[Kate Flick]

My research focus: My background is in community and environmental sociology, forestry, and community-engaged ways to make sense of climate change.  I like using artistic, western scientific, and cultural lenses to apply research in K12 to Elder educational settings.  Most recently I have been exploring geoscience and what place-based and Indigenous-focused geosciences look like here in the Great Lakes region.

Why I enjoy mentoring: I love being part of lightbulbs popping on in people’s heads and then seeing what happens when those light bulbs turn into a field of whirling fireflies.  I get excited to do Mind Wanderns with folks and nurture people in their sense-making and “doing” journeys.  Specifically, I try to encourage Place-Thought that gives a central agency to the Place/land and fosters individual and community animacy.  As Watts 2013 articulates in Indigenous place-thought & agency amongst humans and non-humans: “It is necessary to tease out what the land’s intentions might be and how she tries to speak through us. …To be animate goes beyond being alive or acting, it is to be full of thought, desire, contemplation, and will.”

My professional values: Everyone has different realities and experiences that are valuable.  However, our dominant reality sometimes has trouble allowing space for this diversity.  I strive to work towards healing landscapes that include more biodiverse knowledge, relationality, and senses of community wellbeing.

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