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You can view the recording of this talk on our Coffee Hour kaltura channel
You can view the recording of this talk on our Coffee Hour kaltura channel
Fires in semi-arid forests in the western United States tended to burn periodically and at low severity until the policy of fire suppression put an end to these low-intensity events and created the conditions for the destructive fires seen today. Understanding the benefits of these periodic fires and the forest structure that they maintained may help land managers and communities avert megafires in the future, according to researchers.
Douglas Miller, who earned three degrees from Penn State; worked as a research assistant, research associate and professor in two colleges; and created and led the Center for Environmental Informatics for 20 years, retired in July and was granted emeritus status.
112 Walker Building, Meetings with Graduate Program Officer, Trevor Birkenholtz,
Concurrent: When not meeting, go to 302 Walker Building to complete working papers with Judy Heltman and get office keys from Darlene Peletski
noon–1 p.m. lunch on your own
Experiences of health and disease in the United States are heavily predicated on two intertwining factors -- racial discrimination and place, the latter both as geographic location and as reflective of place attachments. These issues are more salient than ever as recent events demonstrate, such as the American Medical Association finally acknowledging racism as a threat to public health, environmental justice becoming a key presidential policy priority, and covid-19 taking a dramatically uneven toll on Black, Indigenous and Latinx adults. In this seminar, we will discuss how the structural foundations of racism have developed to impact health and disease across nearly all outcomes, including inscribing disease in place. We will further evaluate these topics analytically from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives.
In this seminar we will examine recent research on infrastructural geographies with a specific focus on natural resource infrastructures and “green infrastructure.” In recent years, infrastructure has been conceptualized as a mediator of nature-society and state-society relations, but also as an active agent in reworking access to and control over resources (e.g., water, energy, financial, healthcare, economic, political). Theoretically, infrastructure has been variously conceived as a network, assemblage or as nature-society-technical hybrid, among other perspectives.
Our goal for the semester is threefold. First, we will build a typology of theoretical approaches for the study of infrastructural geographies by examining the histories, assumptions, and strengths and weaknesses of these different conceptual frameworks. Second, we will ground them with specific case studies to identify their contributions to our understanding of natural resource & green infrastructure. Finally, we will identify ongoing and future research lacunae to apply to our own research projects. We will meet these goals through weekly response papers, in-class mini lectures and presentations, fieldtrips, and a final research paper and presentation.
In this seminar we will examine recent research on infrastructural geographies with a specific focus on natural resource infrastructures and “green infrastructure.” In recent years, infrastructure has been conceptualized as a mediator of nature-society and state-society relations, but also as an active agent in reworking access to and control over resources (e.g., water, energy, financial, healthcare, economic, political). Theoretically, infrastructure has been variously conceived as a network, assemblage or as nature-society-technical hybrid, among other perspectives.
Our goal for the semester is threefold. First, we will build a typology of theoretical approaches for the study of infrastructural geographies by examining the histories, assumptions, and strengths and weaknesses of these different conceptual frameworks. Second, we will ground them with specific case studies to identify their contributions to our understanding of natural resource & green infrastructure. Finally, we will identify ongoing and future research lacunae to apply to our own research projects. We will meet these goals through weekly response papers, in-class mini lectures and presentations, fieldtrips, and a final research paper and presentation.
The assertion that "place matters" is arguably the fundamental assumption of geographical thinking. While geographers take this assertion for granted, it is important to unpack its nuances. This becomes even more important when discussions of place have been incorporated into other disciplines. In this seminar we will examine the underlying pieces of the puzzle. Exactly what is a place? What characteristics of a place matter? What are the effects of a place on an individual or individuals and the mechanisms behind these effects?
This seminar will pursue several distinct goals:
1. Engaging with foundational texts - We will read some of the foundational texts in human geography and cognate fields that have addressed issues of how and why place matters, including theoretical texts like Henri Lefebvre's "The Production of Space" as well as empirical works like Robert Sampson's "Great American City." In addition to our core geographic texts, we will draw on understandings of place from other fields like sociology, economics, political science, education, and health sciences.
2. Student-curated topics - Building on the texts above, students will work together to explore cutting edge research on why and how place matters for individuals within their respective areas of interest in order to understand the current state of the literature and where geographic engagements with the concept of place need to go from here.
3. Reading across methods - A critical challenge in this area is reconciling the complexity of relationships between people and place with the fact that as researchers we must often generalize this complexity. To work effectively in this realm, readers must be comfortable with both qualitative and quantitative approaches to understanding why place matters. Thus, in this seminar we will discuss how to read across theoretical, qualitative, and quantitative research.
4. Systematic review of place - In this seminar, we will collectively undertake a systematic review of the literature and identify in broad terms the strengths, weaknesses, and best practices in current geographic engagements with place for scholars within and beyond the discipline. The end product of this work will be a co-authored journal submission to "The Professional Geographer."
The seminar is intended for graduate students in human geography with an interest in broadening their knowledge of place as a fundamental component of geographic thinking. The multidisciplinary nature of place should similarly make this seminar accessible to students across a range of social and health sciences regardless of their background in geography.
Course Activities: Students will be responsible for producing at least one annotated bibliography of current scholarship on the impacts of place on individuals in their area of expertise or interest. Students will help curate the readings and guide the class in discussion on their chosen topic. Students will also participate in a collaborative systematic review of the literature for journal article submission.
