Department of Geography (DoG) News and Events Where it's at!

IMAGE OF THE WEEK

Interior perspective drawing for The C. Gregory Knight Collaborative Learning Lab, in room 229 Walker Building. The Knight Lab will be designed as a collaborative work space for undergraduate students. The design will continue the small-group collaboration and dynamic course structuring held dear by students that Knight fostered during his tenure in geography.

GOOD NEWS

Send your good news to share to geography@psu.edu.

NEWS

The Miller Lecture: Julie A. Winkler “Climate Change Impact Assessments for International Market Systems”
The vast majority of climate change impact assessments evaluate how local or regional systems and processes may be affected by a future climate. Alternative strategies that extend beyond the local or regional scale are needed when assessing the potential impacts of climate change on international market systems, including agricultural commodities. These industries have multiple production regions that are distributed worldwide and are likely to be differentially impacted by climate change.

• 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.
• Refreshments are offered in 319 Walker Building at 3:00 p.m.
• The lecture begins in 112 Walker Building at 4:00 p.m.
• Coffee Hour To Go

Researchers hunting for Pennsylvania’s orphaned and abandoned wells
Like any good hunter, Nooreen Meghani knows how to read the signs that her prey is close. But deep in the Allegheny National Forest, she’s not following animal tracks — or any sign of life for that matter. Instead she traces the path of an old metal pipe running along the forest floor.

Calls for submissions

• The Archaeological Review from Cambridge, an international, postgraduate run academic journal, is seeking submissions for Volume 31.2: Landscapes and People. This issue seeks to bring together a variety of methods of landscape studies, particularly those engaged in reconstructing ancient human landscapes. Abstracts of no more than 500 words describing your potential paper should be sent to Ian Ostericher (ido20@cam.ac.uk). The deadline for abstract submission is November 15, 2015. More information: http://www.societies.cam.ac.uk/arc/home.html
• As part of its twenty-fifth anniversary celebration, CLGBTE will sponsor an interdisciplinary academic symposium, showcasing current LGBT research and instruction conducted at Penn State by faculty and graduate students from across the University’s twenty-four campuses. The event will be held at the Hintz Family Alumni Center, University Park campus on Friday, April 22, 2016. Submissions pertaining to any aspect of LGBT/queer studies are being solicited from Penn State faculty and graduate students. The length of individual presentations should not exceed 20 minutes. Please send a title and summary (300 words maximum) of your presentation/paper, your academic title and affiliation, and a brief personal biography to Kim Bowmaster at ksg165@psu.edu.SUBMISSION DEADLINE: December 1, 2015. More information: http://equity.psu.edu/clgbte

RECENTLY (OR SOON TO BE) PUBLISHED

Special Issue: Critical Approaches to Landscape Visualization
Edited by Katherine Foo, Emily Gallagher, Ian Bishop and Annette M. Kim
Landscape and Urban Planning, Volume 142,  Pages 1-244, October 2015—open access until Nov. 20

IMAGE OF THE WEEK

Penn State’s carto family in the house at NACIS 2015. Photo: Alethea Steingisser

GOOD NEWS

Send your good news to share to geography@psu.edu.

NEWS

EMS to celebrate life of professor C. Gregory Knight

A Celebration of Life gathering will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 23, in Robb Hall at the Hintz Family Alumni Center on the University Park campus of Penn State to celebrate the life of beloved faculty member C. Gregory Knight. A faculty member for 40 years in College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (EMS), Knight was widely respected by his peers, the many students whose lives he touched and colleagues in his field.

For more information, visit http://www.geog.psu.edu/news/events/c-gregory-knight-commemoration online.

October 30: The Miller Lecture
Julie A. Winkler “Climate Change Impact Assessments for International Market Systems”
The vast majority of climate change impact assessments evaluate how local or regional systems and processes may be affected by a future climate. Alternative strategies that extend beyond the local or regional scale are needed when assessing the potential impacts of climate change on international market systems, including agricultural commodities. These industries have multiple production regions that are distributed worldwide and are likely to be differentially impacted by climate change.

• 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.
• Refreshments are offered in 319 Walker Building at 3:00 p.m.
• The lecture begins in 112 Walker Building at 4:00 p.m.
• Coffee Hour To Go

IMAGE OF THE WEEK

Sara Hanson (B.S. ’13) sends in this photo from a trip to Haiti in June 2015. The shot was taken from the helicopter on route to the fourth mountain location, where her team camped and surveyed the reptile and amphibian diversity. Send your photos from fieldwork and travels to geography@psu.edu

GOOD NEWS

Lucas Harris received a NASA Space Grant Fellowship and a Travel Grant to give a paper at the 6th international Fire Congress in San Antonio.

Catherine Airey received a Joint Fire Science Program with Alan Taylor on the interactions of land use and climate change on fire and on forest change in the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho and a Travel Grant to give a paper at the 6th international Fire Congress in San Antonio, Texas.

Alan Taylor received a grant from the joint fire sciences program to study fire and forest development in old growth ponderosa pine forests in California

Graduate students Adrienne Tucker and Jase Bernhardt and undergraduate Jordan Qualtieri-Tyrrell, attended the AAG Middle States Meeting this past weekend in Binghamton, NY. Tucker and Bernhardt each presented talks in the Weather and Climate session, while all three successfully participated in the regional geography bowl, with Bernhardt qualifying to play in the World Geography Bowl at the National AAG Meeting in San Francisco.

Send your good news to share to geography@psu.edu.

NEWS

October 16 Coffee Hour with Neil Brown
“Engaging geographically dispersed communities of learners in scholarly discourse on global phenomena”
We continue to see complex, globally relevant, human-environmental issues such as climate change, sustainability, and food security, in the news and being debated at the ballot boxes. Unfortunately, the importance of these issues is often undermined by the difficulty in interpreting and communicating their relevance to our lives and the many ways in which they manifest in local contexts.

• 3:30 to 5:00 p.m.
• Refreshments are offered in 319 Walker Building at 3:30 p.m.
• The lecture begins in 112 Walker Building at 4:00 p.m.
• Coffee Hour To Go
• Next Week: No Coffee Hour, Please join us to celebrate the life and work of C. Gregory Knight

Climate models used to explain formation of Mars valley networks
The extensive valley networks on the surface of Mars were probably created by running water billions of years ago, but the source of that water is unknown. Now, a team of Penn State and NASA researchers is using climate models to predict how greenhouse warming could be the source of the water.

2015–16 Humbert H. Humphrey Fellow Panel Presentations
The Humphrey Fellowship Program is a one-year non-degree program of combined academic and professional development opportunities. It brings accomplished mid-career professionals from designated countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East to selected universities in the United States for public service, advanced study, professional training, and work-related experiences. All presentations are at noon in Foster Auditorium, Paterno Library.

• November 9: Millennium Development Goals in Algeria, Belize, and Pakistan:
• November 16: Higher Education Systems in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Mexico, and Pakistan
• November 30: Teacher Education in El Salvador, Iran, and the Philippines

RECENTLY (OR SOON TO BE) PUBLISHED

Understanding agrobiodiversity and the rise of resilience: analytic category, conceptual boundary object or meta-level transition?
By Karl S. Zimmerer in Resilience: International Policies, Practices and Discourses
doi:10.1080/21693293.2015.1072311
The use of resilience as a concept has expanded significantly in scientific research and policy with regard to social–ecological interactions and sustainability. This paper asks first how resilience is being used analytically in studies of social–ecological systems. It then queries how resilience is being applied conceptually as a boundary object in scientific studies and policy formulations that seek to connect across social and environmental systems. It also asks how the use of resilience as a concept may reflect significant political and economic transitions.

DOG OF THE WEEK

Last week’s dog was Bella, part of Chris and Lara Fowler’s family. Send a photo of your animal companion to geography@psu.edu.

IMAGE OF THE WEEK

The “floating village” of Kampong Phluk in Cambodia, sent by Donald Rallis (Ph.D. ’92) from a recent trip. Rallis is a professor of geography at the American University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Send your photos from fieldwork and travels to geography@psu.edu.

BONUS IMAGE OF THE WEEK

The Nittany Lion borrows Robert Cardillo’s Coffee Hour mug after an engaging talk and Q&A on October 2. Also pictured, Todd Bacastow. Photo: Alex Vavreck. The video of the talk can be viewed here. Unfortunately, there were some technical issues with the audio, which starts at 15:23.

GOOD NEWS

Rachel Headley (Ph.D. ’03) received a $100K grant from the USDA Local Food program to connect local food producers to cafeterias in nursing homes and hospitals in her community.

Sarah Chamberlain has been named Curator of the PAC Herbarium at Penn State.  The Herbarium is located in Whitmore Laboratory.  Also, she and Rob Brooks just published a paper in Ecological Indicators titled, “Testing a rapid Floristic Quality Index on headwater wetlands in central Pennsylvania, USA.”

Alexander Klippel, together with Danielle Oprean from the Stuckeman School, Klaus Keller from GeoSciences, and Erica Smithwick, have received funding from the Ecology Institute for a luncheon /workshop on Virtual Ecology. The Luncheon will take place on November 12 and is open to everyone interested in 3D modeling and virtual reality technology. Registration can be accessed via the department website.

Send your good news to share to geography@psu.edu.

NEWS

October 9 Coffee Hour with Candace Brakewood
“Don’t Miss the Bus: Quantifying the Impacts of Real-Time Information on Transit Ridership”
Urban spaces are at their best when people can easily reach the amenities, services, and facilities that improve quality of life. Public transportation plays an important role in urban transportation systems by helping to combat roadway congestion, providing a more environmentally friendly mode of travel than personal automobiles, and offering mobility options for those who cannot or choose not to drive. However, service reliability issues have troubled public transit agencies for decades. When a bus or train does not arrive on time, passengers become frustrated and may be less likely to choose transit for future trips.

• 3:30 to 5:00 p.m.
• Refreshments are offered in 319 Walker Building at 3:30 p.m.
• The lecture begins in 112 Walker Building at 4:00 p.m.
• Coffee Hour To Go
• Next Week Neil Brown “Engaging geographically dispersed communities of learners in scholarly discourse on global phenomena”

Faculty engagement in MOOCs benefits students in resident courses
Teaching massive open online courses (MOOCs) has helped some Penn State University Park faculty members take their teaching to a new level of engagement, which has directly benefited students in their resident courses.

Interactive videos used to explore complexities of conservation in online course
A general education course at Penn State has been revamped to include interactive videos designed to teach students about conservation and sustainability. The course, Global Parks and Sustainability (GEOG 001), will be taught online in spring 2016 by Erica Smithwick, associate professor of geography in Penn State’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.

Latino immigrants changing the face of rural populations
Over the last two decades Latino immigrant populations in the United States have experienced significant growth in areas that had little previous experience with them. Scholars refer to these places as “new immigrant destinations.” Recent Penn State research indicates that rural growth in high-amenity areas such as Sun Valley, Idaho, or Cooperstown, New York, is an important but overlooked pull factor for low-wage Latino immigrants arriving in rural communities across America.

AAG Organizes Committee to Develop AP GIS&T Course Proposal
The AAG recently hosted a meeting at its Washington, D.C. offices to prepare a proposal for an Advanced Placement course in the field of Geographic Information Science and Technology.

RECENTLY (OR SOON TO BE) PUBLISHED

Conceptualizing landscapes: A comparative study of landscape categories with Navajo and English-speaking participants
By Klippel, A., Mark, D. M., Wallgrün, J. O., & Stea, D. in Proceedings, Conference on Spatial Information Theory (COSIT 2015) doi:10.1007/978-3-319-23374-1_13
Understanding human concepts, spatial and other, is not only one of the most prominent topics in the cognitive and spatial sciences; it is also one of the most challenging. While it is possible to focus on specific aspects of our spatial environment and abstract away complexities for experimental purposes, it is important to understand how cognition in the wild or at least with complex stimuli works, too. The research presented in this paper addresses emerging topics in the area of landscape conceptualization and explicitly uses a diversity fostering approach to uncover potentials, challenges, complexities, and patterns in human landscape concepts.