Our very own associate professor and chair of French & Italian Studies Richard Watts sat down with the University of Washington's Whole U for a fascinating discussion of his background and extensive work on the cultural and aesthetic significance of water. In the profile Watts discusses his popular course Water Crisis in Literature & Cinema which maps water’s changing cultural meanings from its mythological roots to its context in the modern world. This summer Watts will also help lead City/Nature: Urban Environmental Humanities, a new summer institute made possible by a grant from The National Endowment for the Humanities to address questions about the environment in the context of urban development and social justice. Read the entire profile here.