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Jo is a 5th year PhD student studying Communication. Her research focuses on human and nature relations through a communication lens. Jo was recently awarded a Collegiality and Scholarship Award based on her contributions to the research or creative community. We asked Jo a few questions to learn more about her as a scholar and get to know her better. Read more below!

What is a useful research or creative skill you think everyone should have?

Everyone should have a citation manager skill with Zotero, for example. Life saver. Creatively, everyone should have good friends they can collaborate with academically and artistically.

Why is your research or creative work important to the community or world at large?

My research and creative work go hand in hand. I do research, and the creative aspect is a part of my thought process and a way to disseminate my research outcomes. Because my research deals with how we relate to the more-than-human world, it is important to the world at large because we need to rethink many of the relationships we currently have with our shared environments and the fellow creatures around us. Hence, as we think about the ways we relate, we should questions our dualistic perspectives and engage in reciprocal relations. We can definitely start doing that by changing the ways we speak about nature, for example, from IT to KIN, as Robin Wall Kimmerer would say. Therefore, my research I believe benefits not only humans, but those whose human actions impact.

What's a benefit you have found from collaborating with others?

Collaboration makes things better. We do not have all the skills to succeed in this world. When we collaborate, we make each other better and we produce incredible pieces of academic and creative work.

What is a good book you have read recently and why did you enjoy it?

"Hands of Light," by Barbara Brennan. I enjoyed being reminded that to reach our full potential, we need to be in contact with our energy and the energy of others.