human dimensions of ecology. Her work interrogated human relationships with water at two sites: among settler agriculturalists upstream from Wuda Ogwa (the site of the Bear River Massacre), and among LDS communities connected to Great Salt Lake. She looked through the lenses of human values and multispecies justice for this qualitative work.
This interdisciplinary research explored how humans relate to more-than-human beings and what that means for the well-being of water and other wild bodies. It weaves into her wider work pulling at threads connecting culture, ecology, politics, philosophy, and spirituality to learn and help heal the troubled web in the West, with special attention to liminal meeting places of the human and the Other.
To learn more, you can watch her thesis defense seminar below.
Sarah is now pursuing a PhD in Environmental Sociology. As a doctoral student, she will continue her research on human connections to lands, waters, and Great Salt Lake.
While in academia, Sarah remains committed to grounded work that prioritizes and honors the more-than-human world. She was awarded the 2024 Utah State University Advocacy Award in Sustainability for her multispecies justice work in the West, including projects defending Great Salt Lake.
