A new student club focused on the intersection of health and humanities launched this semester, giving students with a variety of majors and career interests an opportunity to collaborate on shared interests. 

According to its mission statement, the Health Humanities Collective is “a student-led organization at the University of Arizona that brings together students interested in exploring health, illness, and care through storytelling, ethics, creative practice, and interdisciplinary dialogue.” 

After gaining official recognition from the Associated Students of the University of Arizona, the Health Humanities Collective began meeting in February, drawing about 15 students to meetings as the fledgling club begins hosting activities and planning for the future. 

“The club is all about different dimensions of health and overall human well-being. We know the humanities are so expansive, we wanted something that was more accessible and could encompass all of health humanities,” said Mykelti Nuamah, a senior majoring in Religious Studies for Health Professionals and Physiology and Medical Sciences. 

The Health Humanities Collective grew out of the Health Humanities Hub Interdisciplinary Scholar program, which launched last spring to offer internships to students majoring in the College of Humanities who are interested in health-related careers.

Nuamah, who started as an H3 Interdisciplinary Scholar in the fall and is continuing this semester, said the scholars wanted a way to allow humanities students to be involved, without a full internship. Planning for the Health Humanities Collective extended across different cohorts of H3 Interdisciplinary Scholars and a funding opportunity presented itself in the fall, when the Center for Buddhist Studies created the new Integrative Well-Being Prize. 

Nuamah, founder and current president of the Health Humanities Collective, was awarded $1,000 in seed funding to start the group and support a retreat in the works for later this semester. 

Nuamah said that as he progressed through his two majors, he knew he couldn’t be the only student drawn to humanities approaches to health and well-being and now the Health Humanities Collective gives like-minded students a place to gather, collaborate and support one another. 

“At our last meeting, two students who hadn’t met before were both Religious Studies majors, but both had a completely unrelated second major. It was interesting to see how these fields interconnect and there’s a lot to learn internally from each other. Interdisciplinary collaboration among ourselves is important and seeing where other people are at can help gauge where you’re at too,” he said. 

The Health Humanities Collective is structured with an executive committee made of committee chairs, the first two focusing on community engagement and health and well-being. A committee on art and expression is under discussion. But the structure allows for students to pursue any topic of interest. 

“The sky is the limit,” Nuamah said. “No matter what interest a student has, they can come and make a committee or collaborate with an event.” 

Health Humanities Hub Coordinator Christine Hoekenga said she’s been impressed by the wide variety of interests and projects the H3 Interdisciplinary Scholars have brought, and their initiative to launch a student club will benefit many more students in the future. 

“The students' mix of fields and backgrounds is a huge strength of this group. This type of interdisciplinary dialogue doesn’t just happen and it’s refreshing to see students seeking it out and building something with intention,” she said. “I’m excited to see how this truly student-driven Collective will take shape. Offering a way for all students to engage with health humanities topics, including integrative wellbeing practices, is a service to our campus and ultimately to the future health professionals who will eventually care for all of us.”  

To join or learn more, email healthhumanitiescollective@gmail.com or follow on Instagram: @uahealthhumanitiescollective. 

It’s natural to expect students in a language immersion program to quickly improve, but what is really happening? 

Wenhao Diao, Head of the Department of East Asian Studies, began doing research into language learning in study abroad programs in 2010, trying to measure linguistic gains, like how many words or syllables students could speak in a period of time. 

“We found some gains in oral fluency and proficiency, but it was missing the larger piece, so I started studying the interactions students had with people in these localities and the ways in which they used the language in identity development and relationships,” she said. “What does it mean to be a foreigner? How do you construct and express yourself? Students are building a transnational identity and developing the context to express who they are, rather than just conveying meaning.” 

Studying abroad provides students with nuanced, different ways to respond to concepts like identity and relationships. For a few weeks or months, their new day-to-day reality provides an entirely different context for using the language, Diao said. 

“It’s well established that when you study abroad, you become more fluent within a narrow linguistic definition. You’re able to produce more in the language, and that’s important. But I’m interested in the real-life language usage and the discovery of new ways of being and becoming,” she said. “Different languages provide different systems of meaning making. There are ways to express yourself and your identity in one language that might be different in other languages.” 

In the classroom, instructors tend to focus on “proper” language use, not teaching a lot of sociolinguistic variations that can be difficult to explain without seeing the context. For example, Diao took students on a Shanghai study abroad program to places like a “marriage market” where parents would try match-making for their adult children, or to visit college entrance exam sites.

“Study abroad is when students discover all these different ways of speaking and these varieties of linguistic constructions,” Diao said. “There are lots of nuanced ways of speaking that students learn when they are studying abroad and you see a kind of imagining of their future selves that’s a part of the language learning. That’s something that happens on top of the experience of travel, but it’s not something you’d get as a tourist.” 

For Janice McGregor, Associate Professor in the Department of German Studies, an academic interest in study abroad language learning came out of her own experiences as a student, interning three summers abroad and living with a host family. For her dissertation, she examined how deeply people get involved in the local community during a temporary stay. 

At the U of A, she’s led summer trips with students in the Arizona Summer Study in Leipzig program, and turned her research toward what kinds of strategies students are using in their short-term programs with their peers in language learning. 

“Sometimes that’s thought of as a negative since they’re associating with English speakers, but what I would see is students would be more playful with German because they have these other students with them who are also engaged with learning German,” she said. “I’d see students playing with language based around their shared experience and engaging with multilingualism even in these short-term programs.” 

McGregor has also begun researching student health and well-being in the context of study abroad, seeing how students manage issues of homesickness, illness and creating healthy routines in a new environment. Amidst other challenges, a feeling of acceptance and belonging can be crucial in seeing the value in both the travel experience and their progress in learning the language. 

“In a four-week program it can be as simple as getting acknowledged as a regular somewhere and getting this brief sense of belonging,” she said. “In the classroom, you get a lot of feedback from peers and instructors and that prepares you to see yourself stepping into this place. When you are there, there are these moments of recognition, even if they’re only a year into German study, when it’s quite thrilling to recognize things and pick up these exchanges.”   

The College of Humanities sends condolences to the family and friends of Stephen Douglas Todd, who passed away in January.

Steve was a generous supporter of the University of Arizona, creating the Stephen D. Todd Interdisciplinary Humanities Scholarship, which supports students studying in both the College of Humanities and the College of Agriculture, Life, and Environmental Sciences.

Read more in the Arizona Republic.

Basic language courses across the College of Humanities instruct thousands of University of Arizona students each semester, majors and non-majors alike, giving them the building blocks of a second language. 

But beyond the basic language classes, faculty members research and teach about multilingualism in broader contexts, specializing in how humans acquire and maintain languages, the various contexts in which people learn languages, successful language learning methods and strategies, and the intricate ties between language, culture, place and identity. 

Peter Ecke, Professor in the Department of German Studies, developed “Becoming Multilingual: Learning and Maintaining Two or More Languages” in 2015 to introduce undergraduate students to research on bilingual and multilingual people. The course includes information to show students how myths about bilingualism and language learning persist, as well as the realities.   

In the general education course, usually about half of the students describe themselves as monolingual or second language learners, and half describe themselves as bilingual and multilingual. 

Though its home department is German Studies, the course draws students from across campus, with high numbers of Hispanic and international students, as well as some Native American students. For some of those students, being bilingual is not something extraordinary or special, but examining misperceptions about multilingualism is an important part of the course.

“What these groups of students have in common are frequent challenges related to their perceived language proficiencies and cultural identities. Some may feel isolated or living in between cultures, not really belonging to a particular one. But in the course, these students realize that their experiences are shared by many others,” Ecke said. “Many students we have who come from African countries find their multilingualism totally normal and they may use three, four, or five languages regularly. They’re not equally fluent in all these languages, but each has its place and is used in their everyday life. In the course, they may reflect on their language use and issues of language loss.”

For some assignments, Ecke asks students to provide advice with respect to real-life scenarios, explaining responses to different challenges, for example, a friend or family seeking help about an international work opportunity, or a bilingual couple considering how to raise a child in terms of language and culture.

“They learn what it means to acquire, maintain and forget languages, and are provided with insights that help them make informed decisions as language learners in college, in their careers and in their families,” he said.

Associate Professor Liudmila Klimanova in the Department of Russian and Slavic Studies focuses on the intersections of language studies, multilingualism, multiculturalism and identity.

“We can think about multilingualism as a borderland,” she said. “Knowing multiple languages gives you a set of skills that extends far beyond your linguistic ability to communicate and connect with different communities. Evidence shows that knowledge of multiple languages contributes to building comfort with uncertainty and reduces anxiety in complex situations, which adds a unique strength to someone’s professional identity.” 

Part of Klimanova’s research and teaching centers on the relationship between language, identity, and larger social and cultural contexts in Russia and the Post-Soviet world. Like other examples across space and time, sociolinguistic categories are created that can be tied to inclusion or exclusion. Essentially, monolingualism can become a political tool to impose control on segments of a population. 

“Multilingualism empowers you in so many different ways. It has given people a power to think independently, but there’s a history of suppression of multilingualism and bilingualism, when it’s perceived as a weapon,” she said. 

Studies and applications of multilingualism also consider how the linguistic diversity of a place impacts identity and how languages become inter-related. Southern Arizona is a good example, with more than 40 languages spoken in Tucson. The U of A is an Hispanic Serving Institution, but its multilingualism extends far beyond that. 

“Multilingual speakers really see the world differently. You learn a whole way of viewing and thinking about the world from people who bring multiple languages to the table,” she said. “That creates a very beautiful, multifaceted, rich understanding of what the world is all about, and translates into very important work-related skills and social skills.” 

In teaching her “Religion and Film” course, DeAnna Daniels centers on Black horror, using the genre as a way to understand religion and film in all of its multiplicities. 

Daniels and her students spend the semester exploring the relationship between religion and visual storytelling and analyzing various ideological and moral topics and messages. 

“Horror is the perfect genre,” Daniels said. “It provides catharsis, it provides escape and it helps you wrestle with those thoughts around what we are afraid of, culturally and societally, and wrestle with what happens after death. It gets to the questions of human existence and gives us an outlet to visually see them.” 

Daniels, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and Religious Studies, extends the theme to her research, which includes a current project co-editing a collection called “The Sinners Reader: Black Horror, Black Religion(s), and Contemporary Popular Culture.” 

The prevalence of horror films across countries and cultures provides a number of different vantage points to consider the existential questions around death, the afterlife and what people both fear and embrace. 

“The western cosmological system is not the only one that experiences death and dying, or supernatural entities or spiritual beings,” Daniels said. “Taiwanese horror is going to have a conversation about the afterlife. Japanese horror is going to have a conversation about the afterlife. Black horror is going to have a conversation about the afterlife. These beings, these monsters, these entities, are going to help you wrestle through what’s possible. We don’t know what happens after death and horror is a great way to explore that.” 

As part of the 2025 Tucson Humanities Festival, Daniels shared a playlist of horror-related hip-hop songs on Halloween as a guest DJ on KXCI Community Radio. Daniels’ selections included: Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” discussing its stylistic music video and the connections between Afrofuturism and horror; Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s Grammy-winning “Tha Crossroads,” which she says offers a different perspective on theological concerns around how one dies well; and the Nicki Minaj verse on “Monster” as a metaphorical commentary on her artistry in a male-dominated arena. 

Daniels is a longtime fan of horror films, with the level of refined analysis she now brings to the genre developing throughout her academic journey. 

“I was always engaging with it, but I never had the language for it. Once it clicked, everything just made sense and it felt like a beautiful tapestry of connectivity. Now everywhere I go, I can say ‘That’s the horror, that’s the monster, that’s the gothic,’” she said. “It took time and education, but the themes were always there. Having the right vocabulary and tools to assess them properly came through education and Africana and Black Studies are prime for that.” 

Daniels said students often enroll in her course because they get to watch a film in class, but end up with an experience that goes beyond their expectations. 

“I think they stay because I have a pedagogy of tension. I want them to be uncomfortable, I want them to ask the uncomfortable questions and sit with what those answers might bring up,” Daniels said. “I just want them to think what’s possible, explore what they know already, find something new and try to tangle with it. Usually they’re ready to do the work.” 

Horror offers a lens to view experiences of being “othered,” whether that’s along lines of race, sexuality, gender and more, Daniels said. On screen, the monster, as well as the victims, can exist outside the norms of a society, but are given voice by the filmmakers. 

“How does the monster show up? What does the monster have to say? When they speak, it’s loud,” she said. 

In some ways, Michelle Durham can trace her career as a television executive back to a flight to Paris she took as a college student. 

“I got off of the plane and I thought ‘Yep, this is where I’m supposed to be.’ Studying abroad was an untouchable dream that I got to make happen. I could see that my world was going to open up beyond Arizona,” she said. “I had such an amazing time that it started to build that a muscle memory of you can do things that are scary and ridiculous. It’s going to make you better. It’s going to make you stronger. So have those feelings of fear, but don’t let them stop you from doing anything because you never know what’s going to change your life.” 

Until she was there, studying abroad felt out of touch. She was leaving the country for the first time, and at the time, it was the scariest thing she’d ever done. But these days, she remains dedicated to Paris, visiting once or twice a year. 

“I had fun, I learned the culture. My family I lived with, we had dinner together every night and I came back just energized and with a new community,” she said. “All of the women that I studied with, we stayed together through the rest of the major. We had somebody who now is a game theorist, somebody who is in veterinary sciences. I’m in television. We were just a weird group of people who all came together in the French classes.” 

Durham, who graduated in 2002 with a double major in French and Communication, is currently the Senior Vice President of Programming for Warner Bros. Discovery. In recognition of her distinguished career as a media executive, specializing in television programming, planning and research and bringing innovation in reshaping the industry into the multiplatform format of today, Durham is awarded the College of Humanities’ 2025-26 Alumna of the Year. 

Durham started her television career in Los Angeles, working in research with the marketing team for the international side of CBS. She studied how audiences interacted with television shows and then got into qualitative research, listening to audiences. 

“I was reading TV guides to find out what people were watching, internationally. And it was very easy for me to read what was happening in France, which is one of the biggest television markets for U.S. product,” she said. “So all of a sudden, all of these passions, all of these things that I wanted to do – television, language, international business – were coming together for the first time.” 

Durham didn’t stay in her international role for long, moving on to the programing side of the company after moving to New York, and steadily rising through the ranks. Today, she is in charge of strategy for 15 cable networks, including budget and operational oversight, managing a team of 26 and a multi-platform portfolio of live sports, original series and acquisitions. 

“Those lessons about what people want to watch, how they’re watching it, how they’re consuming stories, what moves them from one place to the other, that all stayed. Those foundations are in learning about language and culture,” she said. “So while I don’t speak French every day, those foundational lessons still apply.” 

When she arrived at the University of Arizona, Florence Luna tested out of her language requirement. But she didn’t want to take a shortcut and miss taking advantage of everything the university had to offer. 

Luna, a first generation American whose first language was Spanish, started exploring what she was interested in and decided she wanted to study something both practical and challenging. 

“I wanted to expand the communities with which I could connect and have a more well-rounded experience. For me, that meant picking up a language,” she said. “I knew I wanted to leverage my education as far as I could, so I looked into a lot of different, more challenging languages, like Russian, Mandarin and Arabic.” 

Luna considered parts of the world where knowing the language could help her leverage her economics major, as well as what exposure she had to languages through pop culture, and landed on Mandarin. 

“I decided that I would just do one semester of Mandarin Chinese 101. After that, I went on to 202, and then I kept going and picked up Buddhist meditation and Japanese and Chinese nationalism and other courses until my advisor surprised me to say that I was only a few classes away from a degree in East Asian Studies,” she said. “At first, pursuing this out of a passion, I didn’t realize how it was a crucial component of preparing for my career.” 

Luna, who graduated in 2015 with a B.A. in East Asian Studies and a B.S. in Business Economics, is the recipient of the College of Humanities 2025-26 Young Professional Achievement Award. 

As an undergraduate, Luna studied abroad for one summer in Shanghai, an experience that helped develop her language skills and her appreciation for the culture, but also helped secure her first internship, with BMW in China. She also interned with Goldman Sachs and continued with the company after graduating. She went on to earn an MBA from Cornell University and today, she is co-founder and CEO of Fig Medical, which spun out of the university and secured investment capital. 

Reflecting on her career path, Luna said her East Asian Studies degree has helped in both expected and unexpected ways. 

“At first, I was pursuing this out of a passion. I didn’t realize how it wasn’t tangential to my career preparation, but actually a crucial component,” she said. “Mandarin was a difficult language, and it was incredibly enriching and fulfilling to be able to learn this incredibly difficult language. It gave me a lot of courage to continue to face other challenges, I was able to kind of use that same courage and kind of tap into all of those characteristics that I developed.” 

Luna also applies humanities skills at her healthcare startup, Fig Medical, a prior authorization software that streamlines the administrative burden for doctors by using AI to improve the likelihood that the prior authorization will be approved, getting patients care sooner and doctors reimbursed faster.

“The patients who are impacted, the doctors that we’re communicating with, the executives who are running hospitals, they are often coming from all sorts of places in the United States, and outside the United States, with all sorts of cultural backgrounds,” she said. “Understanding how to communicate across cultures, and also understanding how important a perspective is that is very culturally different than your own, is increasingly important to building solutions.”