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Quentin
It’s fitting, that my area of interest begins with a reference to Lewis and Clark— the individuals, not this college— and their fateful westward journey. Following Thomas Jefferson’s purchase of Louisiana, America began a great migration into the west, starting with Lewis and Clark. Jefferson “believed that a republic depended on an independent, virtuous citizenry for its survival, and that independence and virtue went hand in hand with land ownership… In order to provide enough land…
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Alana Converse
Rising temperatures, increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters, threats to food security, and of course opportunistic diseases present a complex landscape of physical well-being that medical professionals can’t be expected to deal with effectively without institutional changes. Adaptive management strategies aim to expand the capacity of health care systems by assessing vulnerability based on population and location; model risk projections; and inform decisions through interdiscip…
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Gil Odgers
"Agriculture and Public Health" as an area of interest is meant to encompass the relationship between agricultural operations of different scales and the health of connected communities and ecosystems. This area would include questions such as "Are there long term effects of different types of agricultural techniques on soil composition?", "Is there a connection between overall health and proximity to agricultural areas?", or "How does income influence diet?". Branching off from these initial …
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Madeleine Newton
Issues of water are some of the most important within the field of development and conversations surrounding the global south. Development discourse is a significant portion of the conversation surrounding access to clean water because most approaches to improved access are focused on industrialization which in the global south is largely initiated by development actors. Access to water is connected to domestic, agricultural and industrial aspects of life across the globe. (Crow 2001, Gadgil 199…
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Keilani Vega
In modern discourse of environmental justice, the inclusion of ecofeminist ideology has been increasingly prominent. The inception of the environmental movement in the United States in the 1960s and the 1970s called not only environmental ethics into question, but also the inclusion of marginalized people. Activists on the frontlines saw that there was an immense exclusion of voices and sought to blend sociological, scientific, and political thought (Islam 2017). Thus, environmental justice was …
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Satya Austin-Opper
As humans have moved towards industrialization, large scale agriculture, global trade and other practices that come with modernization, we have surely seen an increase in negative externalities. In this era, capitalism is the dominant global form of political economy (West, 2012). Capitalism is a system that forces a single motive on the action of all of its members, perpetual accumulation of capital (Magdoff, 2011). Because industries rely so heavily on extraction, it is hard to find cohesion …
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Lindsey Dickmeyer
Nature operates at an extreme in the Arctic. Commonly characterized by its low temperatures, high levels of snow and ice, and its long winters, humans and animals alike have had to make numerous adaptations to survive in such a climate. While the northern circumpolar region remains a far-off, unexplored territory for the majority of people living to the south, an estimated ten million people live in the Arctic, with approximately ten percent of them being indigenous This includes groups such a…
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Isaac Blake
Though Modern European society thinks of itself today as “Post-Christian”, we must understand that this implies that Christianity has previously had such a profound impact on Europe as to completely shape its cultural landscape. While it may not be the dominant cultural force anymore, many of the theological principles introduced as early as late antiquity, still remain the cornerstone of our culture and democratic thought. The Eurocentric focus within this study is vital because the influen…
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Sierra Gundersen
Identifying the intricacies that make up different aspects of coral reefs will allow for a better comprehension of how the natural sciences are woven with psychology, governmental policies, and rhetoric to fully understand coral and the relationship it shares with many different actors. Coral is an animal that is comprised of polyps. Living inside the polyps are photosynthetic algae called zooxanthellae. These polyps secrete a hard outer skeleton made up of calcium carbonate that attaches itself…
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Nina Rosenbaum
The theory of the Urban Growth Machine, by the Marxist geographer David Harvey (2002), refers to the strategic coalition between local government and industry. This is based on private developers’ incentives to create the greatest profit from their investments in spatial monopolies, by charging rent for space, and a local government’s incentive to attract capital to the city, through firms and high-income individuals (Harvey). This coalition together uses a variety of tactics to work towards…
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Liam Wright
Access to energy is at the forefront of global issues today. Our current use of energy relies mostly on fossil fuels because they are cheap and easier to access. However, fossil fuel energy can produce carbon emissions that can contribute to climate change. This has driven a general increase in widespread support for renewable energy production which, in theory, could provide energy for everyone without contributing to problems such as high carbon emissions or pollution (Leiserowitz et al, 2019)…
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Abby Guild
Climate change is an ever-changing, forever-evolving process. As its negative effects increase in severity, they also become more apparent. This emphasizes the uneven distribution of these effects and the vast differences between communities in terms of preparedness and ability adapt to a changing world. The majority of Earth’s citizens haven’t seen any changes or ecological damage that warrants a drastic response. However, certain populations, such as indigenous Arctic communities, are alre…