Congratulations to Shan Zhou, Assistant Professor – Environmental and Energy Policy, for receiving a Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award from ORAU (with matching funds from the Vice President for Research office at Michigan Tech) for her proposal titled, ” Incorporating LEED into local green building policies: the blurred boundary between voluntarism and regulation”.
ORAU is managed by a consortium of research universities and provides scientific and technical guidance to the Department of Energy and other agencies. Read more here…
Sun Nguyen, Adam Wellstead, Nancy Langston and Micheal Howlett recently published, “Mining the evidence: Public comments and evidence-based policymaking in the controversial Minnesota PolyMet mining project”.
The Energy News Network’s 40 Under 40 awards program highlights emerging leaders and their work in the United States’ transition to a clean energy economy. Read More…
Don Lafreniere (SS/GLRC) along with colleagues Dayne Walling (U Minnesota) and Rick Sadler (Michigan State) presented a paper entitled “Rust Belt Cities as Exemplars for Urban Development Practice in a Low-Growth Future” at the International Seminar on Urban Form.
The paper outlines how slow- or no-growth communities in the American Rust Belt have responded to the socio-spatial processes shaping land use, development, and revitalization despite a long history of racial segregation and political fragmentation. The paper highlights the importance of community groups and civic networks in responding to these challenges in depopulating urban regions.
Marie Richards (PhD student, IHA) has been awarded one of eleven Tribal Food Systems Graduate Fellowships from the Intertribal Agricultural Council and the Inter-Institutional Network for Food, Agriculture and Sustainability. This competitive program provides direct financial support and mentorship for graduate research during the 2020/21 academic year, including mentorship from outside MTU, monthly cohort sessions, and dissemination of project results. The experience and networks fellows will gain through participating in this inaugural Indian Country food systems cohort will expand their network and exposure to scholars multifold. IAC is the nation’s largest and longest standing Native American agriculture and natural resources organization. IAC’s efforts over the past 30 years have supported programming and policy work impacting hundreds of Tribal communities and thousands of individual Tribal producers across the country. INFAS is a national network of food systems academics and institutions. This cohort consists of members from rural communities in South Dakota, to urban populations in California; from the islands of Hawaii, to the vast landscapes of Alaska. This inaugural fellowship year is guaranteed to impact food and agriculture scholarship nationally and beyond!
On Friday, May 1st the Department of Social Sciences held a virtual commencement celebration honoring its 2019-20 graduates.
Play 2020 Department of Social Sciences Graduation Celebration video
2020 Department of Social Sciences Graduation Celebration
“We are marking an important milestone in the lives of our graduates. Graduates, you are ending one phase of your formal education and beginning a new phase of your lives.”
Speakers
- President Richard Koubek
- Dean David Hemmer
- Dr. Mayra Sanchez Morgan
- Ph.D. Candidate Will Lytle
- Professor Emerita Dr. Carol A. Maclennan
Professor Mark Rhodes provided a musical interlude “Theme from Star Trek Voyager” on trumpet and recent anthropology graduate, Charles Fugate read the poem “In April” by Rainer Maria Rilke. Undergraduate awards were presented and the names of our graduates were read. The musical closing was provided by the Pep Band and Blizzard.
Congratulations to all. We wish you continued success.
“You persevered, and along the way you made a lasting imprint on our campus community.”
Social Sciences Graduates 2019-2020
Doctor of Philsophy
Erin Burkett, Environmental and Energy Policy, PhD
Brent J. Burns, Environmental and Energy Policy, PhD
Mayra Sanchez Morgan, Environmental and Energy Policy, PhD
Andrew Mueller, Industrial Heritage and Archaeology, PhD
Master of Science
Karuna Rana, Environmental and Energy Policy, MS
Sun Van Nguyen, Environmental and Energy Policy, MS
Michael Levi Ryan, Environmental and Energy Policy, MS
Azat Turegeldin, Environmental and Energy Policy, MS
Robert John Zupko, Environmental and Energy Policy, MS
Tyler D. Allen, Industrial Heritage and Archaeology, MS
Brendan J. Doucet, Industrial Heritage and Archaeology, MS
Josef Thomas Iwanicki, Industrial Heritage and Archaeology, MS
Bachelor of Science
Charles R. Fugate, BS Anthropology
Bridget E. Quesnell, BS Anthropology
Trenton X. Woodcox, BS Social Sciences -Law and Society
Jessica M. Berryman, BS Social Sciences -Law and Society
Catherine A. Carra, BS Social Sciences -Education
Jason D. Sutherland, BS Social Sciences-Education
Undergraduate Awards
Outstanding Senior Award
Jessica Berryman and Charles Fugate
Undergraduate Research Awards
Alannah M Woodring and Lynette S Webber
Community-Based Research Prize
Angela Gutierrez and Timothy Stone
Departmental Scholar 2020
Timothy Stone
Professor Shan Zhou and Professor Emeritus Barry D. Solomon published a paper, “Do renewable portfolio standards in the United States stunt renewable electricity development beyond mandatory targets?” in Energy Policy. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301421520301336
Siona Beaudoin, a junior at Lake Linden-Hubbell High School, spent the past year working on a research project with Tara Bal (CFRES) Angie Carter, Social Sciences (SS). Her project focus was on the invasive fruit fly Spotted Wing Drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (SWD) and the public’s knowledge of SWD, along with their berry picking/foraging practices.
She presented her research at the Wisconsin, Upper Peninsula of Michigan Regional Junior Science and Humanities Symposium in February and qualified for the national symposium.
Recently, she virtually defended her research in the Life Sciences Poster Competition at the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium where she was awarded third place. Beaudoin is currently summarizing the research to be published with Bal and Carter.
Adam Wellstead published again! Globalization and Health (2020)– “The north-south policy divide in transnational healthcare: a comparative review of policy research on medical tourism” by A. Virani, A. Wellstead and M. Howlett. Open access. https://bit.ly/3cHwR6m
The Department of Social Sciences announced its 2019-20 Undergraduate Research Awards.
- Outstanding Senior Award: Jessica Berryman and Charles Fugate
- Community-Base Research Prize: Angela Gutierrez and Timothy Stone
- Undergraduate Research Award: Alannah M. Woodring and Lynette S Webber
The students will be recognized at the Department of Social Sciences Class of 2019-20 Virtual Commencement Celebration on May 1. Congratulations for these extraordinary achievements.