Presidential Management Fellows
Compton Mentor Fellows - deadline: February 6, 2009 (for undergraduates)
Jennie Stephens, Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Policy in IDCE, will be presenting an invited plenary presentation at the international conference on “A New Knowledge Culture, Universities Facing Global Changes for Sustainability” the 5th Environmental Management for Sustainable Universities (EMSU) in Barcelona, Spain, October 15-17, 2008. The title of her talk is “Exploring Change Toward Sustainability in Universities by Adapting Transition Management”. While in Europe, Stephens will also be presenting in Amsterdam at the Energy Center of the Netherlands, and in Norway at the University of Stavanger, on her research on the politics and policies related to carbon capture and storage technology for climate change mitigation.
Claire Brill (GISDE/MA '08) won 2nd place in the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association: 2008 Student Paper Competition for her project titled Using GIS to Contrast Perceived Versus Preferred Priorities for Brownfield Redevelopment in Worcester, MA.
The University of London's School of Oriental and Asian Studies announced they are awarding IDCE Reseach Professor Cynthia Enloe an honorary degree in London 2009.
Students enrolled in the Community Development and Planning (CDP) program within the International Development, Community, and Environment (IDCE) department are now able to declare a new concentration in Enterprise Management based on a partnership with Clark University’s Graduate School of Management (GSOM). CDP students will take a selection of skill and elective courses at both IDCE and GSOM to earn the concentration as part of their graduate degree. Because student interests are diverse, and the offerings from IDCE are broad, this concentration would be tailored to each student, with specific courses to be determined with guidance from advisors in each department.
Beginning in Fall 2008, IDCE and GSOM are piloting an opportunity to earn two degrees to a small, but determined group of CDP students. Students in the joint degree program will earn two degrees at the end of three years of graduate school—an MA in CDP and an MBA from GSOM. Only a few highly qualified students will be admitted to this pilot program. The admitted students will be guided individually by the faculty members in the IDCE and GSOM departments.
aids2031 is hosting a small workshop in early February 2009 for invited scholars and practitioners to examine how factors like social capital, culture and religion are shaping and are shaped by the nature, locale, and momentum of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. Read the entire Request for Abstracts. This workshop will seek to identify a conceptual approach to social capital, culture and religion relevant to policies and programs addressing AIDS in the context of the turbulence, instabilities, and environments of risk shaping the lives of individuals and groups in marginalized communities. The goal of the workshop is to elicit innovative thinking and break new ground for ways to address the complex social and political obstacles to the successful prevention of HIV and AIDS. The workshop will examine existing data and analyses to develop recommendations for a long-term sustainable response to AIDS, which address the social, political, and economic factors shaping risk and vulnerability. Participants in this workshop will have opportunity to contribute to cutting edge analyses of the ways in which cultural attitudes and practices, religious beliefs and institutions, and diverse forms of social capital have affected and will affect the pathways taken by AIDS in various parts of the world.
Abstracts of approximately 300 words should be sent in PDF format to Sheela Pradhan by September 30, 2008. Submissions will be reviewed and applicants notified regarding acceptance for the workshop by October 31, 2008. Completed papers are due to the conveners by January 10, 2009. Direct travel expenses as well as room and board will be covered by the workshop host. Exact dates and the venue for the 3 day workshop will be finalized soon.
Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, coordinator of the GISDE program in IDCE, has published "Diesel particulate matter, lung cancer, and asthma incidences along major traffic corridors in MA, USA: A GIS analysis" with former student co-author Jesse C. McEntee in the December 2008 issue of the international journal Health & Place.
IDCE is pleased to announce that Dr. Henry Bulley from the University of Nebraska will be joining the department as a visiting assistant professor of GIS during the 2008-09 academic year. Dr. Bulley is an exceptional fit with IDCE. In addition to his GIS expertise, he has worked in his native Ghana on issues of development and environment.
Stephens co-authored "Climate Science to Citizen Action: Energizing Nonformal Climate Science Education" with Amanda Graham, a collaborator of hers that resides at MIT. Read the full article.
Joel Masselink (GISDE/MA ’09) will be traveling and interning with USAID's Central African Regional Program for the Environment in Kinshasa, DRCongo this summer. This program works to conserve biodiversity and reduce deforestation in the Congo Basin, by working with funding partners and building location capacity. To learn more about the program, check out the website or visit Joel’s travel blog.
It is with pleasure that we announce Dr. Teferi Abate-Adem will be joining IDCE as a one year visiting faculty member in the IDSC program. Dr. Abate-Adem is an Ethiopian anthropologist who specializes in questions of land tenure, rural livelihoods, land management, and state-community relations in post-conflict settings. He has practitioner experience in the Horn of Africa and is also currently teaching at Yale. Welcome!
Tara Arthur's (IDSC/MA '08) master's research paper on Sport: An Agency for Women was selected to be part of the Sports in Africa and Asia between Identity Politics, Body Cultures and Secular Ritual International Workshop held at the Centre for Modern Oriental Studies in Berlin, Germany in November.
IDCE's annual report News & Views 2008 has arrived. Please send IDCE News an email to update your contact information if you did not receive your copy.
The University of Massachusetts Medical School, in collaboration with Clark University and faculty at IDCE, is participating in a study on children from before they are born until their 21st birthdays to better understand the influence of genes and environment on health. Tim Downs, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, and Rob Goble, will be responsible for two key aspects: sampling of the environments children inhabit and mapping of sources of stress using GIS. They will also provide expertise on community-based participatory research which will engage participants more actively to improve understanding of child health issues and participant retention through the 21-year period. Read more about the project here.
IDCE, GSOM, Community Development Training Institute (CDTI), Freddie Mac, the United States Conference of Mayors and the National Community Development Association are seeking the submission of proposals to an National Urban Policy Initiatives Competition. An award of $20,000 will be given to the winner of each category. The categories are affordable and sustainable housing; neighborhood based economic development and financial services to low income communities. There will also be an award of $2,500 given to the second place winners of each category.
As one of eight partners worldwide, Clark University, represented by IDCE and the George Perkins Marsh Institute, is collaborating in a new global consortium, aids2031. The initiative, currently under development, will reshape how people in the development and medical fields think about the next 25 years of AIDS. Read more about the project in ClarkNews.
Clark University has officially joined as a member of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. Check us out in Sierra Magazine's Green Schools Section!
IDCE is eagerly anticipating our new class! Congratulations on being admitted to the Fall 2008 Class. We look forward to meeting you and helping you adjust to graduate school here at Clark University.
IDCE is proud to count many winners among our students at the Association of American Geographers student paper competition. In the Illustrated Paper category, Alicia Simonti (GISDE/MA ’08) took First Place for her project Image Time Series Analysis of SeaWIFS Ocean Color Product for the Investigation of Ocean Chlorophyll Dynamics.
Classmate Oh Seok Kim (GISDE/MA ’08) took Second Place for his Contribution of GIScience to Carbon Credit Estimation.
Neeti Neeti (GISDE/MA ’07) and present Geography Ph.D. student won second place in the Spatial Analysis & Modeling paper competition.
Laura Merner (ES&P-Geography/BA ’08) was awarded the Norb Psuty Student Paper Merit Award sponsored by the Coastal Marine and Specialty Group for her paper "Assessing the Role of Salinity and Water Height Levels on the Mortality of Bald-Cypress: an in depth look at the Cypress Triangle, Louisiana."
The Applied Aquatic Ecology class went to Eagle Lake in Holden to find and identify wetland plants that they had seen in the classroom the week before. View photos here.
In Spring 2008 semester, Nan Deng (GISDE/MA ’08) will be working as an intern with the City of Worcester. Nan will be assisting the GIS Manager, Shane White, in building a public website mainly for querying parcel information and exploring the relationship between different geographic features. “I'm glad that the GISDE program provides us this internship option that also helps to build a friendly relationship with the City of Worcester.” Also receving an internship with the City of Worcester is Anita Malpani (IDSC/MA '08).
Tara Arthur (IDSC/MA ’08) was honored with a “Women of Clark” award this spring. Tara was honored for her tireless work both here at Clark where she is the co-President of the Graduate Student Association and also off-campus where she works with the Haitian Sports Foundation (HSF). The HSF uses sports as a way to empower women in Haiti and also to give back positive attention to the talented people of Haiti. Congratulations to Tara for all her work both here and in the world at large!
Meg Barritt (IDSC/MA ’08) and Jenna Mosely (IDSC/MA ’09) are working as research assistants with Ellen Foley on a grant she acquired from the Central Mass. Health Foundation for an action research project titled “Bridging Barriers: Meeting Youth Immigrant and Refugee Health Needs in Worcester, MA.” They are studying the health, literacy, and after-school program needs among African and Southeast Asian refugee and immigrant youth in Worcester.
Erica Richmond (IDSC/BA ’08) participated in an internship at Friendly Haven in Windhoek, Namibia. She was there for four months, assisting the women at the shelter with issues related to their having sustained domestic violence and rape. In light of her dedication to women’s empowerment, she received the Cynthia Enloe Award in 2005, in part for helping to form the women studies major here at Clark.
Rachel Gerber (IDSC/BA ’11) has a long history of volunteerism. Among her many pursuits, she has assisted with voting rights for the homeless, food drives in her home community of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and Mississippi’s Habitat for Humanity. Her insistence on making the world a better place has earned her title as a “Making a Difference Scholar” for her four years at Clark.
Jennie Stephens, Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Policy (ES&P), is highlighted in the Fall 2007 issue of ClarkNews for her part in helping Clark "go green".
Congratulations to CDP Professor Laurie Ross, co-winner of this year's Bill Meinhofer Award for Faculty Excellence for faculty working with an engaged community. She and Rob Krueger have been honored for their work in the Worcester community.
