Who We Are
The Confluence Lab incubates and implements creative interdisciplinary research projects that bring together scholars in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, and community members, to engage environmental issues in the state of Idaho.
Our Primary Goal
Our goal is to facilitate idea exchange, and our central premise is that the tools of the humanities—especially those related to storytelling, representation, emotions and communication—can help develop holistic approaches to these issues from the ground up.
The projects we focus on investigate conceptual and communication barriers that underlie debates about controversial issues especially relevant to rural communities, such as public land use, natural resource management, wildfires, drought, energy infrastructure and the causes and effects of climate change.
- Confluence Lab, Partners Address Pacific NW Justice Issues with $4.5 Million Grant
- ‘Communicating Fire’: University of Idaho Project Enhances STEM Learning with Wildfire Stories
- Interdisciplinary Research Lab Integrates Humanities, Social Sciences and Sciences
- A discussion with Erin James, Jennifer Ladino, and Teresa Cohn about the Confluence Lab with the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities
Understanding Wilderness
The story of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness is more than the science, more than the river, more than the people. Members of the Confluence Lab — Teresa Cohn, Ruby Fulton and the icarus Quartet — are dedicated to helping people explore their relationship with wilderness including their views of the Frank.