Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long was featured in an ABC News Australia article on the potential impacts of tech-oriented creative development. The article, “Ditching the Glitter Strip: Inside the Gold Coast’s identity overhaul,” was published online here and the full length radio interview will air next month.

Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Sciences Stephanie Insalaco-Wyner co-authored two chapters in the textbook Remote Sensing, Big Data, and GeoAI: Exploring Applications with Geospatial Insights: “The Evolution of Big Data and GeoAI Within the Field of Remote Sensing” and “Environmental Monitoring and Conservation Using Remote Sensing and Big Data.” The textbook can be read here.

Professor of Religion and Culture and Environmental Studies Laura Hobgood published two book reviews and an invited essay over the past several months. She reviewed When Animals Die: Examining Justifications and Envisioning Justice for H-Net Reviews (August 2026) and Lab Dog: What Global Science Owes American Beagles for Environmental History (July 2026). Her essay, “Religion, Animals, and Academic,” was published in June on the official blog of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture as part of a series of reflections contributed by past presidents of the Society.

Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Sciences Stephanie Insalaco-Wyner, along with colleagues at the University of Tennessee and the University of Florida, were awarded a $499,045 grant from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. This grant funds the development of a public dashboard to monitor seagrass in real-time throughout South Florida. Additionally, this grant funds research assistantships for Southwestern students to assist in the making and implementation of this dashboard, which will be widely used by researchers and resource managers.

Assistant Professor of Sociology Amanda Hernandez and environmental studies graduate Sarah Ventimiglia ’25 published their faculty/student collaborative research in the peer-reviewed journal Symbolic Interaction. Their article, titled “Hashtag ChristianGirl: The White Commodified Self on TikTok,” argues that Christian influencers on TikTok use a version of the white commodified self to attempt to sell products, services, and ideologies that uphold Christian whiteness as an idealized form of womanhood. The article can be read here.

Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Sciences Stephanie Insalaco-Wyner wrote an article in The Conversation, which examined the unexpected seagrass comeback on Florida’s east coast after Hurricanes Ian and Nicole. The article can be read here.

Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Sciences Stephanie Insalaco-Wyner published “Recording seagrass growth in Mosquito Lagoon, Florida after Hurricanes Ian and Nicole” in Frontiers, along with physics major Dominic Mashak ’27 and environmental studies alumni Hailey Vickich ’25. The paper uses machine learning to classify seagrass recovery in Florida’s Mosquito Lagoon and can be read here.

Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Sciences Stephanie Insalaco-Wyner and environmental studies major Zoe Van der Walt ’26 co-authored a publication, titled “Pathways to Sustainable Land Stewardship in South Africa’s Wine-Producing Regions,” with colleagues at the University of Tennessee, the University of Florida, and Michigan State University. The article is published in Sustainability and can be read here.

Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Sciences Stephanie Insalaco-Wyner presented her talk, titled “Implementing Learner-Centric Pedagogy in Environmental GIS: A Case Study from Southwestern University,” at the American Association of Geographers Conference (2026) in San Francisco. She also co-authored a paper presentation at the conference with Clare Stauber ’27, titled “From Archive to Interactive Map: Digital Storytelling of Midwifery in Mexico City after the Revolution.”

Professor of Religion and Culture and Environmental Studies Laura Hobgood was recently a featured guest on the Relationscapes podcast episode titled “How Dogs Domesticated Humans.” As the author of A Dog’s History of the World: Canines and the Domestication of Humans, Hobgood provided her expertise on the long, complicated co-evolution of humans and dogs. Hosted by award-winning journalist Blair Hodges, the Relationscapes podcast explores relationships, gender, sexuality, race, ability, and culture, focusing on ideas that inspire deeper connection and a more humane life. Listen to the episode here. 

Professor of Religion and Culture and Environmental Studies Laura Hobgood presented on the panel “Beyond Personhood: New Ways to Imagine Our Solidarity with Animals” at the American Academy of Religion (AAR) Annual Meeting in Boston. The Animals and Religion Group was founded by Dr. Hobgood and several colleagues in 2000 and has now been active in the AAR for 25 years.

Professor of Anthropology Melissa Johnson and her Summer 2025 SURF students presented their findings at the 13th Race, Ethnicity and Place conference in Albuquerque, NM from November 5–7. Their panel was titled “Race, Gender, Slavery and Freedom in Everyday Life on the British coast of Central America, 1750-1830.” Dr. Johnson and three students presented their papers: anthropology and feminist studies double major Dina Gaxiola ’28 presented “The Case of Jane Trapp: Race, Gender, Slavery and Freedom in Early British Central America,” psychology and sociology double major Sophia Hernandez ’28 presented “From Enslavement to Influence; Gendered Agency, Racial Boundaries, and the Story of Ariadne Broaster,” Dr. Johnson presented “Living across lines of freedom in the early history of Belize: The origins of the Bonner family,” and biology and environmental studies double major Shae Whitney ’28 presented “Maria Middleton – Slave, Criminal, Transported Convict: Understanding Gender, Race and Freedom across the British Colonial World.” The students may have been the only undergraduates presenting papers at this conference. The papers were well received, with one audience member sharing that this was the most interesting panel they had attended.

Professor Emeritus of Kinesiology Jimmy Smith and Professor of Religion and Culture/Environmental Studies Laura Hobgood were invited by Lifelong Learning (formerly Senior University) to teach a six-week class called “Going to the Dogs.” The course is based on their 20-year FYS taught at SU.

Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long was featured on NPR’s On Point with Magna Chakrabarti. The episode, titled “The Transformation of Austin, Texas,” explored Austin’s motley and often unjust history of urban development.

Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long presented the keynote address, titled “Climate Justice or Climate Apartheid: Interrogating trajectories of climate action and response,” at the 2025 CRE Conference in Montreal, Quebec.

Assistant Professor of Sociology Amanda Hernandez and environmental studies graduate Sarah Ventimiglia ’24 traveled to Chicago to present at the Association for the Sociology of Religion Annual Meeting. Sarah presented their faculty/student collaborative research “Hashtag ChristianGirl: The White Commodified Self on TikTok.” Amanda’s 2024 book, Intersectional Identities of Christian Women in the U.S.: Faith, Race, and Feminism, was the subject of an “Author Meets Critic” book panel.

Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Sciences Stephanie Insalaco recently published a dataset, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Tennessee Knoxville and the United States Geological Survey. The data product provides a collation of estimates of species vulnerability to climate change that have been made using correlative niche models, which can be used by states in the southeastern U.S. when making their State Wildlife Action Plans. The dataset can be found here.

Sociology students and faculty members attended the Southern Sociological Society annual meeting in Charlotte, NC from April 9-12. Five sociology seniors presented their capstone research: Catherine Angell presented “Presidency or Penitentiary: Exploring Americans’ Attitudes Towards Felons’ Right to Vote;” Isabella Bahamon presented “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Choice: Predicting Americans’ Attitudes Towards Abortion Rights,” which won the 2025 Odum Award for Best Undergraduate Paper; Emily Dimiceli presented “‘Obama was voted president by white people’: Predictors of Americans’ Perceptions of Racism;” Mary Kate McAdams presented “‘It seems like the system has a few favorites’: Factors that Affect American Attitudes about Racial and Economic Bias in the Criminal Justice System;” and Chelsey Rocha presented “‘DEI is just racism against white people’: Americans Attitudes About Anti-DEI Bills in Higher Education.” In addition, faculty and students presented on their collaborative research projects. Assistant Professor of Sociology Amanda Hernandez and environmental studies major Sarah Ventimiglia ’25 presented their co-authored study titled, “Hashtag Blessed: Performances of White Femininity and Consumption on TikTok.” Professor of Sociology Maria Lowe presented her collaborative study (with co-authors Dr. Reginald Byron of the University of Denver, Brigit Reese ’24, and Carson Maxfield ’24) titled, “Residents of Color in non-Predominantly White Neighborhoods: Are They More Likely to Worry about Racialized Surveillance Than White Residents?”

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Naomi Reed organized and supported the submission, reception, and presentation of the panel “Salons, Skateboarding, and Tabletop Gaming: Stories of ‘Alternative’ Intersectional Gender Expression in Recreational Communities,” presented on April 4 at the 2025 Southwestern Anthropology Association Conference in Pomona, CA. During this panel, anthropology and classics double major Marley Sensenderfer ’25 chaired the session and presented the paper talk “Roll for Stereotypes: D&D and Gender Performativity Tabletop role-playing games,” anthropology major Emma French ’25 presented the paper talk “Gender and Skateboarding Culture,” and anthropology and environmental studies double major Rose Reed ’25 presented the paper talk “White Beauty Standards in a Hair and Nail Salon.” This panel was a collaboration of three student anthropology capstone research projects that deconstruct intersectional manifestations of gender in public space via insider (or native) ethnographic analysis. More information on the session and the conference can be found here.

Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long presented a paper titled “Exploring the fractured imaginaries of climate-displacement and security” at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers in Detroit. At this same conference, Long also served as a discussant on Farhana Sultana’s “Author Meets Critics: Confronting Climate Coloniality” panel.

Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long co-chaired three sessions titled “Confronting Climate Apartheid” at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers in Detroit. Long also co-chaired a panel on the “Coloniality of Climate Change” at this same conference.

Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Sciences Stephanie Insalaco co-authored the paper “Satellite remote sensing for environmental sustainable development goals: A review of applications for terrestrial and marine protected areas” with colleagues at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and The University of Tennessee Knoxville. The paper, published in the journal Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment, highlights the importance of using remote sensing to monitor protected areas and to overall achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The paper can be read here.

Associate Professor of History Jethro Hernández Berrones presented his work, titled “Visualizing at-home births in Mexico City after the revolution: Midwives from the Free School of Obstetrics and Nursing, 1920s and 30s,” at the seminario permanente de investigación de Atlas.mx, sponsored by CIDE, CONACYT, INEGI, UCMexus, UC Riverside, and John Hopkins University. He discussed his previous work with students to develop a digital map to locate midwives who graduated from this school and the women they aided. The talk also introduced his new project, co-directed with Assistant Professor of Geographic Information Sciences Stephanie Insalaco, to create an interactive digital map aimed at making the historical archive of these midwives public.

Professor of Religion and Environmental Studies Laura Hobgood presented as part of a panel on her contributions to the recently published volume Animals and Religion  at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting. Her two chapters are “Companion Animals” and “Blessings of Pets in Jewish and Christian Traditions.”

Sam Irizarry ’23 was an invited panelist at the Texas Communicators Network meeting focused on the topic “Connect & Conserve Through Social Media.” He represented Hill Country Conservancy, where he enhances the organization’s online presence through content strategy, social media management, and digital storytelling. More information about the panel can be found here.

Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long published a chapter titled “The Coloniality of Climate Apartheid” in the Routledge reader, Confronting Climate Coloniality. Long’s contributions were also highlighted by the editor, Dr. Farhana Sultana, in promotional materials and he will be serving on upcoming panels in which this work will be featured. More information is available here.

Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long was featured in an article appearing in Texas Monthly, titled “Is America Ready for More Than One Kind of Weird?” The article can be read here.

Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long presented a poster titled “The Right to Retreat? Interrogating the xenophobic politics of urban climate retreat,” and co-presented a lecture on the topic of “Climate Havens” at the RC21 Common City Conference in Uppsala, Sweden from September 10–13.

Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long published a paper titled “Reckoning Climate Apartheid” in the journal Political Geography. That paper, which examines global systematic climate injustice, can be found here.

Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long presented a paper titled “Avoiding Adaptation as Partition” on May 16 at the Human Geographies of Adaptation Conference at the University of Bergen in Bergen, Norway.

Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long presented a flash talk on May 13 titled “Reframing Existential Adaptation” at the Theory of Change Workshop hosted by Imagine Adaptation in Bergen, Norway.

Associate Professor of German Erika Berroth mentored two students who presented their research projects at the 13th Undergraduate Research Conference in German Studies, organized by Moravian and Lafayette Colleges in Pennsylvania on April 6, 2024. This national conference brought together young scholars and their mentors for presentations and discussions of a range of interdisciplinary topics representative of German Studies. Isabella Moore ’25, double major in German and Environmental Studies, presented her comparative study on developments in the use of solar energy in Germany and the United States. Kendyl Feuerbacher ’27, double major in German and Studio Art with a minor in Design Thinking, presented her research on the increase of motivation for learning new languages through the use of video games.

Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long attended the Political Ecology Society and Society for Applied Anthropology conference in Santa Fe, NM from March 25-30. He served on a panel and presented a flash talk titled, “Extractivism and Climate Justice: Fueling the New Climate Colonialism.”

Professor of Religion and Environmental Studies Laura Hobgood had three chapters published in edited volumes in January and February. “Blessings of Pets in Jewish and Christian Traditions” and “Companion Animals” in Animals and Religion, Routledge Press (ed. D. Aftandilian, B Ambros, and A. Gross) and “Animals and Religion” in Religion and Nature in North America, Bloomsbury Press (ed. L. Kearns and W. Bauman).

Professor of Religion and Environmental Studies Laura Hobgood was interviewed for U.S. Catholic magazine’s podcast “Glad You Asked.” Each episode of GYA is centered around a question about Catholicism/Christianity that may seem simple at first but requires a good deal of nuance to address well. The question posed to Laura is, “Do dogs go to heaven?” The episode will be released on November 10, 2023.

Professor of Religion and Environmental Studies Laura Hobgood was invited to give the Inaugural Animal History Lecture at the University of Dayton. The lecture will be held in February 2024.

Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long consulted on the new NPR / KUT 90.5 podcast “Growth Machine” and was interviewed for multiple episodes.

Professor of Religion and Environmental Studies Laura Hobgood has been invited to join the Board of Directors of Education Congo. This organization works to provide scholarships and raise funds to support programs aimed at enhancing the quality of higher education in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Her term begins with the fall board meeting in September.

Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long co-edited a book with Jennifer L. Rice (University of Georgia) and Anthony Levenda (Evergreen State). That book, titled “Urban Climate Justice: Theory, Praxis, Resistance,” was published by the University of Georgia Press. The three editors also authored two chapters within the book.

Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long presented the opening paper in the Climate Colonialism series at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers in Denver, CO. His talk was titled: “Climate Justice or Climate Apartheid: Interrogating three trajectories of climate colonialism.”

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long was the featured speaker in the Urban Climate Finance Network international workshop titled “Financialization and Climate Governance.”

Assistant Professor of English Rebecca Evans and Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long were interviewed for a story for the online magazine Grist. The story, “Can Climate Fiction Deliver Climate Justice?” by Maddie Stone, was published on September 28. Among other subjects, the article discusses a Southwestern summer 2021 faculty–student research project, “Climate Literature and Climate Literacy,” led by Evans with two current Southwestern English students, Coleen Roche ’23 and Elena Welsh ’23.

Double major in Spanish and environmental studies Jasmine Herrera ’21 and history major Saul Zuñiga ’22 presented “Mapping the Past” at the ninth Phi Alpha Theta History Conference, held at Texas State University (TSU) on April 24, 2021. Their poster was awarded first place for undergraduate virtual presentations. The poster was selected from 19 submissions by students from TSU, Baylor, and UT Dallas, and the award included an honorarium and a certificate.

Double major in Spanish and environmental studies Jasmine Herrera ’21 and history major Saul Zuñiga ’22 presented a paper titled “Mapping the Past: A Look into the Distribution of Midwives from Escuela Libre de Obstetricia y Enfermeria in Mexico City during the 1920s and 30s” at the 9th Phi Alpha Theta History Conference organized by Texas State University and held virtually on April 24, 2021. Herrera and Zuñiga undertook their research, wrote the paper, and prepared the presentation under the mentorship of Associate Professor of History Jethro Hernández Berrones during the 2020–2021 academic year. You can see their presentation here.

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long served as a presenter, panelist, moderator, and chair for several sessions at the (virtual) Annual Association of American Geographers Conference this month. Most notably, he served as moderator and discussant for the “Urban Climate Justice Futures” panel and also presented a paper titled “Crisis Capitalism and Coloniality: Funding Climate Action Projects in the 21st Century.”

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long  published an article with Jenn Rice (University of Georgia) and Anthony Levenda (University of Oklahoma) in the journal Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space  titled “ Against Climate Apartheid: Confronting the Persistent Legacies of Expendability for Climate Justice .”

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long  published an article in the journal Politics and Governance  titled “Crisis Capitalism and Climate Finance: The Framing, Monetizing, and Orchestration of Resilience-Amidst-Crisis.”

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long was the lead author on a published chapter in the 2020 Palgrave Macmillan book Climate Urbanism: Towards a Critical Research Agenda. The chapter, titled “Climate Urbanism and the Implications for Climate Apartheid,” was coauthored with Jennifer L. Rice (University of Georgia) and Anthony Levenda (University of Oklahoma). Find more information here.

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long and coauthors Keara Hudler ’18, Nataley Ford ’18, Lilly Dennis ’18, Joanna Mendez ’18, and Muriel DiNella ’18 received the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Campus Research Award on December 3, 2020, for a paper titled “Intersectional Sustainability and Student Activism.” The paper appeared earlier this year in the journal Education, Citizenship, and Social Justice. Find the paper here.

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long  coauthored a paper with former SU students Keara Hudler  ’18, Nataley Ford  ’18, Lilly Dennis  ’18, Joanna Mendez  ’18, and Muriel DiNella  ’18 that was recently nominated for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Campus Research Award. That paper, titled “ Intersectional Sustainability and Student Activism ,” appeared earlier this year in the journal Education, Citizenship, and Social Justice. 

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long published an article titled ““Climate Urbanism: Crisis, Capitalism, and Intervention” with Jennifer L. Rice (Department of Geography, University of Georgia). This article appears in the latest issue of Urban Geography.

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long  was quoted in an article published in Utility Dive  in which he discussed the role of Southwestern University and SEAK (Students for Environmental Activism and Knowledge) in Georgetown’s transition to 100% renewable energy. Read the article here.

Several environmental studies and feminist studies alumni, including Keara Hudler ’18, Lilly Dennis ’18, Muriel DiNella ’18, Nataley Ford ’18, and Joanna Mendez ’18, along with Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long, published an article in the Journal of Education, Citizenship, and Social Justice titled “Intersectional Sustainability and Student Activism: A Framework for Achieving Social Sustainability on University Campuses.”

Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics and Environmental Studies Rebecca Edwards attended the Teaching Computational Thinking Skills with MATLAB Workshop at the Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College October 20–22.  Edwards served as a workshop facilitator and peer reviewer in addition to delivering a presentation titled “Adding a MATLAB Component to an Engineering Dynamics Course ” based on her experience integrating a computational component into the Engineering Dynamics course at Southwestern.  

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long, along with his co author Jennifer L. Rice of the University of Georgia, presented the opening keynote address at the New Climate Urbanism International Workshop at the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom. The lecture, titled “Climate Urbanism and the Implications for Climate Apartheid,” was based on their 2019 article in the journal Urban Studies, “From Sustainable Urbanism to Climate Urbanism,” which was the inspiration for the workshop as well as a new research agenda beginning this year at the Urban Institute. 

Professor of Theatre John Ore, Sam Buehler ’20, and Sage Clay ’22 completed a faculty–student project that created the Heather McGaughey Sustainability kiosk, a public information touchscreen display located in the Jones Theater lobby. Please visit their work to find out more about environmental studies, fine arts, and Heather McGaughey’04.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics and Environmental Studies Rebecca Edwards helped lead a workshop held May 14–16, at St. Edward’s University, on conducting air-quality research using ozonesondes. Ozonesondes are lightweight instruments that are launched on weather balloons to measure the concentration of ozone in the atmosphere and to sample air pollutant from the ground’s surface to an altitude of 30 kilometers. SCOPE students Daniel Whitney ’21 and Jacob Fly ’21 participated in the workshop, along with several St. Edward’s students. In addition to an overview of the science of air quality, the participants learned two protocols for conditioning the instrument and then launched a balloon.

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long coorganized and chaired three sessions at the American Association of Geographers conference in April. While there, Long also served on a panel and presented the introductory paper “Theorizing the Just City in the Era of Climate Change.”

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long is the 2019 recipient of the Helen Ruth Aspaas SAGE Innovator Award in Geography. He will be receiving it in person while attending the American Association of Geographers annual conference in Washington, D.C., in early April.

Visiting Professor of Environmental Engineering Rebecca Edwards  was invited to visit the office of the state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon at Texas A&M University on March 12 to discuss her research on the climatology of extreme precipitation in Texas over the past 100 years. The invitation was extended following a presentation of her work at the American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting in Phoenix, AZ, in January.

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long and senior capstone students had their 2013 coauthored paper, “Toward an Informative and Applied Methodology for Price Comparison Studies of Farmers’ Markets and Competing Retailers at the Local Scale,” republished by The Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development as a policy brief calling for renewed research on the topic.

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long published an article titled “Contradictions in the Climate-Friendly City: New Perspectives on Eco‐Gentrification and Housing Justice” in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. This article was coauthored with researchers Jennifer L. Rice (University of Georgia), Daniel Aldana Cohen (University of Pennsylvania), and Jason Jurjevich (Portland State University).

An interview with Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long will be featured in the documentary Becoming Leslie,which will debut at SXSW in March 2019.

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long and Professor of Economics Emily Northrop were signatories on a letter to Governor Abbott from Texas climate scientists and other experts urging his understanding of climate science and his action to address it. As reported in the Austin American Statesman, Northrop spoke at the Jan. 8 press conference held prior to delivering the letter to the Governor’s office.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics and Environmental Studies Rebecca Edwards attended the 99th Annual American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Jan. 6–9.  While there, she delivered two presentations: “Changes in Heavy and Extreme Precipitation in Texas 1900–2015,” a statistical analysis of heavy precipitation events in Texas over the past century, and “The Central Texas Collaborative Air Quality Monitoring Experiment,” which described a course-based research experience that involved launching weather balloons from the Southwestern campus during the spring of 2018 as part of the Energy and the Environment course. She also presented a poster titled “Influences on Air Quality in Georgetown, Texas,” a preliminary study of the data collected as part of the weather-balloon project described above

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long published a scholarly article with Environmental Studies alumna Peri Kincaid ’18 titled “A Red City Goes Green: The Renewable Energy Partnership of Georgetown, Texas, and Southwestern University” in Sustainability: The Journal of Record. The article is about Georgetown and Southwestern’s path to 100% renewable energy.

Professor of Economics Emily Northrop’s op-ed titled “Grasping Climate as a Bridge Issue Can Lead to Bipartisan Solutions” was published in the Austin American-Statesman on Nov. 24. The op-ed describes the impacts of climate change on US House District #31.

Associate Professor of Anthropology Brenda Sendejo presented a paper titled “Spaces of Resistance: Chicana and Chicano Activism and Feminism in Austin since the Movement Era” in a special session organized by Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long at the Race, Ethnicity, and Place Conference, Oct. 23–26, in Austin. Sendejo also presented at the Texas Book Festival on Nov. 4 on her essay “The Space in Between: Exploring the Development of Chicana Feminist Thought in Central Texas,” which was recently published in Chicana Movidas: New Narratives of Feminism and Activism in the Movement Era (UT Press). Sendejo and fellow contributor Martha P. Cotera spoke about their essays, putting them into historical and contemporary contexts.

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long coorganized three special sessions on Austin with Eliot Tretter (University of Calgary) for the Race, Ethnicity, and Place Conference. Associate Professor of Sociology Reggie Byron, Professor of Sociology Maria Lowe, Associate Professor of Anthropology Brenda Sendejo, and Simone Yoxall, class of 2019, presented in these sessions. Long also presented a paper in this session titled “Austin in the Era of Climate Urbanism.”

Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering Rebecca Edwards attended the 2018 Teaching Computation in the Sciences Using MATLAB workshop at Carleton College in Northfield, MN, Oct. 14–16. While there, she served on a committee who peer-reviewed a collection of curricular activities featuring MATLAB.

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long published an article titled “From Sustainable Urbanism to Climate Urbanism” in the journal Urban Studies with Dr. Jennifer L. Rice at the University of Georgia.

Professor of Economics Emily Northrop, who also serves on the Environmental Studies Program Committee, authored a lengthy commentary, “University Faculty Passes Resolution to Urge Climate Legislation,” that was published in the June issue of the peer-reviewed journal Sustainability: The Journal of Record.​

Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Rebecca Edwards published a paper in the peer-reviewed journal Atmospheric Environment titled “Evaluation of El Niño–Southern Oscillation Influence on 30 years of Tropospheric Ozone Concentrations in Houston.” This work began as the SCOPE project of physics student Oliver Sale ’16 and is also coauthored by Dr. Gary Morris of St. Edward’s University. This work describes the impact of the El Nino–Southern Oscillation phenomenon on tropospheric ozone, an air pollutant and respiratory irritant, in Houston.

Visiting Professor of Environmental Studies Rebecca Edwards presented a talk titled “El Nino-Southern Oscillation Influence on Tropospheric Ozone Concentrations in Houston” to the Engineering Group at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Aug. 15. The talk was about her research with alumna Oliver Sale ’17 in which the warm phase of the El Nino Southern Oscillation was found to influence tropospheric ozone concentrations in the Houston metropolitan area. This research began as part of the SCOPE summer research program.

Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies Emily Northrop joined Dr. Kerry Cook of UT’s Department of Geological Sciences to make the case for climate science and for legislation to incentivize CO2 reductions in a Georgetown Community Forum titled “Climate Science: Fact or Fiction.” Speaking against the science were Henry Savage, a retired chemical engineer, and Bob Parmelee, a retired computer and business executive. Approximately 160 attended and witnessed the fact-based arguments prevail. The forum was held on July 17 in the Georgetown Public Library. Learn more about the debate through this Williamson County Sun article. 

Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Rebecca Edwards gave an invited talk titled “Where Does Our Wind Come From?” to a group of campers at the Boothbay Sea and Science Center in East Boothbay, Maine. The talk covered influences on the wind along the southern Maine seacoast, from the global to the local scale, and emphasized how regional and global wind patterns have historically influenced trade and sailing ship design and how improved sail technology allowed ships more flexibility in their routes. The Boothbay Sea and Science Center is a nonprofit science education center where experts teach sailing, rowing, and marine science to K–12 students.

Professor of Economics Emily Northrop’s blog “Southwestern University faculty collectively endorse climate legislation” was published by the Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) on April 4, 2018. CCL has nearly 100,000 members worldwide, organized into 475 chapters. It is a grassroots organization that lobbies for a carbon tax with proceeds distributed to US households on an equal basis.  

Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics and Environmental Studies Rebecca Edwards launched two ozonesonde instruments on weather balloons from the SU campus on March 30 and 31. She was assisted by mathematics student Morgan Engle, class of 2018, environmental studies students Lucas Evans, class of 2018, and Daniella De Souza, class of 2019, and alumnus Amy McKee ’96 and her family.  The launches are part of an experiment designed to evaluate the impact of the growing Austin Metro area on the air quality in Georgetown. Instrumentation carried by the balloons measures ozone, an air pollutant at the surface, as well as temperature and relative humidity. Each balloon reached an altitude of 30 km before bursting and provided valuable insight into the vertical structure of the atmosphere over the City of Georgetown.  Three more launches are planned for the month of April and all launches are open to all. This research was generously supported by a Green Fund grant.

Southwestern University has been awarded TreeCampus USA designation by the Arbor Day Foundation. Earning this distinction was a joint effort by the 2017 Spring Environmental Studies Capstone Group, Physical Plant, the SU Business Office, the Sustainability Committee, and the Environmental Studies Program. Students involved in the project include SU alumni Vallery Rusu ’17, Alex Morris ‘17, Olivia Ruane ’17, Colleen Nair ’17, and Rebecca Huteson ’17.

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long served as an invited panelist at the Society for the Study of Southern Literature Conference in February where he presented on a chapter he published last year in the UNC Press volume The Bohemian South titled “Liminality and the Search for the New Austin Bohemianism.”

Professor of Art History Thomas Howe, Professor of Classics Hal Haskell and Instructor of Environmental Studies Anwar Sounny-Slitine participated in a seminar/workshop on adapting GIS technology for teaching and research Aug. 8-9, 2016 at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. The workshop was funded by a joint grant from the Associated Colleges of the South.

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long participated in a panel titled “Where are the Lines? Coexistence of Environmental Causes in a Conservative Texas” on July 14, 2016. The panel was sponsored by Earth Day ATX. Long was also featured in a Q&A interview with journalist Cody McCrary in the August edition of Community Impact (Georgetown).

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Josh Long published “Hipster Hate and the Sabotage of Real Social Commentary” on EndOfAustin.com.

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long served as an invited panelist at Earth Day Texas in Dallas titled “Georgetown Goes Green.” Long took nine students to this event where they presented their capstone research on sustainability at Southwestern University.

Professor of Anthropology, Environmental Studies, and Race & Ethnicity Studies Melissa Johnson presented a paper “Becoming Creole: Race and Nature in Belize” on March 30 at the Political Ecology Society/Society for Applied Anthropology 76th Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada. She also served as a discussant for the panel “More-than-Human, Part I: Interspecies Intersections: Reframing Conflict and Co-existence.”

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Joshua Long had a chapter published in a newly released book by Springer titled Learner-Centered Teaching Activities for Environmental and Sustainability Studies. The chapter was titled “Helping Students Envision Justice in the Sustainable City.”

Long will also present a paper at the Association of American Geographers conference titled “Hipster Hate and the Sabotage of Meaningful Social Commentary.” Additionally, he will serve on a panel at the Association of American Geographers conference. The panel is titled “Approaches to Teaching Sustainability: Towards Increased Understanding of the Economic and Social Pillars.”

Instructor of Environmental Studies M. Anwar Sounny-Slitine, along with students Brandee Knight and Dakota McDurham, presented the results of their faculty-student research project titled “The Effects of Virtual Environments on Spatial Awareness in Adolescents” at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Chicago. Read the abstract.

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Josh Long has been interviewed for or mentioned in three recent publications: The New York Times, Inc. Magazine, and Exame (a large Brazilian magazine). 

M. Anwar Sounny-Slitine, instructor of environmental studies and GIS lab manager, along with environmental studies students Brandee Knight and Caitlin Schneider, published a paper in “The Southwestern Geographer” titled “On Making and Becoming a Graduate,” a reflection piece about approaches in learning and teaching for better undergraduate education. 

Joshua Long, assistant professor of environmental studies, authored an article titled “Constructing the narrative of the sustainability fix: Sustainability, social justice and representation in Austin, TX,” that appeared in the journal Urban Studies. He was also was interviewed Computerworld for a story about the changing landscape of Information Technology employment in Austin and the Southwest, and by the European News magazine Der Spiegel for an article that explores Austin’s commitment to green energy and electric cars.

Instructor of Environmental Studies M. Anwar Sounny-Slitine presented at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco about current research on remote sensing and GIS database development in defining Alluvial Megafan, or large fan-shaped bodies of sediment that form from lateral migrations of a river as it exits a topographic front. He has also co-authored an article published in the Journal of Geography titled “The Use of Web-Based Video for Instruction of GIS and Other Digital Geographic Methods,” in which he highlights the benefits and limitations of Web-based video in GIS labs, and how these teaching tools can be used to “flip” classrooms.

He also presented a current faculty-student research project at the 2014 Williamson County GIS Day, an event about the practice of GIS, where users and vendors open their doors to schools, businesses, and the general public to showcase real-world applications and research. The talk, co-authored with Southwestern students Brandee Knight, Dakota McDurham, and Jen O’Neal, was titled “The Effects of Virtual Environments on Spatial Thinking,” and outlined virtual environments, or reconstructions of reality in 3D GIS platforms like Google Maps Streetview. They presented results of a experiment with grade school children who explored Southwestern campus virtually and physical and then tested for understanding of place and navigation of campus. Results were also presented at the 2014 annual meeting of the Southwestern Association of American Geographer in Albuquerque, NM.