Arvin Singh Uzunov-Dang

MA University of Oxford

Before Dragons, Arvin wore a variety of hats, most recently leading Himalayan expeditions and managing a portfolio of experiential programs spanning environmental and adventure education, politics, activism, and community engagement for United World College, India. As an educator, he is particularly interested in critically examining the incentives and structures around the world that drive power, access, and policy, and the erosion of traditional ways of knowing and being. Arvin attributes this focus to the startling juxtapositions he observed as a young adult while working and traveling through different regions and industries. And thus, within the classroom and out in the field, Arvin challenges students to find their agency in the narrative of global engagement, stewardship, and social justice.

Arvin first stepped into the Himalayas in 2009 and has kept one foot there ever since. As an outdoorsman, he believes that difficult issues – climate change, inequality, conflict – often stem from individual and collective deficits in compassion, leadership and followership, deficits that are readily corrected through authentic challenges in the wilderness. Some of his most beautiful professional experiences to date include leading a student-run wildland Fire & Rescue service for 7 years and unsupported month long expeditions to 20,000 foot peaks. More personally, he has a deep love for the wilderness, and as often as possible finds his way into the cold high mountains and warm clear oceans, preferably in that order! He is a mountaineer and freediver and has recently become an expedition photographer to practice his art and share this love more widely.