Michaela Koenig
Michaela is a Ph.D. student in the Literature & Environment program. As a native Austrian, she needed some time to accustom her aesthetic sensors to the browns and yellows of the Great Basin landscape, but four years of traversing the desert have made the discovery of its countless charms inevitable.
Michaela's research interests focus on places most people perceive as visually intolerable, lacking intrinsic value and therefore not worth protecting. Taking an internationally comparative route, she plans to explore literary responses to places like Nevada and to examine the significance of environmental literature beyond the borders of the United States.
She has received master's degrees in English and Italian Literature and Languages from the University of Innsbruck in Austria (2001) and in American Studies from Utah State University (2002).
Please feel free to contact her at koenigm@unr.nevada.edu.