Globetrotting: Sheldon Ekland-Olson

Deep in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, Sheldon Ekland-Olson found himself eating a lunch of roasted lamb and drinking Moroccan mint tea while listening to the lilting strum of a local musician playing the Moroccan lute.

Deep in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, Dr. Sheldon Ekland-Olson (hiding in the photo to the left) found himself eating a lunch of roasted lamb and drinking Moroccan mint tea while listening to the lilting strum of a local musician playing the Moroccan lute.

Ekland-Olson and his son-in-law, Miroslav “Miki” Vuckovic, had stopped to take a look at crafts in this village’s souk, or market, which is about 75 kilometers from Marrakesh. Ekland-Olson, who is a sociologist and the new director of the School of Human Ecology, has been travelling back and forth to Morocco for about 20 years, with interests in how communities develop across place, time and life circumstances. He was in Morocco on this particular journey to help develop academic programs in Al Akhawayn University, in Ifrane. “The lessons reaffirmed from this summer’s trip are that this is a small world,” says Ekland-Olson. “Our lives are intimately interconnected. The more we can appreciate the interconnections the better off we will all be.”

Ekland-Olson says the School of Human Ecology is in many ways a small college within a college (the College of Natural Sciences, of course). “Courses are being taught and research is being done drawing on the fields of chemistry, biology, business, design, art, engineering, psychology, sociology and anthropology,” he says. “As I like to say, ‘The School of Human Ecology is where science and design are brought to life.’”