Q&A: Ursula Heise on the important stories that birds have to tell
Lucy Berbeo I UCLA
Birds, as Ursula Heise can attest, have profoundly important stories to tell — if only we know how to listen.
In the short documentary “Urban Ark Los Angeles,” which she wrote and produced in 2018 as director of UCLA’s Laboratory for Environmental Narrative Strategies, or LENS, Heise explored the world of red-crowned parrots, those noisy neighbors that frequent the skies of East Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley.
“They are an endangered species from Mexico that entered Southern California via the pet trade,” said Heise, UCLA’s Marcia H. Howard Professor of Literary Studies, who holds appointments in the department of English and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. “They’re now thriving in an urban environment that offers them an unlikely sanctuary — perhaps a model for rethinking urban species conservation.”
While a precocious pet parrot first piqued her interest in the world of birds, feathered fauna of all kinds have since become integral to Heise’s distinguished work as a leader in the field of environmental humanities.
“Birds led me to an interest in their habitats, their migrations and into ecology and environmentalism more generally,” Heise said.
For a UCLA College digital mini-magazine themed around birds, we interviewed Heise about her personal passion and her research, which spans 30 years. (Read more of the UCLA College mini-magazine, “We Are UCLAvian,” on UCLA Newsroom.)
Read the full interview.