Stories

In summer 2026, Religious Studies Major Perry Frances Kleinlein completed a major research project. Supported by the College of Arts and Sciences’s REAL program, her paper explored how Christian accounts of human identity relate to the ways that humans treat the environment. In dialogue with Genesis and paleoanthropological accounts of the Neolithic era, she proposed a framework for reimagining what it means to be human and how humans relate to creation.

1. What did you learn from the experience of doing research?

I was amazed to discover that I wasn’t the only one asking the questions that initially inspired this project. Other people had been asking them, too, and discovering an academic community aligned with my interests made me feel less isolated in my own uncertainty and inspired me to continue searching for answers. I learned that the questions I once carried alone belong to a larger conversation, and research—guided by curiosity and sustained by discipline and mentorship—is how to join that conversation.

2. What were two big insights that came from this research?

One major insight was that ideas about human nature are not abstract: the way we define what it means to be human shapes how we treat the natural world. A self-understanding that places humanity apart from and above creation makes ecological harm appear normal and even inevitable. I grappled with this issue throughout my research. A second insight concerned Genesis, the focus of my paper. Although the text has long been invoked to justify human dominance, I realized that discarding it on those grounds would forfeit a crucial source of ancient knowledge. Later interpretations of Genesis cannot be understood as representations of the authors' intentions, and it is precisely because of the mystery surrounding Genesis that we should continue to investigate into the lessons it holds for humanity.

3. What was it like working with your faculty mentor?

Working with Dr. Schutz was a wonderful experience! Having a mentor specialized in my research topic made the process much more enriching than if I had done it alone. I engaged with Dr. Schutz’s own scholarship extensively throughout my paper, and his work was instrumental in shaping the questions and arguments I developed. Most importantly, his encouragement gave me the confidence I needed to take intellectual risks and develop my own voice as a researcher.

4. What would you tell other students who are thinking about doing research like this?

Do it! This project gave me the opportunity to explore big questions I had been asking for years about why humans act the way they do and what our true place in creation might be. Questions like these can feel impossible to approach alone, which is why mentored research is so valuable: it offers the guidance, resources, and intellectual community to investigate them seriously. You do not need to begin with all the answers - curiosity is a great place to start!

5. In a perfect world, what kind of awareness, movement, or change would you hope your research would inspire?

I hope this research can contribute to a broader movement that I believe is already taking shape among my generation - a movement to question the values and assumptions that shape our relationship with the world. These questions would not seem so pertinent if we were not living in a historical turning point. The turbulence we live in – ecological degradation, economic uncertainty, war, authoritarianism, injustice – puts us in a unique position to question the status quo. My project grew out of questions about why we value some things and not others, why changing our ways can be so difficult, and what it means to be human in relation to the rest of creation. I hope my investigation encourages others to search the threads connecting history to the present and critically investigate the inherited ideas that shape our contemporary social and ecological realities.