The College of Design's Department of the History of Art and Architecture (HAA) is celebrating the appointment of Associate Professor Nina Amstutz and Assistant Professor Emily Eliza Scott as co-directors of the Center for Environmental Futures (CEF). 

CEF is an interdisciplinary group of faculty and students devoted to investing in environmentalism and social justice at the University of Oregon and the larger Eugene community. The group engages in dialogue with a number of educational fields at the university to encourage faculty and students to address our most pressing environmental and social problems through interdisciplinary environmental studies and research, supporting and encouraging community participation with the University's environmental studies programs, and building projects that cultivate relationships and help better our communities.

Nina Amstutz, PhD, is a scholar of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century art and the history of science. Emily Eliza Scott, PhD, holds a joint appointment with the Environmental Studies program and works on contemporary art that engages land use politics, political ecology, and environmental and climate justice. As HAA faculty who research and teach at the intersection of art and the environment, the appointment to co-director for the CEF is a reflection of the crucial role of art in helping make sense of and confront the grim realities of our present climate. The CEF will continue to be funded by the University of Oregon's (UO) Office of the Provost over the next three years as the group seeks to establish CEF's long-term stability. 

This commitment to the CEF is a reflection of the importance of the university's commitment to providing leadership in this space, with a portion of the UO's strategic plan devoted to being a leader in environmental resilience. 

Read the CEF announcement:  https://cef.uoregon.edu/2025/03/11/cef-welcomes-its-incoming-co-directors-nina-amstutz-and-emily-eliza-scott/