Social Sciences Newsblog

Category: Sustainability

Milanzi Chosen as Catalyst Leadership Circle Fellow

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Nyasha Milanzi Catalyst Leadership Circle
Nyasha Milanzi
Graduate student
Sustainable Communities program

Congratulations to Nyasha Milanzi, chosen as one of the ten Catalyst Leadership Circle (CLC) Fellows at the University of Michigan’s Graham Sustainability Institute. Milanzi studies in the Sustainable Communities program, working on a master’s.

This fellowship, sponsored by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), provides summer internships, funding, and professional development for promising sustainability advocates statewide through the Catalyst Communities program.
In this role, they’ll collaborate with the local government of Ann Arbor to pinpoint scope 3 emissions in new building developments.

Additionally, Nyasha was selected as one of the 20 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Voices for Science fellows for the 2024-2025 academic year, representing scientists from North and Central America. This fellowship offers a platform for outreach initiatives and the opportunity to contribute opinion pieces on topics surrounding the Food, Energy, and Water nexus for various media outlets.
They’re excited to embark on this journey of engagement and knowledge-sharing in the coming academic year.

About the Social Sciences Department at Michigan Tech

Michigan Tech’s Department of Social Sciences offers bachelor of science degrees in Anthropology, Policy and Community Development, Sustainability Science and Society, and Social Science, along with a bachelor of arts degree in History. Our graduate program includes masters and doctoral degrees in Environmental and Energy Policy and Industrial Heritage and Architecture (the only one of its kind in the world), and a master’s in Sustainable Communities. Plus, you can get a graduate certificate in Public Policy in by taking three courses in just one term.

Questions? Contact us at socialsciences@mtu.edu. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the latest happenings.

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Kendra Lachik Reflects on COP27 Experience

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Keweenaw Now recently published a blog post written by Kendra Lachik ‘23 (environmental engineering) about presentations given by Michigan Tech’s delegation to the COP27 climate conference, held in November of 2023 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. MTU students Anna Kavanaugh (environmental engineering, sustainability science and society), Rose Daily (environmental engineering) and Alexis Pascaris (environmental and energy policy) were quoted in the article about their experiences at the conferences.

You can read Kendra’s article on Keweenaw Now.

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Third-Year Sustainable Sciences Student Mariah’s Mexican Adventure

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Michigan Tech students spanning majors and class standings embarked on the first Mexico Spring Break study abroad program in early March. Mariah Mellendorf ’25 chronicled the group’s visit to communities in the Yucatan Peninsula to learn about tourism and conduct research.

Read more about Mariah’s Mexico study abroad experience on the Unscripted Research Blog.

MTU students at Chichen Itza
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In Print

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Hongmei Lu ’20 (Ph.D., environmental and energy policy) and Shan Zhou (SS) have published a co-authored paper in the Journal of Asian Public Policy.

The paper is titled “Using policy goal ambiguity to manage policy goal conflicts: Sponge-City Program implementation in old neighborhoods.”

The paper uses a case study to understand how local policy implementers take advantages of policy goal ambiguity to maximize the policy outcomes of urban stormwater management program in China, given constrained resources and budget.

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In Print

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A collaborative research team’s work on energy sovereignty has recently been published in the Routledge Handbook of Energy Democracy. Co-authors of “Energy democracy in practice: Centering energy sovereignty in rural communities and Tribal Nations” include Chelsea Schelly, Valoree Gagnon, Andrew Fiss, Elise Matz, Rebecca Ong and Kathy Halvorsen of Michigan Tech, along with Douglas Bessette, Laura Schmitt Olabisi and Kristin Arola of Michigan State University.

Learn more about the work via the Michigan Tech Digital Commons.

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Health and Society Film Festival

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Students in Richelle Winkler’s Introduction to Sociology class are hosting a virtual Health & Society Film Festival, and invite the public to participate.

The students have selected 11 films ranging from documentaries to comedy and drama. Films address mental health, pandemics, social movements in response to AIDS, birth control, substance abuse, pharmaceuticals, stress, racism, eugenics, maternal mortality and death/dying. The films are all widely available and we ask folks to watch them on their own first, then to participate in Zoom discussions about them and what we can learn from them about health and society.

Discussions will be held between Nov. 16 and Dec. 6, depending on the film. See our website for film descriptions, where to watch, discussion dates/times and links to join the discussion. 
Information on the film festival is located here.

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