Seeing the World Anew: Allegheny Student Publishes Research on Field Guides and Environmental Awareness

When Allegheny College student Milo Watson '26 first flipped through a field guide, he didn't expect it would lead to a published peer-reviewed research paper. A few years later, that's exactly what happened.

Watson's essay, exploring how modern field guides shape our understanding of the natural world, was published in the prestigious Interdisciplinary journal, Studies in Literature and Environment (ISLE), a rare achievement for an undergraduate scholar.

For Watson, who's double-majoring in environmental science & sustainabilityand English, the project grew organically out of Allegheny's interdisciplinary culture, where the sciences and humanities meet, and curiosity has room to evolve.

"This project started in my freshman-year course, 'Literature and the Environment,' with former Allegheny Professor, John MacNeill Miller," Watson recalls. "We had to go outside, find an organism we couldn't identify, and use only field guides to figure out what it was. Then we wrote reflections about that experience."

Those outdoor assignments became more than simple exercises. They stirred deeper questions about what field guides include, and what they leave out. "I remember wondering why some guides only showed adult moths when inchworms are much easier to observe," he says. "That got me thinking about how authors curate the information in field guides and how that shapes users' perceptions of the natural world."

When Watson began searching for scholarship on the topic, he discovered a surprising gap. "There wasn't much published research analyzing how recent field guides communicate about nature," he says. "I realized there was still more to say."

Thanks to Allegheny's Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities (URSCA) program, Watson spent six weeks during the summer after his first academic year reading everything he could find on field guides.

Milo's participation in our summer research program captures our idea of 'research for all' and is a point of distinction for our URSCA program," says Dr. Matthew Venesky, associate professor of biology and director of the URSCA program. "By giving students space during the summer to connect ideas from different courses, and even different academic programs, like in Milo's case, our URSCA program gives students agency in their education. It is one of the reasons why our URSCA program is linked with the strong outcomes of our graduates.

The experience gave Watson the foundation to develop a full-fledged paper that eventually found its way to ISLE, one of the leading journals for literature and environmental studies published by Oxford University Press.

At its heart, Watson's article examines how field guides (especially those published since Roger Tory Peterson's 1934 landmark "Field Guide to Birds") have shaped Americans' relationship with nature. While Peterson's approach was groundbreaking for its time, Watson suggests the genre is changing, moving toward more activist and ecological purposes.

"It's been really neat to see authors recognize that many field guide users are also contributing to community science," explains Watson, who is from Fenwick Island, Delaware. "Some newer guides actually help readers assess things like local air quality or connect environmental issues directly to their neighborhoods."

He points to "Urban Lichens: A Field Guide for Northeastern North America" by Jessica Allen and James Lendemer, which helps readers gauge air pollution based on lichen populations, and Patrick J. Lynch's "Field Guide to the Mid-Atlantic Coast," which links beach management policies to ecological outcomes. "These kinds of discussions help direct people to local problems they might be able to help solve," Watson says.

In the future, Watson envisions an evolution in how field guides and their readers approach stewardship. "Environmental problems are so complex that no single guide could capture them all," he says. "But I'd love to see more guides that connect ecological science with cultural values and real-world action."

Watson's long-term goal is to become an urban or regional planner, bringing together the human and environmental dimensions of sustainability. Before attending graduate school, he plans to gain experience in the field after graduation.

For now, his published paper stands as both a personal milestone and a testament to Allegheny's distinctive approach to learning. "My faculty mentor spent hours listening to my ideas and offered incredibly empowering encouragement that motivated me to stick with this years-long project," Watson reflects. "Being encouraged to ask questions that cross disciplinary lines, and being given the space to pursue them, has significantly shaped the way I see the world."

Listen to Dr. Venesky and Watson discuss "Ethics and Aesthetics in the Contemporary Field Guide" on a GatorTAILS episode. His open-access article can be read here.