By Michelle La Roche Pietri
Dr. Anna Peterson is a professor for the Department of Religion and the new director of the Sustainability Studies program at the University of Florida. She is a social ethicist whose research revolves around religion, society and environmental ethics. She is also co-coordinator of Ethics in the Public Sphere, a project that focuses on public ethical issues and creates ethics educational programs at UF.
Dr. Peterson finds that employing social ethics allows her to explore how people understand good societies and how they manage resources. For her, there is a “natural connection” between social ethics and environmental ethics. For example, the class she is currently teaching, Religion and Sustainability, combines her background in religion with issues like economics, equity and nature.
The new director has many ideas on how to continue building the major, and when asked about the kinds of changes she is interested in implementing, she said, “Right now, I’m really enjoying getting to know the students and faculty involved in the program and learning from them about how we can move forward together. This is a great major, with wonderful students, and we have a lot of strengths to build on. There are also lots of opportunities to make it even better. A few of the priorities I’ve heard from students are streamlining the major so that the core/cluster categories are more straightforward, enabling students to have a concentration within Sustainability Studies, and supporting opportunities for research, internships, experiential learning and connections across campus.”
Changing the major, according to Dr. Peterson, is also necessary to reflect how the sustainability field has changed since the major was created in 2011. She is looking for as much feedback as possible, so she encourages students and staff to reach out to her with any ideas on how to improve the program. In addition to revamping the core and cluster courses, the director wants to make it easier for students to have a concentration within Sustainability Students, so students can “pursue their interests within the major with their concentration.”
Dr. Peterson is teaching the Sustainability senior capstone course in the spring, which she believes will help foster a sense of community in the interdisciplinary major. She also hopes the new Sustainability Studies Student Alliance, a new student organization, can expand the community.
Additional opportunities Dr. Peterson wants to highlight include the sustainability-focused study abroad programs in Belize and Australia. To learn more about these programs, go to the UF Office of Study Abroad and ask for information on “UF in Belize: Sustainable Development and & NGO Engagement” and “UF in North Queensland, Australia — Sustaining Humans and their Environments.”
Dr. Peterson also emphasizes the new research opportunities available within the program. The Sustainability Scholars Student Research Award will provide two applicants and their respective faculty mentors with funding to perform sustainability related research, which will be presented at the Sustainability Studies student research symposium and the Center for Undergraduate Research symposium in April 2026.
Dr. Peterson advises Sustainability Studies students and alumni to rely on each other to strengthen our community: “Keep as many doors open as you can. I love that Sustainability students, by definition, are very intellectually curious, they have lots of different interests, so pursue those. I know it’s a really stressful time. And the world feels uncertain… and that’s tough, so I would say community really helps. Keep as many doors open as you can for yourself and also build, lean into, and strengthen your communities… When things are uncertain — financially, economically, politically, ecologically — having those connections is one of the most important things we can do for both self-care and to chart a way forward.”