Our Colloquia Series presents engaging research from around the world. Guest presenters cover varied topics from all aspects of Geography. This page lists abstracts from past and future colloquia.

Man on boat deck looking out over water

Dr. Mark Serreze: Brave New Arctic: The Untold Story of the Melting North

Sept. 1, 2017

As recently as the 1980s, the Arctic was largely the same Arctic that had enchanted humankind for centuries. But over the next decade, scientists began to notice changes. There were hints that the floating sea-ice cover at summer’s end was receding, accompanied by shifts in ocean circulation. Air temperatures over...

Geography Colloquium Series

Ending cheap nature?

May 5, 2017

Abstract: One thing that neoclassical economists and critics of capitalism agree on is that status quo economic processes are adept externalization machines. That is, our economic system is dependent on bargain-basement waste disposal sites, spaces, and bodies; it relies on enormous amounts of what Jason Moore calls “cheap” or free...

Geography Colloquium Series

Geography Graduate Student Talks

April 21, 2017

Three graduating GEOG Grad students will each provide an overview or their respective research projects. Salam Hindawi "Syrian Refugees in Germany: from safe havens to challenges of othering, integration, and European settlement" Galen Murton "Himalayan Disruptions: Earthquakes, Aid, and the Geopolitics of China in Nepal" Joel Correia "State of emergency:...

Geography Colloquium Series

A tail of two extremes: Transformation of rare storms into geomorphically important floods

April 14, 2017

Abstract: Simple relationships between mean climate and erosion rates have failed to emerge from either historic sediment yield studies or millennial-scale erosion rate studies using cosmogenic radionuclides. One confounding factor is the role of vegetation, whose type and density are also strongly linked to climate. In this presentation, I will...

Geography Colloquium Series

Politics of post-earthquake reconstruction and the early forms of disaster capitalism in Nepal

March 24, 2017

Abstract: Nepal’s 2015 earthquakes killed more than 9000 people, damaged more than half a million homes and destroyed nearly half of Nepal’s GDP. The earthquakes struck Nepal at a time when the country was experiencing two massive political transformations: 1) a decade long Maoist insurgency followed by the establishment of...

Geography Colloquium Series

New Approaches for Spatial Distribution Dynamics

March 17, 2017

Abstract: This talk will provide an overview of recent work on spatial distribution dynamics considering the evolution of cross-sectional spatial distributions over time. Families of new analytics based on rank concordance and discrete Markov chains are discussed, and derived analytics for global and local spatio-temporal clustering are presented with a...

Geography Colloquium Series

'Manoomin Gives, So We Give': Gift Economies and Food Sovereignty of the White Earth Anishinabek

March 10, 2017

The 2007 Nyéléni declarations identify fighting against the “privatisation and commodification of food, basic and public services, knowledge, land, water, seeds, livestock and our natural heritage” as central to food sovereignty. While the declaration is specific, it is less clear about what this means in practice. This talk sheds light...

Geography Colloquium Series

Neighborhoods and youth academic achievement: The influence of multiple social ecologies

March 4, 2017

Abstract: Increasing evidence from experimental and non-experimental research has shown that children residing in low resource neighborhoods exhibit decreases reading and math scores, above and beyond individual characteristics, and family, or school contexts. However, the tendency to model family-school or family-neighborhood contexts limits our understanding of the processes affecting educational...

Geography Colloquium Series

Remote Killing: Drones, Democracy and War

March 3, 2017

Abstract: "There has been little debate about U.S. drone policy in Congress and in the mainstream media, but drones are changing the practice of war. Drone warfare has turned soldiers into commuter killers while establishing a new mode of killing that is simultaneously remote and intimate. And, by making it...

Geography Colloquium Series

Performing Humanity: Violence and Visuality in Kashmir

Feb. 20, 2017

Abstract: This paper will examine a selection of visual texts that seek to intervene in the optical regime that supports the Indian occupation of Kashmir, one that succeeds in eliciting widespread support within India, in part by effecting a systematic erasure of the humanity of Kashmiris. I consider the visual...

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