WHAT ARE SU FOLKS UP TO?
Going Green: Southwestern University Joins Colleges Commited To Sustainable Living
[04/17/2007] The Southwestern University campus is looking much greener to Ben Johnson these days, but it's not because the spring rains have left the lawns lush and green. After nearly a year of effort, Johnson and other students on campus have succeeded in convincing the university to formally commit to a more sustainable, or "green" way of doing things.
That commitment will become official April 19 when University President Jake B. Schrum adds Southwestern to a growing list of colleges and universities around the world that have signed a treaty known as the Talloires ("Tal-wahr") Declaration. The treaty takes its name from a town in France where the declaration was conceived at an international conference in 1990. [more]
Internship Possibilities in Central Texas
In the past, Southwestern students have interned with Ecology Action in Austin and with the Environmental Defense Fund in Austin.
There are also potential internship possibilities with a variety of government offices and other organizations in the Central Texas area, possibly including the immediate Georgetown-Round Rock area. Please contact Dr. Melissa Johnson if you are interested in this possibility.
ACS Environmental Internships
The Associated Colleges of the South have also initiated an Environmental Internship Program, and two of the four interns selected this year (1998-99) were Southwestern students. Sara Greenberg is interning with the Louisville Zoo, and Adrianne Stropes is interning at the Heifer Ranch of Heifer Project International.
Research Programs
Dr. Jan Dawson's current research has been taking two directions. She has been investigating the use of healing as a metaphor for relations between humans and "nature" and she is researching the traditions and practices of appealing to "nature intelligences" in gardening and farming.
Dr. Stephanie Fabritius is conducting field research on sexual selection, mate choice, and parental care in grassland birds and both lab and field research on the behavioral ecology of parasitoid wasps.
Dr. Emily Niemeyer's research focuses on developing an understanding of several unique "green" solvent systems formed in supercritical carbon dioxide. Because the Montreal Protocol has banned many common organic solvents, there is currently a push to develop more environmentally-friendly solvents for chemical reactions and separations. Supercritical carbon dioxide has been heralded as one of the most promising green solvent alternatives because of its low cost, low critical parameters, and ability to be completely recycled. Dr. Niemeyer uses fluorescence spectroscopy to characterize reverse micelles formed in supercritical carbon dioxide as well as studying the effects of supercritical carbon dioxide on silicone polymer systems.
Dr. Melissa Johnson is beginning a new research project entitled Ethnicities and Ecologies: An Ethno-Environmental History of Belize. As a former British colony in the midst of the Spanish Main, an Anglo-Caribbean nation in Central America, and a nation of 200,000 comprising five significant ethnic groups, Belize is a fascinating site for analyzing the relationship between 'the environment' and 'culture' over time. Dr. Johnson's research focuses on the differences in cultural-ecological relationships between the Belize Creole, Mestizo, Maya, and Garifuna populations. She is particularly interested in how uses and meanings of "the environment," or "nature" map out onto the color-class-ethnicity matrix that emerged out of slavery and colonialism in this part of the world, and how ethnic identity and the social construction of nature are linked in various ways. Dr. Johnson will be conducting ethnohistorical research in four different ethnic communities in Belize, and plans to take SU students to Belize to work on the project in the summer of 2000.
Dr. Emily Northrop has analyzed traditional introductory economics texts with an eye toward how they approach issues critical to the environment. She published "The Greening of Introductory Economics," which illustrated how authors might more appropriately introduce students to environmental considerations. In addition, she has written "Normative Foundations of Introductory Economics," which argues that introductory economics texts actually promote consumerism and other values that are detrimental to the environment. Dr. Northrop continues to review books on economic globalization, always emphasizing the authors' treatment (or lack thereof) of the environmental consequences of global integration. Among her published reviews was that for William Greider's One World, Ready or Not.
Study Abroad
Southwestern Environmental Studies students have participated in a study abroad course in sustainable development in Costa Rica run by the ACS with professors from Rollins College leading the course. For more information about this possibility, click here.
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