Undergraduate Research with Eirik Steinhoff

Rigorous qualitative, quantitative, community-based, and participatory-action research are key ingredients of academic learning at Evergreen. This independent learning opportunity is designed to allow advanced students to engage in real-world research with faculty who are currently engaged in specific projects. The program will give students the opportunity to develop vital skills in research design, data acquisition and interpretation, written and oral communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving — all of which are of particular value for students who are pursuing a graduate degree, as well as for graduates who are already in the job market.

Eirik Steinhoff works with people who want to learn more about how to do things with words. His overarching research question is: “What needs to be the case for things to be otherwise?” He is an apprentice to the tradition of “Urgent Studies” inaugurated by Evergreen elder Richard Cellarius in a manifesto co-authored in 1972 that calls for action-oriented interdisciplinary inquiry in order “to focus and legitimize research on solutions to our major crises.” Participating students will join Eirik Steinhoff's research lab, and may have opportunities to develop their own research projects.

Primary zones of study for Spring 2023 include:

• College in prison and beyond (including WA state and federal policies and practices in light of recent legislation);
• Forestry on state lands (including WA state policies and practices in light of the climate crisis);
• Relation between mass incarceration and forestry in WA;
• Evergreen’s past, present, and future.