Adam Wellstead, assistant professor of environmental and energy policy (SS), will present a talk, “Night of the Living Dead Theory: Structural-functionalism and Adaptation to Climate Change Policy. The Case of the Australian, Canadian, and US Forest Sectors,” Friday, Feb. 14 at 4 p.m., in AOB 201
From Tech Today.
The SSGSS (Social Sciences Graduate Student Society) entered the All-Nighter statue-building contest for 2014 Winter Carnival with an entry that fused both the environmental and industrial themes of the department. They chose to build the beloved children’s film character Wall-E, from the film of the same name (2008), who roamed the earth cleaning up the waste from an industrial society that had ruined the planet, but who gave a generation renewed hope in environmental stewardship and the power of the human spirit to survive.
The students that participated came from both Environmental and Energy Policy and from Industrial Archaeology and Heritage. From the EP side we had Sarkar Mokabbir, Myra Sanchez Gonzalez, Edward Louie, Hamza Raheel, Ronesha Strozier, Amanda Kreuze, and Maggie Morrison. From IA/IAH we had Lee Presley, John Arnold, Carol Griskavich, Rob Anthony, Leonor Medeiros, and Dan Schneider, while Marc Henshaw and Stephen Sarich fired up the BBQ grill and kept everyone fed. They worked from 6pm on Wednesday through to 3am Thursday morning stamping snow into a 4ft. cube, and then sculpting it into Wall-E’s body. They built the head and arms separately as well as freezing two clear ice discs for use as Wall-E’s eyes. The sculpture is notable for being made accurately to scale thanks to John Arnold’s past life as an architect and his use of Sketch Up.
SSGSS is happy to cap off its inaugural year as a student organization with their participation in this event. Part of their mission is to foster collaborative and collegial relationships between the Social Sciences department’s graduate programs (this event is not quite as useful in their role for professional development, but it was great fun!). They are proud to have brought their members’ skills of engineering, architectural design, and archaeological excavation together to make Wall-E a success! They hope to make Winter Carnival All-Nighter statue building an annual tradition.
Richard Stedman, of Cornell University’s Department of Natural Resources, will give the talk: “’Game changers’: Analyzing the Emergence and Impacts of New Energy Boomtowns” Monday, Feb. 10 at 4 p.m. in the MUB Alumni Lounge B. It will cover his rural sociological work on emergent energy technologies and development, including the Marcellus Shale. All are welcome. Stedman’s talk is sponsored by the Department of Social Sciences, Environmental and Energy Policy Graduate Program, and School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science.
From Tech Today.
Emma S. Norman, assistant professor of geography (SS/GLRC) has just been named a research associate with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. This affiliation will allow her direct access to Smithsonian materials for research and educational purposes and also provide her the opportunity to collaborate with Smithsonian employees. The first project she is undertaking is to work with their staff cartographer and senior geographer to create a series of maps that show the changing settlement patterns of indigenous peoples along the Canada-US border (pre- and post-contact) and how those patterns impact access to and governance of water. These maps will appear in her forthcoming book, Governing Transboundary Waters: Canada, the United States, and Indigenous Communities (Routledge) and will also also be made publicly available through the Smithsonian.
From Tech Today.
He’s digging up the past—somewhere between 200 BC and 400 AD—in an unexpected archaeological excavation in downtown Charlotte Amalie on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands
David Hayes, who got his MS in Industrial Archaeology from Michigan Technological University in 2000, is principal investigator for a year-old dig that began when he noticed pottery popping out of a highway improvement site. The highway work was stopped, and the pieces have since been dated to early ceramic makers and farmers of the Saladoid era, 2000 to 1,400 years ago.
Read more at Michigan Tech News, by Dennis Walikainen.
In the News
The Virgin Islands Source published a feature story about Michigan Tech alumnus David Hayes’ archaeological dig in Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas, VI.
From Tech Today.
Environmental Engineering Graduate Seminar
Kathy Halvorsen (SS/SFRES) will be hosting a seminar, “The Socioecological Sustainability of Forest-based Bioenergy.” The talk will take place on Monday, Feb. 3, from 3 to 4 p.m. in GLRC 202.
From Tech Today.
A PhD candidate in Industrial Heritage and Archaeology at Michigan Tech has given the residents of Minnesota’s Cuyuna Range a unique gift–a glimpse into the history of their own communities. Fred Sutherland is researching the history of the Cuyuna Range, an iron mining region between Brainerd and Aitkin, Minn., for his PhD dissertation. Earlier this month, he presented a summary of findings from a survey of nearly 900 historic buildings and sites along the Cuyuna Range.
Sutherland had to inventory the locations to identify potential sites for archaeological fieldwork. His architectural inventory is a model for public research advocated by Michigan Tech faculty, according to Tim Scarlett, associate professor of social sciences and head of Tech’s Industrial Heritage and Archaeology program.
Read more at Tech Today, by Jenn Donovan.
Kari Henquinet (SS), director of Michigan Tech’s Peace Corps Master’s International programs, will be an invited presenter as part of a national webinar on Wednesday, Jan. 29. Her topic is “Pulling Up Stakes: Preparing Master’ International Students to go overseas.”
The webinar is sponsored by the Office of University and Domestic Partnerships at the US Peace Corps in Washington, DC.
From Tech Today.
Social Sciences Colloquia Friday
John Arnold will present “Learn to Model, Model to Learn,” Friday, Jan. 31, 4 p.m., AOB 201. Arnold is a PhD student in Social Sciences and has an M.S. in Historic Preservation and M.Arch in Architecture from the University of Oregon. He will be talking about the applicability of building information modeling (BIM) as a tool to investigate and manage heritage resources.
From Tech Today.
From David Hayes we hear that a number of MTU IA graduates are taking part in a monitoring project in the U.S. Virgin Islands this winter (yes, we here in Houghton are jealous). In the photo the person on the far right in the maroon shirt is Alicia Valentino (IA ’03) and to her right is David Hayes (IA ’00) They are working with a large team of archaeologists checking back dirt from an sewer line excavation in Charlotte Amalie on the island of St Thomas on 21 January 2014. This federally-funded project will allow infrastructure improvement on Main Street, but it runs through a 1500-2000 year old site of the Saladoid people (for more on the ancient Saladoid sites, see this post from the V.I. Daily News last Feb.). David Hayes is the principal investigator on this project.