Out of the fire, with hope for strength
Twelve months of wellness is a campaign to promote the wellbeing of the employees and students of the College of Arts and Sciences. Each month, we will introduce a theme related to a specific dimension of wellness. Throughout the month, we will feature research, informational events, highlighted faculty and opportunities to learn and grow in a specific dimension of wellness. The July 2020 theme of 12 months of Wellness is this challenging state in which we find ourselves: upheaval, change, moving out of and away from the typical ways of doing and being, finding ourselves waiting, in stillness, wondering how to make sense of what has and is happening, then eventually—hopefully—seeing the beginnings of regrowth, signs of resilience and a stronger state of being.wellness, is resilience and growth through adversity.
What does going through the fire mean to you? Share your image as part of this month's theme.
The Buffalo way
Out of the fire, with hope for strength
The tryptic of wildfire, here, depicts stages: fire itself, the burned state and re-generation. While we portrayed only three stages for simplicity, there is a continuum of change within each stage, and the movement between stages is not uni-directional. It is dynamic, and therefore extremely challenging.
In the first phase, biological systems suffer complete or partial destruction. But the aftermath is like a stage of stillness, waiting for what comes next—more fire, or regrowth.
What comes back and how it comes back in nature, be it plant or animal, is sometimes stronger or healthier than before. In the wake of wildfire, disturbed ground fosters new life, and one plant that can thrive in that environment is fireweed—a beautiful flower that sometimes carpets previously charred land. It’s nature’s phoenix.
We asked CU Boulder students about the three stages of fire, and what their experience has been or is, acknowledging the persistently challenging nature of these times. This is captured in the mosaic Buffs, in their own voice. We hope that this can serve as a space and place to land, find stillness, breathe and even rest while in the challenge, fighting the fire, waiting for regrowth.
We as a community are experiencing each stage differently, and at different times. And as a community, the College is here to support you with resources through each stage.
The July 2020 theme during the 12 months of Wellness is this challenging state in which we find ourselves: upheaval, change, moving out of and away from the typical ways of doing and being, finding ourselves waiting, in stillness, wondering how to make sense of what has and is happening, then eventually—hopefully—seeing the beginnings of regrowth, signs of resilience and a stronger state of being.
We may not be there yet, but we are in community. And where there is community, as there is in a herd, there is strength.
Out of the Fire: Research, Application, Impact
Jennifer Balch
Jennifer Balch is an Associate Professor of Geography and Director, Earth Lab. We need to reassess the role of fire on Earth. At a global scale, we know very little about how fire influences ecosystem dynamics, and in turn, how ecosystem patterns and processes control the fire cycle. Jennifer Balch's research aims to understand the patterns and processes that underlie disturbance and ecosystem recovery, particularly how shifting fire regimes are reconfiguring tropical forests, encouraging non-native grass invasion, and affecting the global climate.
Elizabeth Fenn
Elizabeth Fenn teaches courses pertaining to early American, Native American, and the early American West history. Her current research interests lie in the Indigenous history of the early West, especially before 1848 and she is eager to work with graduate students interested in early North America, epidemic disease, Indigenous history, and the early West. Professor Fenn encourages graduate students to embrace geographies that span the continent and chronologies that embrace the true depth of the continent’s human past. She also encourages grad students to approach history as a literary endeavor with the potential to reach audiences as diverse as they are wide. In September 2018, in recognition of exemplary teaching, research and service, the Regents of the University of Colorado designated Professor Fenn a Distinguished Professor, one of the highest honors awarded to the university’s faculty members.
Bernadette Park
Bernadette Park's research interests include stereotyping and intergroup relations, and person perception and impression formation. One line of recent work in the stereotyping domain includes the role of race in decisions to shoot armed and unarmed targets, and in particular how expertise can facilitate cognitive control over such decisions. A second line concerns implicit role associations between women and childrearing, and men and work. In this research, she argues that well-learned implicit cultural associations increase the likelihood that professionally trained women will leave their positions when tensions between work and family responsibilities become too great, and decrease the likelihood that men will make these tradeoffs.
James White
James W.C. White started the INSTAAR Stable Isotope Lab in 1989. In recent years, his research has helped to show that large climate changes tend to occur in the natural system as abrupt and rapid shifts in mode probably driven by internal adjustments in the Earth climate system, rather than slow and gradual adjustments to changing external conditions, such as the amount of energy received from the sun. His research has also helped to show that land plants are capable of removing large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, amounts that equal our input of CO2 from fossil fuel burning on short time scales. Such large changes in the uptake of CO2 by plants is a key piece in the puzzle we must solve to address future CO2 levels and climate change.
Hillary Potter
Hillary Potter is Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She holds a B.A. and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an M.A. in criminal justice from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Dr. Potter’s research focuses on the critical analysis of the intersections of race, gender, and class as they relate to crime and violence. She is currently researching men’s use of violence; intimate partner abuse against women of Color; and antiviolence activism in Black and Latinx communities, with field research in Ferguson, Baltimore, and Denver.
Liam Downey
Liam Downey (Ph.D., 2000, University of Arizona) is an Associate Professor of Sociology, Faculty Associate in the Institute of Behavioral Science, and Faculty Associate in the Environmental Studies Program. He has two primary areas of research. In a recently published book, Inequality, Democracy, and the Environment, he studies the role that elite-controlled organizations, institutions, and networks play in harming people, societies, and the environment, focusing in particular on elite-controlled policy-planning networks, armed violence organized by the state, commodity chain power, and international trade and finance institutions such as the World Bank and the World Trade Organization.
Out of the Fire: Resources
Earth Lab
Earth Lab integrates the massive volume of Earth systems data available from space, airplanes, sensor networks, social media and other sources to address environmental challenges. At Earth Lab, scientific research and earth analytics education are coupled with powerful analytic capabilities. Analytic power fuels creative and collaborative teams of faculty, postdoctoral researchers, graduate research assistants and undergraduate interns with innovative research. Education efforts provide the needed career-focused skills to new and seasoned scientists alike. Earth Lab envisions a future where all Earth data is most effectively used to help society manage and adapt to global environmental change.
100 degrees in Siberia?
5 ways the extreme Arctic heat wave follows a disturbing pattern. Mark Serreze is a Research Professor of Geography and Director, National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado Boulder. "As director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center and an Arctic climate scientist who first set foot in the far North in 1982, I’ve had a front-row seat to watch the transformation."
6 lessons we can learn from past pandemics
CU Boulder history Professor Susan Kent and Professor Elizabeth Fenn offer their unique insight on lessens learned from past pandemics.
“Epidemics highlight the fault lines in our society,” says CU Boulder history Professor Elizabeth Fenn, a Pulitizer Prize winning writer, scholar of epidemics and author of Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82. “They reveal our weaknesses, but they also illuminate the profound kindness, generosity and cooperation we are capable of. We have a lot to learn from them.”
HeartMath
For over 20 years, the evidence-based HeartMath® program has helped people discover practical ‘in the moment’ self-regulation tools to increase resiliency in stressful or pressured situations. These tools will explain the role emotions play in performance and health and how to utilize the heart/brain connection to regulate your heart rhythms to immediately address your emotional state in challenging situations. Email Erin Cunningham to learn more and schedule workshops.
ITEA Plus
Since 2002, the CAIRR Neuroscience Laboratory in the Psychology and Neuroscience Department has conducted clinical research studies about the efficacy of acupressure for stress, cardiovascular function in stroke survivors, and mild traumatic brain injury in both civilian and veteran populations. From these, an evidence base has emerged, providing the foundation for the ITEA Plus webpage platform.
Student Organizations
Break the college bubble: find your group – and yourself. Be involved in student organizations.
We’re not bragging when we say there’s a lot to do at CU. Whether it’s environmental protection, artistic expression, social justice or athletic competition that sparks your interest, our more than 550 recognized student organizations have something for everyone. Explore by topic or alphabetical list.
Can’t find something that matches your interests? Start an organization of your own – it’s easy.
CU Boulder students can start a new Recognized Student Organization (RSO) by following the steps and policies outlined below on this page.
Read more
Documenting fear, anger, grief, humor, love
Anthropology students at CU Boulder explore how we feel a pandemic
"For a lot of the students in the class, it was a wonderful opportunity for us to help each other make sense of what we’re going through by doing a dive into the particular themes we were starting to see emerging"