IMAGE OF THE WEEK
Cynthia Brewer accepts the O.M. Miller Cartographic Medal from the American Geographical Society, with Marie Price, AGS Council president, left, and Christopher Tucker, AGS Council chair, right. See the feature story, Remaking the map: Professor receives medal for influence in cartography. Image: American Geographical Society
GOOD NEWS
Saumya Vaishnava and Harrison Cole have been named as 2020–21 reps for the EMS Student Council.
EarthTalks seminar on Monday, Feb. 10, 2020 at 4 p.m. in 112 Walker Building will feature Chris House speaking on, “Positive Societal Impacts of Origin of Life and Space Sciences Research.”
The John A. Dutton e-Education Institute will host “Speed Dating with Learning Technologies” for faculty, staff and graduate students in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 13, in two locations: 116 Steidle Building and the adjacent atrium. Register for “Speed Dating with Learning Technologies” by Feb. 7.
The Center for Landscape Dynamics is offering a Grad Research Award competition. Applications are due March 2, 2020. For more information and to download the RFP.
COFFEE HOUR
Akira Drake Rodriguez
A Spatial Approach to Educational Justice: The Comprehensive School Planning Review Process of Philadelphia
In 2013, the School District of Philadelphia, under the state-run School Reform Commission, recommended closing 32 public schools following a report by a no-bid consultant. Following significant resistance by a number of education advocates, only 23 schools were closed. However, most were in Black and Latinx neighborhoods, eradicating another source of community stability in an increasingly inequitable city. In May 2019, the SDP announced they would again have a comprehensive planning process, this time in response to the city’s growing population and school enrollment. Much has changed between the two planning processes: the school board is no longer under state control; the consultants hired for the planning process were hired through a competitive bidding process; and the increasing transparency and multi-year timeline of this process allows for increased participation and intervention by community stakeholders. However, the process remains extremely exclusionary and technocratic: the goals are to maximize facility utilization while creating thoughtful transitions for students. Long-term educational and spatial justice issues of racial segregation, cognitive and lingual discrimination, school funding inequity, and environmental justice through lead and asbestos remediation are not addressed.
Issues of spatial justice and educational justice overlap in that they privilege the perspectives and interests of those who have been historically marginalized by spatial and educational processes. This talk will discuss how a multitude of interests – parent groups, community groups, immigrant groups, student activists, environmental justice groups, teachers and paraprofessionals, urban planners and education reformers – are mobilizing across and within school borders (catchment areas) to achieve these just aims. Using a participatory action research design, this talk will discuss preliminary findings of how different approaches to achieving just aims are received by those in power.
- Friday, February 7, 2020
- Refreshments are offered in 304 Walker Building at 3:30 p.m.
- Lecture begins in 112 Walker Building at 4 p.m.
- This lecture will not be webcast or recorded
- More information about Coffee Hour and view previously recorded talks
NEWS
Remaking the map: Professor receives medal for influence in cartography
If you have consulted or created a map using GIS software, chances are you have encountered Cynthia Brewer’s influence without being aware of it. In recognition of her contributions to the field of cartography, Brewer, who is professor and head of the Penn State Department of Geography, was awarded the O. M. Miller Cartographic Medal by the American Geographical Society at the 2019 Fall Symposium.
RECENTLY PUBLISHED
Avoiding The Issue: A Critique of Organizational Socialization Research From Feminist and Minority Perspectives
Angela Michele Rogers
Organization Development Journal
https://isodc.org/OD_journal
Organizational socialization, onboarding, is an important process that has become more
complicated as workplaces become more diverse. Women and minorities entering predominantly or historically white male organizations will fare even worse than white males when onboarding is neglected, due to a variety of factors. Research on organizational socialization is reviewed and critiqued from diversity perspectives. The findings indicate that issues of diversity and inclusion have not been adequately considered by researchers.
WRF Simulation, Model Sensitivity, and Analysis of the December 2013 New England Ice Storm
Julia Simonson, Sean Birkel, Kirk Maasch, Paul Mayewski, Bradfield Lyon, Andrew Carleton
arXiv
http://arxiv.org/abs/2001.11375
Ice storms pose significant damage risk to electric utility infrastructure. In an attempt to improve storm response and minimize costs, energy companies have supported the development of ice accretion forecasting techniques utilizing meteorological output from numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. The majority of scientific literature in this area focuses on the application of NWP models, such as the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, to ice storm case studies, but such analyses tend to provide little verification of output fidelity prior to use. This study evaluates the performance of WRF in depicting the 21-23 December 2013 New England ice storm at the surface and in vertical profile. A series of sensitivity tests are run using eight planetary boundary layer (PBL) physics parameterizations, three reanalysis datasets, two vertical level configurations, and with and without grid nudging. Simulated values of precipitation, temperature, wind speed, and wind direction are validated against surface and radiosonde observations at several station locations across northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada. The results show that, while the spatially and temporally averaged statistics for near-surface variables are consistent with those of select ice-storm case studies, near-surface variables are highly sensitive to model when examined at the station level. No single model configuration produces the most robust solution for all variables or station locations, although one scheme generally yields model output with the least realism. In all, we find that careful model sensitivity testing and extensive validation are necessary components for minimizing model-based biases in simulations of ice storms.