Concerns over distorted perceptions of environmental and ecological issues drive the cultural and historical research I pursue as part of my degree. My PhD research circulates around the importance of an interdisciplinary environmental humanities and its ability to straddle the academic and public spheres. I investigate, in particular, the impacts of war zone experiences in the early twentieth century on ecological attitudes as they can be examined in representations of landscape in the literature and other historical artifacts of the period. I also look for the potential effects these cultural dynamics may have on sustainable orientations in the later twentieth and early twenty-first century. In particular, I feel that the exploration of cultural artifacts such as literature can both teach us as historical records about how we come to inhabit an environment and a particular attitude towards it, as well as being able to communicate—at times with a much needed intimacy that straight forward scientific prose cannot provide—the importance of place attachments and the dangers of certain environmental futures. I am interested in fostering the pursuit of knowledges which emerge from such humanities encounters—from the stories which the humanities at large can tell. I believe that my interest in understanding how people relate to and understand their environments is closely linked to the goals of many at the coastal institute who are concerned with the urgent need for effective science communication to the general public, especially surrounding global climate change and its pervasive and mounting local impacts.