Dr. Meghan Howey - Profile in Sustainability
Why did you decide to become a UNHSI faculty fellow this year?
UNHSI's approach is unique in that it considers culture a key factor in sustainability. I decided being a faculty fellow offered an exciting way to be involved in this work and to extend the cultural component of UNHSI's efforts at UNH and beyond.
How does your archaeological and anthropological research relate to sustainability?
Looking at deep time allows me to study long term cycles of human-environment interactions and to identify the cultural solutions people developed and used to solve ecological and demographic crises in the past. This knowledge can help inform sustainability decisions in the present.
What motivates you personally to be involved in sustainability?
As an anthropologist, I study the ways humans are a unique species given our cultural capacities, but we must not forget we are also a biological species and as such we are connected to and dependent upon the other species of this planet. I am motivated to be involved in sustainability to help find ways to remember this and to use our cultural capacities to secure a balanced future between our own and other species. I also want my son to have a world with beauty to live in as he grows up.
