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Viviana Huiliñir-Curio Receives Wenner-Gren Fellowship for her Dissertation Research in Wallmapu/Chile

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 22:21:30 +0000

Viviana Huiliñir-Curio Receives Wenner-Gren Fellowship for her Dissertation Research in Wallmapu/Chile Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 12/09/2024 - 15:21

Viviana Huiliñir-Curio

Viviana is a Mapuche scholar from Southern Chile and a graduate student in the Geography doctoral program at CU-��«��Ƶ. In her previous work in Chile, Viviana has been exploring the production of landscapes through various forms of Mapuche mobilities in the Andes borderlands in the context of colonialism, nation-state formations, commodification, and extractivism. Her areas of interest are at the intersection of cultural geography, political ecology, and critical Indigenous studies.

The Wenner-Gren Foundation supports doctoral research on anthropological knowledge, integrating two or more subfields. This dissertation fieldwork grant will fund a one-year-long fieldwork in Chile for her dissertation project called: “Green Borders: Protected Areas and Mapuche Mobilities in the Southern Andes in Wallmapu.” Her dissertation project explores the intersections between mobility, conservation, and dispossession from an Indigenous perspective, focusing on the role of national parks in transforming the Mapuche territory in the Andes borderlands.

"This doctoral program has been crucial in acquiring more theoretical and methodological perspectives for my dissertation project, especially in expanding my own perspectives about Indigenous geographies. Another important point for my personal and academic development is that the Geography department groups grad students worldwide, creating an international and cross-cultural environment. This has been very positive for connecting with grad students from different backgrounds, exchanging points of view, and building a respectful community. Therefore, the PhD has been a very enriching experience in many ways."

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Taylor Johaneman Floating for Science: Fieldwork on the Snake River (WY) and Ninemile Creek (MT)

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 22:11:43 +0000

Taylor Johaneman Floating for Science: Fieldwork on the Snake River (WY) and Ninemile Creek (MT) Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 12/09/2024 - 15:11

My name is Taylor Johaneman - I am a fluvial geomorphologist and a third-year Ph.D. student in Geography. My dissertation work investigates the ecogeomorphic controls (e.g., sediment size, vegetation type, erosional and depositional patterns) on floodplain organic carbon (OC) storage and how human intervention in rivers, specifically artificial levee construction and river restoration, may alter OC storage. My study sites include two rivers, the Snake River near Jackson, WY and Ninemile Creek near Missoula, MT; data from leveed and unleveed sections of the Snake River are being used to investigate ecogeomorphic controls and impacts of artificial levees, while data from Ninemile Creek are being used to investigate the effects of river restoration.

One of the best parts of my work is going out to the field and collecting data. Not only is it a great excuse to camp and float in beautiful places throughout the summer, but being in the field helps visualize and clarify processes discussed in the literature or displayed in aerial imagery. More importantly, fieldwork allows you to observe the finer-scale spatial complexities that cannot be conveyed in aerial imagery.

I spent the last two summers floating the Snake River, collecting hundreds of soil samples and tree cores, measuring large wood and wood jams in the floodplain, and observing the substantial ecological and geomorphic variation that occurs throughout the floodplain. This past summer, I also spent a week on Ninemile Creek to collect samples. The data are still being processed in the lab, so I’ve included a few photos of my fieldwork.

Floating on the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park between sample collection sites.

Picture 2: One of nearly 400 soil cores collected on the Snake River between Summer 2023 and Summer 2024. We would collect cores down to a 1 meter depth or depth of refusal, if refusal was less than 1 meter in depth. The depth of refusal is where coarse alluvium begins; this core was the last sample collected at this site, as indicated by the pebble sticking out of the core.

Picture 3: A recently restored section of Ninemile Creek.

Not pictured: Getting bluff charged by a grizzly bear with my advisor, Dr. Katherine Lininger.

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Shelby Ross Receives the BIE Science Post Graduate Scholarship Fund 2024-2025 provided by the Native Forward Scholars Fund

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 22:06:42 +0000

Shelby Ross Receives the BIE Science Post Graduate Scholarship Fund 2024-2025 provided by the Native Forward Scholars Fund Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 12/09/2024 - 15:06

Shelby Ross

Aŋpétu Wašté' Mitákuyepi (Good Day Relatives),

My name is Shelby Ross, my Lakota name is Wanahca Oblaye Ska Win (White Prairie Flower Woman). I’m currently a Ph.D. candidate within the Geography Department at the ��«��Ƶ. I am an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwestern South Dakota. I am a former Gate’s Millennium Scholar (2009-2018), which I utilized to earn a B.S. in Natural Science with an emphasis in Conservation Biology from my local Tribal College Oglala Lakota College and a M.S. in Environmental Science and Engineering from the Institute of Environmental Health at the Oregon Health & Science University. After earning my master’s degree, I returned home and began working for the Oglala Sioux Tribe (OST) Natural Resource

s Regulatory Agency in Pine Ridge, SD. It was during this time that I have observed the extreme weather events happening across my home reservation, which seemed to be occurring more often. In my position at the Natural Resources office, I had access to the OST Tribal climate adaptation plan and was asked to analyze the plan looking for gaps. During this time, I observed limited information about the potential impacts of climate change on the health disparities that persist within our reservation communities. Since this observation, I have been dedicated to becoming an expert around the topic of climate change and Native American health in efforts to help our leaders prepare our people and next generations for the projected impacts of climate change for the Northern Great Plains region not only on human health but also on environmental/ecological health, which are intricately related.

I am a member of the 2020 Tribal Climate Leaders Program inaugural cohort, funded by the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center in partnership with the Cooperative Institute of Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), ��«��Ƶ, and the Great Plains Tribal Water Alliance. My research interests include Traditional Ecological Knowledge or Indigenous Knowledge, climate change and health, and Native American health. I am currently at the stage of conducting data analysis and writing my dissertation. My dissertation, Climate change impacts on the Native American Health in the Northern Great Plains Region, was designed with a mixed methods approach to better understand how extreme weather events (EWE) induced by climate change are impacting Native American health in the Northern Great Plains region. I also aimed to investigate and assess the healthcare needs of the population of Native American individuals who have been diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes during EWE. It was important to me to develop my dissertation research through an Indigenous Knowledge of Health or Indigenous Health lens, which includes understanding how climate change may be impacting the physical, mental, and spiritual/cultural health for Native Americans in the region. In early stages of my program, I conducted interviews of elders on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation with an aim to understand what changes they have experienced over their lifetime on the topics of EWEs, the availability in ecological resources like traditional plants and wildlife, and health impacts caused by EWEs. The analysis of these interviews will be one chapter of my dissertation.

These interviews were then influential in designing my Extreme Weather impacts on Native American Health in the N. Great Plains survey. I distributed the survey to Native Americans (ages 18 and up) across the Northern Great Plains to investigate any variances in impacts felt (infrastructure, healthcare access, and cultural practices access) by Native Americans in this region due to EWEs. I am now analyzing the results from this survey with an eye towards evaluating how EWEs have affected infrastructure, healthcare access, and cultural practices access differentially by location, gender, age, education, employment status, health status (Type 2 Diabetes vs. non-Type 2 Diabetes), and reservation residency status.

I chose this mixed method (interviews and surveys) approach because I believe it is the best option for conducting research with Native American communities. Interviews and surveys allow me to center Native American voices as the experts of their experiences and provide a space for them to express their climate concerns.

As I continue my career as a Native American researcher who is an expert in climate change and Native American Health, my goal is to begin to provide practical climate action projects that can help minimalize the felt impacts of climate change for my home Tribal community and possibly continuing to extend my efforts to all Tribal communities in the Northern Great Plains region. The projects I want to continue to pursue are more community involved projects, emergency response systems that are designed in alignment with the needs of Tribal members in the region and are inclusive to health-related issues, and alternative energy sourcing. I also have a goal to provide a space that builds capacity in Native American climate change research led by Native Americans by becoming a professor and to do my part in educating the next generations of Native Americans in climate change adaptation as much as possible.

Description of the BIE scholarship (from the website):

“The purpose of the BIE Science Post Graduate Scholarship Fund program is to provide financial assistance to eligible American Indian and Alaska Native undergraduate, graduate, and professional students pursuing degrees full-time at an accredited institution in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields (i.e., Medical and Life Sciences; Engineering; Physical Sciences; Chemistry; Natural Resources/Conservation; Mathematics and Computational Sciences; Earth, Environmental, and Agriculture/Animal Sciences; Technology; Computer Sciences; Architectural Sciences; Public Health; Psychology; etc.). This opportunity is a need-based award.”

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Sara Fleming Receives PACES Funding to Establish Collaborative Community Ownership Website for Mobile Home Park Preservation

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 21:58:34 +0000

Sara Fleming Receives PACES Funding to Establish Collaborative Community Ownership Website for Mobile Home Park Preservation Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 12/09/2024 - 14:58

Sara Fleming

Sara Fleming is a second-year MA student in the Geography department working with Professor Jennifer Fluri. She is broadly interested in the intersection of housing crises, climate injustice, and financial capitalism. Her thesis research focuses on community-owned mobile home parks in Colorado, where residents have organized to form cooperatives, collectively purchase land, and govern it for the benefit of the community.

She received the PACES Tier 2 grant funding to help fund a community-led project in partnership with mobile home park residents that she met through her thesis fieldwork. The project aims to create a website that shares information, provides resources, and connects people who are interested in preserving mobile home parks in Colorado and transferring them to community ownership.

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Mallory Sagehorn Researching Neighborhoods, Health, and the Life Course

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 21:55:46 +0000

Mallory Sagehorn Researching Neighborhoods, Health, and the Life Course Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 12/09/2024 - 14:55

Mallory Sagehorn

Mallory Sagehorn is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Geography at the ��«��Ƶ. As a mixed methods researcher, she brings a diverse set of skills to her studies, having received training in GIS and geospatial methods from her master's degree at CU Denver. Mallory is also developing expertise in qualitative research under the mentorship of Dr. Jessica Finlay at CU ��«��Ƶ, where she is honing her skills in qualitative methods. She is further expanding her knowledge by taking courses in spatial programming and analytics, complementing her interdisciplinary approach.

At CU Geography, Mallory has contributed to several high-impact research projects. As a research assistant in Dr. Jessica Finlay’s Life Course Cognability lab, Mallory focuses on the intersection of neighborhood environments and cognitive health across the life course. She is actively involved in analyzing data from the COVID-19 Coping Study, with year 3 analysis nearing completion and year 4 in progress. Mallory also contributes to the Neighborhoods and Health at All Ages study, where she explores topics including COVID-19 impacts, mental health, young adults, and the built environment. Additionally, Mallory collaborates with postdoctoral researcher Yue Sun on a project examining the impact of third-place closures on community engagement. Outside of her research, Mallory serves as a graduate representative for the Geography Department, advocating for her peers and contributing to department initiatives.

In Fall 2024, Mallory was awarded research assistant funding by the CU Population Center at the Institute for Behavioral Science. Under the guidance of Drs. Jason Boardman and Jessica Finlay, she is conducting data analysis and manuscript preparation for a study on emerging adults (ages 18-29) and their neighborhood experiences. This research investigates how early-life neighborhood exposures can influence health and wellbeing later in life, aiming to encourage urban planners to consider the developmental needs of emerging adults in neighborhood design. Mallory will present her work at AAG Detroit in 2025.

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Emma Rieves and Colleen Reid Publish New Findings on Greenspace Exposure and Mental Health

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 21:44:39 +0000

Emma Rieves and Colleen Reid Publish New Findings on Greenspace Exposure and Mental Health Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 12/09/2024 - 14:44

Emma Rieves

Studies consistently find that greenspace exposure is good for peoples’ mental health. Our recent work explores the relationship between perceived (survey-derived) and objective (aerial imagery-derived) greenspace exposure measures, and the relationship between each of these ways of operationalizing greenspace with mental health outcomes. We found that perceived and objective measures do not always align because they measure slightly different things. In general, objective measures represent greenspace abundance whereas perceived measures can also represent greenspace quality, access, and usage. Perceived greenspace measures are also influenced by aspects of peoples’ identities—like their environmental attitudes—in ways that objective exposures are not. We also found that perceived greenspace exposure was associated with reduced anxiety (and depression, with borderline significance) metrics while objective greenspace exposure was not. Overall, our work suggests that perceived and objective greenspace measures are not interchangeable, that the best way of operationalizing greenspace exposure in a study depends on the theoretical pathway between greenspace exposure and the health outcome at hand.

Emma Rieves is a PhD candidate in the Geography department. In the past, her work has explored the relationship between greenspace exposure and mental health, but she now primarily focuses on environmental epidemiology, spatial statistics, and environmental justice (EJ). In particular, her recent work explores the air quality, health, and EJ implications of vehicle electrification.

Citations:

Rieves, E. S., Freis, S. M., Friedman, N. P., & Reid, C. E. (2024). Is greenspace in the eye of the beholder? Exploring perceived and objective greenspace exposure effects on mental health. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 102468.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027249442400241X

Rieves, E. S., Reid, C. E., Carlson, K., & Li, X. (2024). Do environmental attitudes and personal characteristics influence how people perceive their exposure to green spaces?. Landscape and Urban Planning, 248, 105080. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204624000793

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