Clark University - Clark News Winter 2003
New directions for IDCE
The International Development, Community and Environment program exemplifies Clark's interdisciplinary approach to solving global issues
by Jane Salerno
One of Clark's most dynamic extended families has a new home. The globetrotting scholars of the International Development, Community and Environment Department now can return to the welcoming front porch of IDCE House, a stately, restored Victorian at 10 Hawthorne St., next door to English House.
To celebrate the inauguration of its new campus headquarters, the department held an Open House on Nov. 7 and sponsored a lecture that evening in Tilton Hall. Renowned human rights activist and environmental vulnerability expert Mesfin Wolde-Mariam M.A. '57 presented "The American Spirit: Moral Responsibility for Human Rights in the 21st Century." Wolde-Mariam also received an honorary degree [read more about Wolde-Mariam].
President John Bassett praised IDCE in his welcoming remarks before the lecture: "It took me very little time after arriving two years ago to learn that in IDCE we had a real gem, a unique and highly successful program building on recognized areas of excellence at Clark and pioneering in new directions. It attracts students who would be the envy of any university."
The IDCE family
IDCE is a blended family with a proud lineage. Building on the work of trail-blazing professors Richard Ford, Barbara Thomas-Slayter, Chris Hohenemser and others, the current IDCE faculty melded the Environmental Science and Policy and International Development programs in 2000. Now IDCE "represents a new direction for a new millennium," says professor and IDCE Director William Fisher. "IDCE fits perfectly with Clark's theme of challenging convention," Fisher says. "We think outside the box, outside disciplines, combining academy and field work, practice and development. At IDCE, we're making clear how problems are framed and solved among several disciplines."
The department's four graduate programs include:
- International Development and Social Change (ID)
- Environmental Science and Policy (ES&P)
- Geographic Information Sciences for Development and Environment (GISDE)
- Community Development and Planning
Undergraduate majors are offered in ID and ES&P.
Remarkable growth
IDCE is experiencing remarkable growth since its inception two years ago, adding eight full-time professors and promoting three as research professors. Part-time faculty members contribute expertise in environmental law, community finance, ecology and conflict mediation. Forty affiliate faculty represent 13 different departments at Clark.
Nearly 70 graduate students, representing 18 countries, came to IDCE in fall 2002, bringing the total number of IDCE graduate students to more than 138. These students enter the program with degrees in international relations, environmental science, sociology, geography, biology - even botany.
"I enjoy being around others who are willing to discuss large, global issues," says graduate student Katie Scott. "I came to IDCE because I liked the emphasis on environmental justice and the strong focus on community and grassroots development." Scott studied anthropology and geography at the University of Texas in Austin. She taught in Tanzania, East Africa, from 1998-2000 as a Peace Corps volunteer. At Clark, she focuses on watershed management. Scott plans to return to Tanzania in the spring, and to eventually make her career in educational research and advocacy.
Faculty research spans the continents and receives worldwide recognition for social and environmental impact. IDCE scholars are regularly called upon by non-governmental organizations and governmental bodies seeking solutions to problems large and small. In an article for the department's News and Views publication, Lisa Meierotto ID/M.A. '02 writes about her experience with student researchers assessing the impacts of the Talo Dam project in Mali, led by Fisher. Their work was presented to the government of Mali and the U.S. Treasury.
"Following the release of our report, a moratorium was placed on the building of the dam," Meierotto writes. "This has been a rare chance to combine scholarship with advocacy, while building necessary research, writing and presentation skills."
Integrated learning
The integration of applied learning and advocacy - the hallmark of a Clark education - is especially apparent in IDCE. Among many examples: the National Science Foundation-funded HERO Project (www.clarku.edu/hero) in Worcester's Tatnuck Brook Watershed led by GISDE Coordinator Gil Pontius (www.clarku.edu/discover); ES&P program Coordinator Tim Downs' field work for sustainable development in Mexico; and cultural anthropologist Laura Hammond's skills in disaster relief and contingency planning in Africa. Scan News and Views, edited by IDCE Publications and Marketing Manager Kristina Allen, to find news of department faculty in Nepal (Fisher), the Netherlands (ES&P Chair Halina Brown), Ghana (Ford), Ethiopia (Hammond), Eritrea (Thomas-Slayter) and several other domestic and international locales.
Students have completed internships at Oxfam America in Boston, the Women's Forum in Stockholm, Sweden, and the California Department of Fish and Game, among others. IDCE students and alumni are studying and exploring solutions to vital global issues such as land-use change, water-resource protection and management, social justice and gender equality. Members of the IDCE community are working to improve the livelihoods of women and children in programs around the world. They use state-of-the-art research methods and technology such as Idrisi, geographic information systems (GIS) and the global positioning system (GPS).
Among IDCE student standouts are Fulbright Fellowship recipients Miguel Castrence GISDE '03, John Granville ID/M.A.'03, Jessica Jimenez '01, M.A. '02 and Jeremy Childs '02 M.A. '04, and Compton Mentor Fellowship recipient Robyn Blue Long '02, M.A. '04. Only six of these Compton fellowships of $40,000 each were awarded nationwide, two to Clark students. Three of the six IDCE students who received Fulbright Fellowships in 2001 - Laura Burnham, Jeremy Casterson and Josset Gauley - have returned to campus to complete their master's degrees. Read more about IDCE Fulbright recipients at www.clarku.edu/clarknews.
Programs for the "big picture"
While working on a project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development in his homeland of Costa Rica, graduate student Oscar Maroto heard about Clark through a friend of Ford.
"I was interested in complementing my foundation in natural resources with other skills," Maroto says. "I appreciate getting the big picture - not just learning what's going on, but why, and how local people perceive government interventions." Maroto is considering Clarkâs Ph.D. program and plans to return to Costa Rica to continue his work with a small-scale forestry program there "with a better vision now than before."
Kristina Allen, IDCE publications and marketing manager, contributed to this article.
|
 |
|
Clarknews Winter 2003
|
|
|
| The IDCE faculty: (front row, from left) William Fisher, Laurie Ross and Robert Goble; (middle row, from left) Eugenio Marcano and Laura Hammond; (back row, from left) Tim Downs, Gil Pontius, David Bell and Halina Brown. (Not pictured: Sam Ratick and Kiran Asher) |
|
| The new IDCE House at 10 Hawthorne St. |
|
| Bill Fisher (seated center) talks with villagers in highland Nepal |
|
| Tim Downs tests water quality in Mexico |
|
|
