Fulbright specialist award recipient Dr. Michael Zavada is thrilled to be selected for the Morton Gneiss Professorship in Environmental Sciences at the University of Minnesota Morris, which began this fall.
Much of this position centers around conducting research with student participation. Next year, he plans to take environmental science students to Puno, Peru, to work with graduate students at the university there, where they will study water quality, mining operations, agriculture operations, fisheries, and range management. He wants to invite and encourage environmental studies students to go as well. “Environmental studies is absolutely necessary to making the practical application of environmental science successful to ameliorating the environmental crisis,” says Zavada. “Environmental studies attacks the issue from a sociological, political, cultural, anthropological, and policy perspective. Public buy-in is essential to solving our environmental problems.”
He hopes that some students will do environmental studies projects on what the local opinions are and what issues exist for the indigenous people in the Andes. “Issues of sustainability, food security, and human rights are currently responsible for Peru’s political instability and unrest,” says Zavada. He’s optimistic that students can learn more about the issues indigenous peoples are experiencing in South America, especially in comparison to the North American indigenous experience.
While the professorship allows some funding for the study abroad research project, he acknowledges that he will need to seek additional funding. As a Fulbright specialist award recipient, he will be able to spend a month in Peru ahead of the student trip to prepare, while helping the Universidad Nacional del Altiplano develop its environmental science program.
