In teaching and research, Sabina Shaikh reframes relationship between humans, nature
“Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, University of Chicago scholar Sabina Shaikh and her seven-year-old daughter resolved to get outside every day. They found time to bond before remote school and teaching on Zoom each morning by going to a neighborhood park, which became a perfect place to exercise and explore nature.
Venturing out even in rain and sub-zero windchills, they observed the change of seasons in minute detail: fresh snow in winter; their favorite magnolia and cherry trees budding and blossoming; birdsong rising over the course of spring; a cicada emerging from its exoskeleton; and dozens of migrating monarch butterflies resting on branches in late summer. They even raised some caterpillars of their own and released them.”