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Three students win Graduate EJ Certificate Summer Research Grants

The ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½Æƽâ°æÏÂÔØ EJ Graduate Certificate Summer Student Research Grants and Fellowships are designed to support graduate students enrolled in the certificate to conduct research in environmental justice studies. For the summer of 2025, ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½Æƽâ°æÏÂÔØ graduate students across three Departments have been awarded grants to conduct their research. Congratulations to the 2025 award winners!Ìý

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Brigid Mark, Department of Sociology, Land Back and Indigenous Environmental Justice in Colorado and Minnesota

Brigid's research examines the meanings, barriers, and opportunities surrounding Land Back and Indigenous environmental justice. The EJ Certificate support made it possible to spend meaningful time in the places and communities shaping contemporary Land Back efforts.ÌýOver the course of the 2025 summer, Brigid conducted 14 interviews, attended several Land Back–related events in Colorado, and traveled to Minnesota for a multiweek research trip. During her time in Minnesota, she participatedÌýin Land Back events and met in person with Native-led nonprofits in the Twin Cities that are working to return land to Indigenous stewardship. These conversationsÌýprovidedÌýinvaluable insight into the practicalÌýdimensions of Land Back efforts.Ìý
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As Brigid traveled, she was struck by how historicalÌýmemory remainsÌýalive on the land. At the Sand Creek Massacre Site, for example, speakers described their relationships to the history of the massacre while we looked across the landscape where it occurred. In these moments, history felt almost visible in the present. Some describe hearing cries on the wind or sensing other forms of persistence that keep the past present in the landscape. These experiences resonate with scholarship on how memory is rooted in place.ÌýSpending time in the Twin Cities helped Brigid understand the complexities of Land Back in urban contextsÌýas she movedÌýthrough the city, tookÌýpublic transit, walkedÌýacross concrete landscapes, and lookedÌýup at the surrounding buildings.ÌýTheseÌýin-person relationship buildingÌýexperiences, with both people and places,Ìýare helping guide the next stages of her research.
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Brigid photo

Kathryn Sullivan, Department of Environmental Studies, Understanding the Relationship of Environmental Justice, Pesticide Use, and Mental Health in Ugandan Smallholder Farmer Communities

With support from the Environmental Justice Certificate grant and the Center for African and African American Scholars Fellowship, Kathryn conducted preliminary data collection for her research examining the relationship between environmental injustice and mental health and well-being. This phase focused on understanding how communities describe environmental change, food insecurity, pesticide exposure, and uncertainty and if these concerns are local issues. Kathryn met with Agricultural Officers, District Environmental Officers, community organizers, government officials, and mental health clinicians across community, university, and regional settings. She also engaged directly with community members to ensure that the framing of the project reflects local priorities and knowledge. This exploratory work helped refine my research questions and ensure the project remains responsive and useful to the communities involved. In addition, Kathryn collaborated to develop a quantitative survey that reached approximately 600 households. The survey included World Health Organization Self-Reporting Questionnaires (SRQs) to quantify mental health and distress as well as measures of environmental stress, pesticide use, safety practices, decision-making, and broader livelihood well-being. These data provide a foundation for examining how environmental uncertainty, food insecurity, poverty, and safe pesticide use intersect with mental health outcomes.

The second phase of Kathryn's fieldwork will involve in-depth qualitative interviews with community members to deeply explore lived experiences and the mental toll of these overlapping stressors. Through this work, she remains committed to identifying the often-overlooked burden of environmental injustices on mental health and well-being through interdisciplinary and community-engaged collaboration.Ìý

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Kathryn Photo

Marissa Zamudio, Critical Ethnic Studies Department, Food Sovereignty in Colorado's San Luis Valley

The goals for Marissa's summer EJ research included exploring what food sovereignty means in theory and practice, seeing the extent to which food sovereignty efforts in the San Luis Valley of Colorado are occurring, and how that work can be expanded. Over the summer, Marissa was Ìýimmersed herself in scholarly literature on the topic of food sovereignty which deepened her understanding of what it means theoretically, what it looks like, and what it can look like in different contexts. She also researched more about the history and current conditions of the San Luis Valley, which included reading not only scholarly works and publicly available statistical data, but also local journalism. This was so she could better understand the present sociopolitical context, which she has personal interest in due to her family ties.
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Additionally, she was able to identify the main actors in the San Luis Valley who are working in the realm of food sovereignty. This included reviewing their missions and programmatic offerings, the relationship they hold to the community, and the names of specific people involved with such organizations. Based off the review of literature she conducted, she was able to use theory to ascribe the different roles these actors play in the larger context of food sovereignty as a movement. This was significant because she was able to develop a deeper understanding of the context her project would be entering into. She has decided to use a Participatory Action Research methodological approach for her dissertation, and her summer activities helped define the stakeholders in the process.
Marissa Zamudio