Environmental Arts and Humanities master’s student examines sustainability from an Indigenous perspective
Sky Krakos
By Quinn Keller, CLA Student Writer - January 8, 2025
During Sky Krakos’ time as an undergraduate student at Webster University in St. Louis, they had the unique opportunity to study alongside Indigenous scholars examining coffee production and environmental activism in Costa Rica and Ecuador. Although they only spent a handful of weeks abroad, this experience turned out to be a formative part of Krakos’ education, where they were introduced to eco-feminism and gender philosophy in connection with environmental labor. Coupled with their undergraduate degree in philosophy and human rights, focused on genocide, forced migration, and education, the Environmental Arts and Humanities program at OSU’s College of Liberal Arts was a perfect fit for Krakos.
“One thing I believe to be fully true about the humanities is that it’s foundational to a fulfilled life,” Krakos said. “The sciences are crucial, yet so are the humanities. I see myself as a fusion scholar trying to combine these disciplines together that have been so long kept in their separate corners.”
The field of environmental humanities presented itself to Krakos when they began working at the YMCA of the Seven Council Fires in the Cheyenne River Nation, in South Dakota. After initially spending time as a camper through the YMCA Youth Exchange Program, they became a counselor, liaison, and collaborator for the YMCA chapter with native groups in South Dakota. Krakos has worked with the YMCA of the Seven Council Fires for over a decade and continues to work for the same YMCA chapter, remotely during the academic year and then traveling to South Dakota every summer.
“Thinking about the intersection of social justice and human rights within environmental justice is what I’mreally passionately engaged with,” said Krakos. “And I feel that there's not a more just cause, right now, than environmental justice.”
Currently, Krakos has finished their first year of their master’s program and is a graduate instructor in the crop and soil science department. “Teaching and working with students is one of my favorite things about OSU,” they said. “Interacting with students of different disciplines that are all engaged in sustainability is like this utopia idea that I love to engage with every week. Having business students and economists, psychologists, philosophers, and biologists all working together in one room toward sustainability seems to be, for me, the only route forward for all of us.” Krakos is also Union Steward for the Coalition of Graduate Employees for the department of history, philosophy, and religious studies.
Complementing Krakos’ academic work, they are also working with humanities scholars and artists from across the country to create an exhibit at PRAx, titled How To Carry Water: Memory in Three Questions. The exhibition, debuting in September in the Stirek Gallery, will bring 15 different artists focused on human engagement with water. This includes everything from LIDAR scans of rivers, to performance art pieces, to film, all meant to encourage thought about how society interacts with water, and the “human experience” behind it.
“I think one of the messiest things that humans have to learn at this point is to coexist with one another. Community seems to be the one thing that we have struggled to nail down. I think the humanities starts to grapple with these concepts,” Krakos said. “How can we create community, learn from our past, and try to shape a better future and live alongside the environment while doing it?”
Now, Krakos’ research agenda has taken a specific focus on how nuclear warhead testing has impacted long term radiation of Indigenous and marginalized communities, specifically the Minuteman Nuclear Missile Silos in North and South Dakota from 1962-1991.