MAKING ARIZONA
U of A Prof Tells the Science and Story of a Cherished Homeland
Professor of film Michael Mulcahy uses an RII production grant and a few others to communicate the value of the land and its continued flourishing.
—Tucson, AZ—
Michael Mulcahy, associate professor in the School of Theatre, Film & Television, sensed a story ready for the telling in early 2020, as the pandemic and social division ravaged the nation. “I wanted to address the polarized nature of American life, particularly how these political, social and economic fissures were playing out in Arizona. At the root of it, I wanted to apply my craft to make some sense of the chaos.”
Mulcahy decided to focus on climate change through the lens of diverse Arizona residents.
He applied to numerous funding sources and landed a $14,000 production grant from Research, Innovation & Impact, which led to several smaller grants: approximately $4,000 from the Arizona Humanities Council and $5,000 from the Southwest Foundation For Education and Historic Preservation. He also received support as a fellow from the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy in 2024.
With essential funding secured, Mulcahy identified his most crucial step: bringing other expertise on board. “I needed to recruit specialists in science and public policy to give substance to my project. Fortunately, working at U of A, I have access to people who spend their careers researching those topics.”
“I needed to recruit specialists in science and public policy to give substance to my project. Fortunately, working at U of A, I have access to people who spend their careers researching those topics.”
Mulcahy developed a partnership with the Arizona Institute for Resilience (AIR) environment program and established a three-person team of advisors: Jeff Banister, director of the Southwest Center; Eva Romero, with Sol Grant Partners; and Octaviana Trujillo, department chair at NAU for Applied Indigenous Studies and member of the Pascua Yaqui nation.
As the team was creating its first documentary video, Mulcahy hired graduate students to help develop the Making Arizona website. In addition to accessing documentary videos, visitors to the site can find supporting material for community groups, curriculum for school-aged youth and information about video screenings and other in-person events.
Mulcahy says a priority of Making Arizona is to “involve the subject as much as possible in telling their stories and defining what story will be told.” The team’s first video, “No Place for Isolation: Living in the Desert,” is told through the lens of Tohono O'odham member and scholar Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan. She shares how Tohono O’odham elders and the tribe worked to regain their nation’s water in the San Xavier district and revitalized farming once water returned to the land. To Mulcahy, the story embodies “the vision of oneself in relationship to the world as a balance—not resource extraction, not even equanimity, but respect on both sides. It crystallizes the idea that if we are going to address global climate change, it has to be a collective effort.”
The second video, being finalized, is about extreme heat and housing. For this project, Mulcahy collaborated with Mark Kear, assistant professor in the School of Geography, Development & the Environment, and Greg Garfin, associate professor in the School of Natural Resources & the Environment. The video documents the experiences of residents of manufactured homes, “something where the connection between climate change and lived experience is very straightforward and concrete.”
A component of the project, when funding is available, is to conduct public screenings of the videos. These events focus on interaction with the audience about climate education. The ideal audience, says Mulcahy, is “people who are uncertain about what can be done about climate change but want to do something.” Making Arizona hosted two screenings in 2024, one in Tucson and one in Chandler.
Making Arizona, Mulcahy says, is designed to help people overcome the paralysis they feel about addressing climate change. “Not to create or promote some Pollyanna-ish view that everything is going to be okay, but to share information about how people are showing resilience in the face of climate change,” Mulcahy says. “Making Arizona is a way to give people something to hold on to rather than throw up their hands.”
“Making Arizona is a way to give people something to hold on to rather than throw up their hands.”
In creating Making Arizona, Mulcahy says he is glad to have learned about “the tremendous amount of exciting research going on not only at the U of A but also at ASU and NAU. If I had not been a believer in the power of science before, I certainly would be one now. It’s inspiring.”
Mulcahy encourages faculty in the humanities to seek out scientists working in areas that interest them and, conversely, hopes all STEM researchers consider potential value added through collaboration with scholars in the arts and humanities. “I saw that a lot of what science is doing can benefit from a storytelling component. A goal of all science needs to be to reach a lay audience not only with the results but with the whole research endeavor. The larger vision and promise of the scientific work can be encapsulated, communicated and advanced through art and story.”