Social Sciences Newsblog

Rahman Publishes on the Shipbreaking Industry in Bangladesh

Published August 9, 2016

S.M. Mizan Rahman, who graduated in spring 2016 with a PhD in Environmental and Energy Policy, has published three papers on the shipbreaking industry in Bangladesh:

Rahman SMM and AL Mayer. 2015. How social ties influence metal resource flows in the Bangladesh ship recycling industry. Resources, Conservation & Recycling 104(A):254-264.

Rahman SMM, R Handler, AL Mayer. 2016. Life Cycle Assessment of steel in the ship recycling industry in Bangladesh. Journal of Cleaner Production 135:963-971.

Rahman SMM and AL Mayer. 2016. Policy compliance recommendations for international shipbreaking treaties for Bangladesh. Marine Policy 73:122-129.

Contact Audrey Mayer for reprints.

From Tech Today.

Local High School Students Learn Historical GIS with the Keweenaw Time Traveler Team

Published August 4, 2016

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Careers that incorporate geospatial technologies are among the fastest-growing nationwide. That’s why Michigan Tech and Eastern Michigan University have teamed up on the NSF-funded GRACE Project to introduce high school students to GIS techniques and tools that can be used to tackle community issues.

This summer, eleven students from CLK and Houghton high schools are working as paid interns with researchers in the Department of Social Sciences and the Great Lakes Research Center to help build the Keweenaw Time Traveler, an NEH-funded project directed by Assistant Professor Don Lafreniere (SS). This innovative online historical atlas will allow users to pinpoint data about changes in the built, social, and natural environments of the Copper Country. The students have joined our team of “Time Travelers,” which includes graduate students in the Industrial Heritage and Archaeology program as well as undergraduates from departments across Michigan Tech. Together, they are learning to use GIS to identify, digitize, and follow changes in thousands of buildings and features from 1888-1950.

During the six week program, students are exploring the many exciting opportunities provided by mobile geospatial technologies by participating in interactive hands-on field trips, including an afternoon in Lake Linden with Carol MacLennan (SS) exploring the vast milling and processing systems that once studded the western shore of Torch Lake, a related trip on the Agassiz Research Vessel learning about the changing shoreline and water quality, and a day conducting active data collection with mobile tablets and GPS in Calumet to capture the students’ perspectives on how to improve non-motorized transportation in conjunction with the Keweenaw National Historical Park’s Complete Streets initiative. The student interns, who are paid through the GRACE project, will present their work in a final celebration on August 11^th in GLRC 2020. Details forthcoming. The Keweenaw Time Traveler is co-directed by Sarah Fayen Scarlett (SS) and John Arnold (SS)

Durfee Publishes Paper on Trade Agreements for the Arctic

Published August 4, 2016

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Mary Durfee authored the paper, “Dementia perhaps, but the state is not dead: TTIP, CETA, and the Arctic,” published in COJOURN, Vol 1, No. 2.

COJOURN is the Cornvinus Journal of International Affairs published by the Institute of International Studies at Corvinus University in Budapest, Hungary.

From Tech Today.

Scarlett Receives Funding for Historical Kiosk Project

Published August 2, 2016

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Sarah Fayen Scarlett, is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $5,000 grant from the Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission. The 18-month public service project is entitled “Citizen Historical Kiosks.”

From Tech Today.

Lafreniere Co-Authors Paper on Geo-Spatial Analysis of Postal Spaces and Networks

Published August 2, 2016

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Don Lafreniere (SS) co-authored a paper, “Rebuilding the Landscape of the Rural Post Office: A Geo-Spatial Analysis of 19th-century Postal Spaces and Networks” in Rural Landscapes: Society, Environment, History, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 1-19.

From Tech Today.

PAR Paper Co-Authored by Wellstead Featured in Government Executive

Published August 2, 2016

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A recent paper co-authored by Adam Wellstead “To Bridge the Divide between Evidence and Policy: Reduce Ambiguity as Much as Uncertainty” in Public Administration Review was featured in Government Executive, an on-line publication with 80,000 federal manager readers.

The full paper is available for download.

From Tech Today.

Solomon Quoted in WalletHub Feature

Published August 1, 2016

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Professor Emeritus Barry Solomon was quoted by WalletHub as part of their “Ask The Experts” series in the context of an article on “2016’s Most and Least Energy Expensive States.”

From Tech Today.

Lafreniere, Scarlett, Arnold Bring GIS Education and Research to Copper Country High School Students

Published July 7, 2016

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Don Lafreniere (SS/GLRC) is the principal investigator on a project that is providing paid GIS internship opportunities to local high school students this summer. Students are learning geospatial technologies and working with MTU Social Science Researchers and NPS Staff from the Keweenaw National Historical Park to built components of the Keweenaw Time Traveler. The project is supported through a $16,772 contract from the Institute for Geospatial Research and Education/NSF. Sarah Scarlett (SS) and John Arnold (SS) are Co-PIs on the project entitled “GRACE (GIS Resources and Applications for Career Education) Project Student Interns.”

SS Alumnus Publishes on Immigration and Ethnic History

Published July 7, 2016

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Marc Sanko (History, 2011) published an essay, “The Worlds of the Immigration Historian” in the Immigration and Ethnic History Society’s new blog on July 1^st. The essay was picked as one of ten to run over the course of the year in a competition during December. Sanko, a PhD Candidate at West Virginia University, also had an article, “The Gift of Empire: Exploring the Importance of the Skilled Labor Experience in Maltese Migrants, 1919-1924”, recently accepted for publication in The Michigan Historical Review.