Natural Hazards Observer
| September 2005 | Volume XXX | Number 1 |
2005 Mary Fran Myers Award Winner Announced
The Gender and Disaster Network and the Natural Hazards Center are pleased to present the 2005 Mary Fran Myers Award to Elaine Enarson. Enarson is an independent scholar currently teaching in the Department of Sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her research, courses, and publications have examined women’s work in disasters and their housing and evacuation experiences, the uses of feminist theory for disaster sociology, disaster prevention and sustainable development, women’s cultural responses to disaster, violence against women in disaster contexts, grassroots women’s efforts to mitigate natural hazards, and international trends in the gender and disaster literature.
She has consulted on these issues with the International Labour Organization, the United Nation’s Division for the Advancement of Women, and the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. Additionally, she has served as convener, grant writer, and planner for conferences on Gender Equality and Disaster Risk Reduction, Reaching Women and Children in Disasters, and Women in Disaster: Exploring the Issues. She also cofounded the Gender and Disaster Network in 1997 and is currently project manager for the Gender and Disaster Sourcebook (http://online.northumbria.ac.uk/geography_research/gdn/sourcebook.htm), an online compilation developed by an international writing team.
For more than a decade, Enarson has dedicated her time and efforts to better understanding and reducing the disaster vulnerability of women and girls. Her scholarship and advocacy work have fundamentally changed the way scholars conduct gendered research and the way practitioners respond to extreme events. Moreover, she has served as a mentor and role model to a new generation of students and emergency responders.
The Mary Fran Myers Award was established in 2002 to recognize individuals whose program-related activities, advocacy efforts, or research has had a lasting, positive impact on reducing hazards vulnerability for women and girls. Individuals whose work adds to the body of knowledge on gender and disasters, is significant for the theory and/or practice of gender and disasters, or has furthered opportunities for women to succeed in the hazards fields are eligible to receive the award. For more information about the Mary Fran Myers Award and previous award winners, visit http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/mfmaward/.
2005 Workshop Summaries and Abstracts Available Online
In July 2005, hazards researchers and professionals, including federal, state, and local government officials; representatives from nonprofit organizations and private industry; and other interested individuals, convened in Boulder, Colorado, for the Natural Hazards Center’s 30th Annual Hazards Research and Applications Workshop. Participants debated, explored, and shared information on a wide range of issues. This year’s session topics included the 2004 Asian tsunami, social isolation in disaster planning, the effectiveness of land use zoning as a hazard mitigation tool, climate change and unpredictability, innovations in Earth observations, legal issues regarding quarantine, and many, many others.
To share some of the ideas and discussions presented during the workshop, the Center publishes brief summaries of each session, abstracts of the research presented, and descriptions of the projects and programs discussed. This is a valuable resource for those who were unable to attend, as well as for those who were. Session summaries, abstracts, and other workshop materials are available online at http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/workshop/2005/.
Call for Session Topics: 2006 Annual Hazards Research and Applications Workshop
The Natural Hazards Center invites proposals for session topics for the 2006 Annual Hazards Research and Applications Workshop. Proposed session topics will provide guidance to the Center as it plans and prepares next year’s program. Session ideas may be modified, combined, or otherwise altered by the Center and submission of a topic does not guarantee inclusion on the program.
The annual workshop is designed to bring members of the research and applications communities together for face-to-face networking and discussion of cutting-edge issues related to hazards and disasters and society’s efforts to deal with them. It provides a dynamic, provocative, and challenging forum for the diverse opinions and perspectives of the hazards community.
To submit a session idea, go to http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/workshop/2006/. Session topics must be submitted by October 14, 2005, to be considered.