"At the core of human-nonhuman animal interaction exists a false assumption that all experiences are shared. Under this pretense, one need not acknowledge that interactions differ from relationships. While both involve at least two present actors, the latter requires a mutual recognition. Interactions can only be justified as healthy relationships when power dynamics are transparent amongst both parties."-Halle Katz, Species Matter, Spring 2017

"Climate change deniers and Native Americans have one thing in common: they are people of deep convictions. The remainder, and arguably the majority of Americans lie somewhere along that spectrum in a state of melancholia— or for the purposes of this paper: eco- melancholia. Within this state exists a paradox: people passively mourning the loss of an ecological future with unnerving internal doom yet little expressed panic." -Halle Katz, Ecological Thought, Fall 2016