SS Talk: Chelsea Schelly on “The Rainbow Way: Participation and Experience in Rainbow Gathering Culture”

Published October 27, 2014

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12:00 noon on Friday, October 31 in AOB 201.

Dr. Chelsea Schelly, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Social Sciences will be presenting on “The Rainbow Way: Participation and Experience in Rainbow Gathering Culture”

Her talk is based on her recently published book, Crafting Collectivity: American Rainbow Gatherings and Alternative Forms of Community (Paradigm Publishers).

Abstract : Every summer, thousands of people assemble to live together to celebrate the Annual Gathering of the Rainbow Family. Participants establish temporary systems of water distribution and filtration, sanitation, health care, and meals provided freely to all who gather, and they develop sharing and trading systems, recreational

opportunities, and educational experiences distinct to this creative social world. The Rainbow Family has invented itself as a unique modern culture without formal organization, providing the necessities of life freely to all who attend. The Annual Gathering of the Rainbow Family has been operating for more than forty years as an

experiment in liberty that demonstrates how material or-ganization, participation, and cultural connection can reshape social relationships and transform individual lives. Grounded in sociological theory and research, the book considers what kind of culture the material systems of “Babylon” reinforce and how society could facilitate the kind of social world and human welfare humans desire.

SS Talk: Melissa Baird on “Mining is Our Heritage: Corporate Discourse and the Politics of Extraction”

Published October 20, 2014

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12:00 noon on Friday, October 24 in AOB 201. Melissa Baird, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Social Sciences will present, “Mining is Our Heritage: Corporate Discourse and the Politics of Extraction“.

The Pilbara Coast of Western Australia serves as a touchstone to examine how global mining industries are mobilizing the language of heritage, indigenous rights, and sustainability in their conceptions of heritage and through their corporate and social responsibility campaigns. I present preliminary insights that point to the urgency in making clear the competing claims and tracing the varied agendas of global institutions, corporations, the nation-state, and stakeholders. How exactly is heritage and the language of indigenous rights being used in claim-making and how do new iterations of corporate conceptions of heritage intersect with the rights and lands of indigenous peoples?

SS Talk: John Baeten on “The Nature of Taking Things Apart: Industrial Disassembly”

Published October 10, 2014

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12:00 noon on Friday October 17 in AOB 201. John Baeten, PhD student in Industrial Heritage and Archaeology, will present on “The Nature of Taking Things Apart: Industrial Disassembly, Where the Sum of the Parts are Greater Than the Whole“.

The process of industrial disassembly in the United States, seen in facilities such as slaughterhouses, created a shift in the interaction between humans and their environment. This shift was evident in the increasing scales of production, a consolidation of ownership, and a centralization of processing within theses centers of disassembly. Industrial disassemblers capitalized not only on the scale and speed from which they functioned, but also on the lower land rents of the hinterland from where they produced their animate commodities. This paper introduces a new model for interpreting the technological system of disassembly, and examines the environmental and social impacts of taking things apart.

D80 Conference Saturday

Published October 9, 2014

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Students Step Up to Help the Poorest 80%

by Monica Lester, student writing intern Tech Today

How can you design, discover, develop, deliver and disseminate life-changing solutions for the poorest 80 percent of the world’s inhabitants? Michigan Tech’s many international programs help do that under the umbrella of the D80 Center.

The D80 Center includes Engineers Without Borders, the Michigan Tech Open Sustainability Technology lab, iDesign, the Peace Corps Master’s International program (PCMI), Global City and the Terra Preta Working Group.

Each fall, the D80 Center hosts a conference to showcase the work these student organizations are doing to help underserved communities at home and around the world. This year’s conference is Saturday, Oct. 11 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Dow Building at Michigan Tech. It is free and open to faculty, staff, students and the public. “Engage in Community” is this year’s theme.

“Designs and solutions simply aren’t going to be sustainable if they are not aligned with, and in fact driven by, community priorities,” says Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor David Watkins, director of the D80 Center. “Solutions also have to be appropriate given the community’s technical and organizational capacity and economic resources. It’s well known that successful projects have a common trait of strong community engagement. We also want to emphasize the benefits to students of getting engaged in their local communities or with communities abroad, hence the theme ‘Engage (in) Community.’”

The conference features student presentations, with time for questions, answers and discussion; workshops hosted by faculty; and a keynote presentation, “The Complexities of Water, Climate and Health.” The keynote speaker is Jonathon Mellor, a graduate of Michigan Tech’s PCMI program now at Yale University. He will share the work he has done to address global health issues.

“People should attend to find out about all the great things student groups, and some recent Michigan Tech graduates, are doing,” urges Watkins. “We also want students working on projects to have a chance to share their experiences and learn from each other. Finally, we hope students who have not gotten involved yet will be able to learn more about the opportunities available to them and be inspired to get involved.”

Advance registration is requested and has been extended to Friday, Oct. 10. Registration, the program and additional details are available on the conference web page.

SS Talk: Sarah Cowie on Science and Social Theory in Historical and Heritage Studies”

Published October 3, 2014

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“Integrating Science and Social Theory in Historical Archaeology and
Heritage Studies” at 4 PM on Friday, October 10, 2014, in AOB 201.
Sponsored by the Visiting Women & Minority Lecture Series and Department of Social Sciences.

Abstract: Too often in the last several decades of historical archaeology and related fields, practitioners have struggled with the artificial division between STEM applications and humanist frameworks. We feel driven to identify ourselves as methods-people versus theory-people, processualists versus post-processualists, empiricists versus post-modernists, and positivists versus relativists. However, historical archaeology’s reliance on varied theory and forms of data allows and encourages frameworks that bridge these perceived gaps. This presentation offers a number of heritage projects from the western US that integrate science and social theory in brief case studies: GIS is used to study panoptic surveillance (at the company town of Fayette, Michigan); geochemical analyses inform studies of 19th century medicine, bodily discipline, symbolic violence, and environmental discrimination (at Fayette and a hospital site in Nevada); database management improves heritage consultation, public outreach, and social capital with American Indian tribes (heritage stewardship program in Arizona); and federally funded science programs are supporting highly theoretical projects to find pragmatic solutions in federal/tribal heritage relations (Stewart Indian School collaborative archaeology project). These types of projects and others like them show that despite the rhetoric of division between science and social theory, historical archaeologists can bridge these gaps regularly and with innovative, forward-thinking results.

PDF FLYER: Cowie 2014

SS Talk: Barry Solomon on “Policies for the Sustainable Development of Biofuels in Pan America”

Published September 18, 2014

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Professor Barry Solomon

“Policies for the Sustainable Development of Biofuels in Pan America: A Review and Synthesis of Five Countries”

12:00 noon Friday, September 26 in AOB 201.

Abstract: Rapid growth of biofuel production in the United States and Brazil has increased interest in replicating this success in other Pan American nations. However, the continued use of food-based feedstock is widely seen as unsustainable and is, in some cases, linked to deforestation and increased greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, many nations are exploring the production and use of cellulosic feedstock. This presentation reviews the North-South axis of biofuel production in Pan America and its linkage with the agricultural sectors in five countries in Pan America. Focus will be given to biofuel policy goals,their results, and consideration of sustainability criteria and certification of producers. I examine the two largest producers – the United States and Brazil and two smaller emerging producers – Argentina and Canada; and one stalledprogram – Mexico to explore if biofuel programs are effectively improving environmental quality and sustainable development.

PDF Flyer

MacLennan Sugar Book Launch and Talk

Published September 4, 2014

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Sovereign Sugar From TechToday (4 Sept.)

Book and Academic Presentation on Hawaii’s Sugar Industry by Carol MacLennan

Carol MacLennan (SS) will offer remarks and slides on her recently published book, Sovereign Sugar: Industry and Environment in Hawai’i (Univ. of Hawai’i Press, 2014), on ~~Wednesday, Sept. 10~~ Tuesday Sept. 30 (note new date!), in the East Reading Room of the Van Pelt and Opie Library. The book unravels the tangled relationship between the sugar industry and Hawai’i’s cultural and natural landscapes. MacLennan’s publication is the first work to fully examine the complex tapestry of socioeconomic, political and environmental forces that shaped sugar’s role. Join us for Hawai’i-inspired refreshments at 4 p.m. with remarks to begin at 4:15 p.m.

This event is part of the library’s “Nexus: the Scholar and the Library” series. All faculty and academic staff are encouraged to be a part of this series. Contact Ellen Seidel (eseidel@mtu.edu) to discuss how you can share your on going research or scholarly achievements with the campus.

2013/2014 Social Sciences Colloquia Series

Published May 1, 2014

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Seminars and Lectures

A warm thank you to all our presenters for the 2013-2014 Social Sciences Colloquia Series and Brown Bags.

— Melissa Baird, Colloquia Coordinator

Jorge Garcia Fernandez

Think Digital: Photogrammetry on Cultural Heritage Documentation

Sean Gohman

Deux Lacs, Deux Moulins, et une Ville: The French Mining Experience in Copper Harbor

John Baeten

The Industrial Archaeology and Landscape of the Fairbanks Mining District

Carol Griskavich

The Other Calumet: Steel and Subinterns in Southeast Chicagoland, Summer 2013

Mary Durfee

“Mind the Gap: Conflicting Legal Rules in the Arctic”

Richelle Winkler & SS4700 Students

Exploring the Social Feasibility of Minewater Geothermal in Calumet (presented at the Calumet Public Library in Calumet)

John Arnold

Learn to Model, Model to Learn: BIM for IA

Adam Wellstead

Night of the Living Dead Theory: Structural-functionalism and Adaptation to Climate Change Policy

Dan Schneider

A First-Hand and Historical Perspective on the Practice of Letterpress Printing

Emma Schwaiger & Ankita Mandleia

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Understand Pollution: PCBs in Torch Lake

Emma Norman

The Power of Water: Renegotiating the Columbia River Treaty

Terry Sharik (Dean of the School of Forest Research and Environmental Science, MTU)

The Future of Natural Resource Science at Michigan Tech

Wendy Jepson (Associate Professor of Geography, Texas A & M)

“No-win waterscapes”: Household Water Insecurity in Low-Income Communities along the US-Mexico Border

Wendy Jepson Lectures

Published April 24, 2014

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Please join the social sciences department for two important lectures by Wendy Jepson, associate professor of geography at Texas A&M University, who is sponsored by the Visiting Women and Minority Lecture/Scholar Series.

Today, “Water insecurity as Environmental Justice: The Case of ‘Colonials’ along the US-Mexico Border” will be presented in GLRC 202 at 12:35-1:50 p.m.

Friday, April 25, “No-win waterscapes”: Household Water Insecurity in Low-Income Communities along the US-Mexico Border” will be at AOB 201, Department of Social Sciences Colloquium from 4 to 5 p.m.

More about Jepson’s work can be found online.

From Tech Today.

A Village in Bangladesh

Published April 22, 2014

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Global City Presents “A Village In Bangladesh” Today

“A Village in Bangladesh” will be presented by S. M. Mizanur Rahman, today at 5 p.m., in EERC 103.

Mizanur will present the development disaster caused by shrimp farming in his village and how small producers are left out of the economic development of this product. He will also talk about his work in the community and The Motorcycle Project, an idea he developed to provide capital support and planning skills to the local people, which he plans on implementing this summer. He is now pursuing his PhD in Environmental and Energy Policy at Michigan Tech.