How a Channel Islands excursion brought environmental humanities vividly to life

Published: March 20, 2025
California’s Channel Islands are a unique ecosystem, home to hundreds of plants and animals found nowhere else. All photos by Anatoli Ulyanov.

Anatoli Ulyanov is a UCLA doctoral fellow in Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures. His research explores how media construct identity, power and social relations in post-Soviet and global contexts, and his work bridges critical theory, visual anthropology and environmental humanities. In March, he was among a group of graduate students who traveled to the Channel Islands as part of an environmental humanities course.

Anatoli’s photos and story of the excursion were published on the UCLA Humanities Division site.

Vetri Nathan (second from left), a professor of European languages and transcultural studies, with graduate students in his environmental humanities course. Photo by Anatoli Ulyanov.