Jennifer Fluri

Message From the Chair Spring 2024

Anonymous — Tue, 14 May 2024 21:28:45 +0000

Message From the Chair Spring 2024 Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/14/2024 - 15:28

This semester we welcomed Dr. Bharat Rastogi to our faculty as a new Assistant Professor. Dr. Rastogi’s research focuses on examining the role of CO2 emissions on climate change and impacts on a variety of territorial ecosystems. We had a busy semester that included three job searches for new faculty and transitioning Isaac Rivera’s Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship for Faculty Diversity to a tenure track Assistant Professor position in our department. Dr. Rivera, featured in this newsletter, will join the Department of Geography as a new faculty member in August 2024. Additional new hires, include Katherine Siegel, who will join the Department of Geography in fall 2024, focusing on environmental data science, and Dr. Federico Andrade-Rivas, a health geographer focusing on global environmental health and human well-being, and will join our faculty in the fall of the 2025 academic year. We are also in the process of hiring a new Assistant Professor in Physical Geography.

This semester we also hosted two groups of first year CU undergraduate students involved in the Miramontes Program at CU-��«��Ƶ through their Science Bound program. One group was interested in learning more about Physical Geography and GIS, and the other group was interested in Human Geography and Environment-Society relations. We hope to continue these types of outreach programs in the future to grow our undergraduate majors.

Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee initiated several new programs this semester. The first program, which we will continue, incorporate holiday traditions from different cultures that are celebrated by some of our faculty, staff, and students. In February we celebrated Lunar New Year, featured in this newsletter, and in April we celebrated Nowruz, a Persian New Year celebration. These events offered the opportunity for faculty, students, and staff to learn about these holidays and participate in hands-on-activities such as dumpling making for Lunar New Year, and egg decorating for Nowruz.

The DEI committee organized a two-day inclusive pedagogy workshop that was facilitated by Hidden Stem Consulting. This workshop provided an overview of inclusive practices for all aspects of teaching, and practical hands-on activities for faculty to implement in their courses. In addition to this program, we implemented a tutoring program for undergraduate students, provided by graduate students, Alek Berg, Taylor Johaneman, and Nic Tarasewicz, and George Charisoulis.

This June 8-9, 2024, we are hosting an Alumni and Friends of Geography Celebration that will include an open house in Guggenheim, Cocktail Party followed by Dinner at Chautauqua on Saturday, and then a field-visit to the Mountain Research Station on Sunday.

In closing, I would like to congratulate all of the students who graduated this semester. We are proud of you and wish you all the best in your future pursuits.

Warm Regards,
Jennifer Fluri

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Message from the Chair Fall 2023

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Dec 2023 23:24:45 +0000

Message from the Chair Fall 2023 Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/19/2023 - 16:24

This fall, we welcomed Jessica Finlay to the Department. Dr. Finlay, featured in this newsletter, is an Assistant Professor examining health geographies, neighborhoods, aging, and well-being. We also welcomed Sean Dunn as the Department’s new program administrator. Sean has quickly become an integral and valuable member of the Geography Department.

Sadly, our outstanding and dedicated Program Administrator, Darla Shatto, retired at the end of August. Many thanks to Darla for her fantastic work as a member of the Geography Department Staff for the past eighteen years. Darla was a joy to work with; her commitment and dedication to the Geography Department were exceptional and commendable. We miss you, Darla!

Our colloquium series this semester began with Dr. Lionel Lyles, who received his M.A. and PhD from the CU ��«��Ƶ Geography. In addition to his presentation, Dr. Lyles met with several leaders across campus to share his ideas for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice work on campus. We look forward to collaborating with Dr. Lyles on implementing and improving DEI efforts in the Department and on campus. Jennifer Greenburg, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the University of Sheffield, presented a dynamic and engaging talk about her new book At War with Women: Military Humanitarianism and Imperial Feminism in an Era of Permanent War, Cornell University Press. Our Colleague from the CU-Colorado Springs Geography Department, Rebecca Theobald, discussed the state of Geography Education in the United States and the steps necessary to improve Geography education in Colorado. Elsa Culler, Earth Data Science Instructor for Earthlab and ESIIL, two centers founded by Associate Professor Jennifer Balch within the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science (CIRES), spoke about her work developing accessible Earth Science Data.

We initiated the first “Geography Day” at CU-��«��Ƶ, which brought 30 high school students and their teachers to campus for a day of hands-on Geography activities. Students began their day in the Map Library, where our outstanding map librarians, Ilene Raynes, and Naomi Heiser, provided the students with an overview of the map collection and several engaging activities. We then walked with the students from the Map Library to Guggenheim while plotting GPS coordinates along the way, allowing the students to produce a map using GIS technology with the assistance of Teaching Associate Professor Sarah Schlosser. Assistant Professor Katherine Lininger taught a hands-on lesson about rivers, streams, and fluvial geomorphology with a stream table. I facilitated experiential activities for the students about the experiences of refugees forced from their homes due to climate-related devastation, environmental disasters, or political conflict. Due to the success of this program, we look forward to working with high school teachers and students across the front range to promote Geography teaching and learning in Colorado.

In November, we participated in the intercampus GIS Day and hosted the 2^nd Annual Geography Buff Trivia Night: Space, Place & Justice. The GIS Day included planned events in ��«��Ƶ and at the CU-Denver and Colorado Springs campuses, with a keynote address, Generating Historical Data to Map and Archive the Suppression of the Slave Trade, by Henry Lovejoy, Professor of History at the ��«��Ƶ. The Geography Buff Trivia night was co-sponsored by the Center for African and African American Studies, the Center for Asian Studies, the Latin American and Latinx Studies Center, and the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies and featured questions focused on geographies of social, political, economic, and environmental justice.

Many thanks to our department research assistant and graduate student, Gabriela Subia-Smith, who led the organization of the Geography Day and Geography Buff Trivia night. She has also worked diligently on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEI/J) efforts in the Department. Gabriela will step down as the Department RA this spring semester because she received the Gilbert White Award from the Geography Department. This award provides senior Ph.D. students with a semester of funding to focus on completing their dissertation.

We are able to provide funding to support independent research for our graduate and undergraduate students due to the generous donations of our alums and friends of the Geography Department. Many thanks to you for your continued support.

Best Wishes and Happy Holidays,

Jennifer Fluri

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Message from the Chair Spring 2023

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Apr 2023 23:59:14 +0000

Message from the Chair Spring 2023 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/20/2023 - 17:59

Jennifer Fluri

This semester we welcomed two new faculty to the Department of Geography, Taneesha Mohan as a Teaching Assistant Professor, and Keith Musselman as an Assistant Professor.

Our students and faculty also received various grants, awards, and accolades. PhD student, Tsering Lhamo, received a Fulbright Fellowship and the Summer Foreign Language Area Studies Award to study Nepali language at the Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Katmandu, Nepal. PhD student, David Bachrach, also received the Summer Foreign Language Areas Studies Award to study Indonesian language at Indonesia’s Language Center in Bandung, Indonesia. PhD student, Naomi Hazarika, was awarded the Wenner-Gren Foundation’s Dissertation Fieldwork Grant to conduct year-long ethnographic fieldwork in informal settlements in the city of Delhi, India. PhD student, Xiaoling Chen, won the AAG China Specialty Group Annual Student Paper Award. PhD Student, Holly Roth, was the recipient of the Water Scholar Award from the Colorado State University Libraries. PhD student, Gabriella Subia-Smith, received the CU-��«��Ƶ Graduate School Summer Writing Fellowship. PhD students, Naomi Hararika, Prakriti Mukerjee, and Priscilla Corbett, all received the Zena Hunter Andrews Graduate Student Award through the Beverly Sears Graduate Student Grant Program at CU-��«��Ƶ. Many of our graduate and undergraduate students also received awards from the Department of Geography, and will be recognized at our awards luncheon on May 9, 2023, and at commencement on May 11, 2023.

Our faculty continue to be leaders in their respective research fields, and several have received grants and fellowships, and awards for their accomplishments. Assistant Professor, Katherine Lininger, received the prestigious NSF CAREER grant for her project titled “Rivers of Carbon: assessing how humans have altered floodplain organic carbon stocks across the contiguous United States”. Professor Emily Yeh was named a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar for the 2023-2024 academic year. Professor Yeh also received the CU-��«��Ƶ Sustainability Award. Professor Tim Oakes was awarded the AAG China Geography Specialty Group’s Outstanding Service Award. Professor Oakes was also awarded a Fulbright Global Scholar Award for his project “The hinterlands of Global China: infrastructures and life beyond the urban.” Emeritus Professor, Babs Buttenfield, received the USGS 2023 CaGIS Distinguished Career Award recognizing her outstanding and impressive career.

The American Association of Geographer’s Annual Meeting occurred in person for the first time since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The AAG meeting was in Denver and the Department of Geography hosted an Alumni and Friends celebration at the Sheraton Hotel. This evening was filled with much joy, celebration, and reconnection, along with lightening talks from graduate students Ben Barron, Emma Rieves, Xiaoling Chen, and Diego Melo. We also celebrated Babs Buttenfield’s retirement, which included many accolades from her former and current graduate students. Please see the article on the Alumni event in this newsletter for more information and photographs.

Many congratulations to our faculty and students for their accomplishments. We hope you enjoy your summer, and we will be back with more updates in our fall newsletter.

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Geography's Global Seminar in Prague, Maymester 2023

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 22:46:17 +0000

Geography's Global Seminar in Prague, Maymester 2023 Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/23/2022 - 16:46

Czech out Geography's Global Seminar in Prague, Maymester 2023

Highlights

Live and study in the Czech Republic during Maymester
Explore history and geography in the historic city of Prague
Deepen your understanding of how political and economic changes and transitions have a diverse impact on social and cultural norms
Travel around Prague and engage in experiential learning through field-observations
Conduct an independent research project
Learn more at our Info Session on October 11th at 5 PM in Guggenheim 201E
All Summer 2023 participants will receive a $500 scholarship!

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Jennifer Fluri: Message from the Chair, Spring 2022

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 21:12:13 +0000

Jennifer Fluri: Message from the Chair, Spring 2022 Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/25/2022 - 15:12

Jennifer Fluri

The spring semester began with in-person classes and masks on. This eventually transitioned to masks optional, and we ended the semester with our first in-person graduation since 2019. The Geography Department’s graduation celebration included students from previous years along with the 2022 graduating class. It was wonderful to see students and their families enjoying the day together. This year’s graduation festivities were a reminder of the importance of celebration and coming together as an academic community to acknowledge the accomplishments of Geography’s undergraduate majors and minors, Masters and PhD students.

This newsletter includes several stories about the amazing research and work being done by our current and former graduate students. This newsletter also features the timely research of our faculty. Assistant Professor Colleen Reid provides an overview of her new research project, which examines the impacts of air pollution on human health resulting from the devastating Marshall fire in ��«��Ƶ County, which caused the deaths of two people and destroyed over a thousand homes. Professor John O’Loughlin, a political geographer and expert on Russia and post-Soviet countries, provides a thoughtful and insightful overview of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In addition to these contributions, we are pleased to celebrate the accomplishments of our faculty and students. Professor Tim Oakes received the Outstanding Mentor Award from the Graduate School. Graduate Student, Sade Cromratie, was awarded the Laramide Chapter GEOID Scholarship from the Association for Women Geoscientists (AWG), and Graduate Student, Katarena Matos, was awarded a Ford Foundation pre-doctoral fellowship. Congratulations all! We look forward to continuing to share the achievements of our faculty and students in the future.

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Jennifer Fluri TED Talk: Women's rights in Afghanistan: what worked, what didn't, and why

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 19:13:09 +0000

Jennifer Fluri TED Talk: Women's rights in Afghanistan: what worked, what didn't, and why Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/23/2022 - 12:13

As the last American troops left Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban, a regime that the U.S spent 20 years and billions of dollars fighting, returned to power. Women’s rights activists and legislators fled the country in fear for their lives. The Taliban banned girls from attending high school & college. How did we get here & what will happen next? In this hard-hitting talk, political geographer Jennifer L. Fluri analyzes the U.S.'s missteps in Afghanistan, starting with its failure to listen to the women and men of Afghanistan.

Jennifer L. Fluri is a political geographer, Fulbright Scholar, and Professor at the University of Colorado-��«��Ƶ. She’s published 30+ peer reviewed articles and co-authored three books: “The Carpetbaggers of Kabul and other American-Afghan Entanglements,” “Feminist Spaces: Gender and Geography in a Global Context,” and “Engendering Development: Capitalism and Inequality in the Global Economy.” Her current research project, funded by the National Science Foundation, examines gender, security, and development in Afghanistan with a focus on Afghan women’s leadership.

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Message from the Chair: Jennifer Fluri

Anonymous — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 00:56:42 +0000

Message from the Chair: Jennifer Fluri Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 12/09/2021 - 17:56

Jennifer Fluri

We returned to campus this fall for in-person classes. Mask and vaccine requirements helped to ensure more in-person interactions, while our faculty, staff, and students continue to face challenges associated with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, I would like to extend my gratitude to the entire Geography Department for their ongoing perseverance. We are excited to be able to have our first in person commencement on December 16, 2021 since the start of the pandemic.

We welcomed a new instructor, John Adler, to the department this fall. Dr. Adler will teach courses in remote sensing and he is developing a new course on drones. Our faculty and students, continue to be recognized in various ways for their research, teaching, or service accomplishments. Assistant Professor, Colleen Reid, was awarded the Provost’s Faculty Achievement Award. Dr. Reid’s research focuses on health and climate change, and social epidemiology and her course on Global Public Health continues to draw students from across the campus. Additional accolades were awarded to Assistant Professor, Yaffa Truelove, who won best paper from the Urban Studies Journal, and Professor Emily Yeh received the Outstanding Faculty Mentoring Award from the CU-��«��Ƶ’s Graduate School.

This newsletter features articles from faculty and students outlining their accomplishments and unique experiences. Professor Waleed Abdalati, had the opportunity this fall to take a canoe trip with Colorado Senator Michael Bennett and Utah Senator Mitt Romney to share his scientific expertise and perspectives on climate change. Assistant Professor, Katherine Lininger, discusses her recent National Science Foundation Grant to examine floodplain ecogeomorphic processes. Professor Emily Yeh, currently president of the American Association of Geographers, offers an overview of her role within this organization. Graduate students Katie Tyler and Katarena Matos discuss their research and recent awards. Katarena Matos was awarded a scholarship from the ARCS Foundation. The ARCS Foundation advances science and technology in the United States by providing financial awards to academically outstanding US citizens studying to complete degrees in science, engineering and medical research. Katie Tyler won the GIS in the Rockies competition for the most promising graduate student enrolled in a university or college in the Rocky Mountain region. We also feature the outstanding work of undergraduate student Ally Fitts.

Just before the start of the this semester, the fall of the Afghanistan government and resurgence of the Taliban filled our news feeds. As a researcher who has been examining different aspects of conflict, development, gender, and women’s rights activism in Afghanistan for two decades, this semester has brought additional challenges. I have included a brief overview of opportunities gained, missed, and lost in Afghanistan in this newsletter. I also want to take this opportunity to extend my deepest and sincerest gratitude to many of my colleagues in the Geography Department and larger CU-��«��Ƶ community for their concern, encouragement, and assistance. Their generous support and understanding has and continues to be nothing short of inspiring. I continue to work with my research collaborators to assist our Afghan colleagues and friends in and outside of Afghanistan.

Our work has included building networks with other individuals, groups, and organizations. For example, there are several academics throughout the US who have also worked in Afghanistan on various US funded programs. Several leaders within the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU) have developed a consortium of academics with ties to Afghanistan. This group shares information and works with the US government in an effort to provide more funding and assistance for Afghan schoars and students seeking refuge in the US. Human Rights First, is another organization focused on helping Afghans through a variety of projects including pushing for more congressional assistance. For example, I was part of several advocacy days that included meetings with staffers from Colorado Senators Bennett and Hickenlooper and Congressperson Joe Neguse’s office. I have also given several presentations at various Universities throughout the fall semester about this issue, and presented at the TEDx Mile High Rethink event in Denver on October 23, 2021.

I would like to extend special thanks to Rachel Rinaldo, Associate Professor of Sociology and director of the Center for Asian Studies for organizing a panel on Afghanistan at CU-��«��Ƶ and spearheading CU-��«��Ƶ’s first fundraising effort for an International Scholars-at-Risk Rescue Fund. This effort seeks to provide direct financial support to at-risk academic scholars impacted by disasters, civil unrest and other crises to allow them to continue their academic endeavors as visiting fellows at CU ��«��Ƶ. I truly appreciate these and other efforts towards assisting many Afghan allies, and my Afghan colleagues and friends as the difficult and life altering process of leaving Afghanistan and hopefully immigrating to the US will undoubtedly be an arduous and multiyear endeavor.

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Jennifer Fluri: Reflections on Gender and Development in Afghanistan 2001-2021

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 23:28:10 +0000

Jennifer Fluri: Reflections on Gender and Development in Afghanistan 2001-2021 Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/09/2021 - 17:28

Jennifer Fluri

Afghanistan garnered a significant share of media attention when the Taliban took control of the capital city, Kabul. This attention continued during the subsequent chaotic and disorganized US-led evacuation of American citizens and some but not all Afghan allies. As someone who has been researching gender, economic development, conflict, and security in Afghanistan for two decades, I was also struck by the way the “saving Afghan women” narrative, established by the Bush Administration in 2001, resurfaced. While women suffered physically, economically, and emotionally under the Taliban, the prescriptions for improving women’s lives in Afghanistan through economic development and humanitarian aid programs regularly imposed values incongruent with those held by many Afghan communities. The unrelentingly narrow representation of Afghan women as a single category, simplified and curtailed a robust understanding of women’s diverse experiences and articulations of their own needs and desires.

While much of the public criticism of the US evacuation focuses on what women will lose now that the Taliban is back in power, precious little critique has been placed on the failings and falling short associated with US-led interventions over the past 20 years. First, let’s identify the successes. Many Afghan women have benefited from internationally funded projects and programs focused on education, job skills training, and health care. Also, Afghan women’s participation in politics since 2002 was partially due to quotas that included positions for women in both the upper and lower houses of parliament. Women also held political office as provincial governors and district/city mayors, along with being chosen by different presidents as ministers or holding cabinet positions. With the fall of the US-backed Afghanistan government, these positions along with those held by Afghan men are gone or radically altered. Therefore, focusing on women and the changes to their lives during the Taliban regime remains an important discussion, but should include extensive criticism of US-led international military, humanitarian aid, and economic development assistance.

During the successive waves of increasing women’s participation in politics, education, and economic opportunities, along with improving women’s health; the reach and sustainability of these programs and projects remained in question. This was evident from my own research on international aid and development interventions, which included surveys and extensive interviews with individuals (both Afghans and internationals) working within various governmental and non-governmental organizations. Additionally, the US government’s own reports by the office of the Special Investigator General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), John Sopko identified similar failings and criticisms of US government agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Stated Department of State (DOS).

The reach of programs targeting women’s lives has been limited geographically and by existing socioeconomic hierarchies. Women with English language competency and connections to US and other internationals donors countries and organizations were undoubtedly more successful in garnering financial and political support from these organizations. However, the reach and effectiveness of Afghan women’s organizations was limited by a number of factors. I will review a few here to provide both context and critique of US-led international assistance. It is important to remember that the October 7, 2001 US invasion included a “coalition of the willing”, mostly NATO countries and other US allies. Similarly, while the US was the largest donor country operating projects and programs in Afghanistan, over fifty countries have been involved in Afghanistan in various capacities from military to humanitarian aid and economic development assistance. In what follows I highlight five factors that stymied an effective and successful implementation of programs.

Factor 1: Subcontracting: Most of the economic development projects and programs funded by USAID were subcontracted to implementing partners, which are pejoratively known as the “beltway bandits”. These are mostly for profit companies geographically located in the beltway around Washington D.C., who compete for USAID and DOS contracts to implement projects and programs in various countries including Afghanistan. Once in Afghanistan, these companies used US government allocated funds to pay international staff six figure salaries, rent office and housing space for exorbitant prices, pay private security firms and logistic companies for protection and assistance (also at exorbitant prices). After funds are spent on these expenses, the “implementing partners” use the leftover funds to higher local Afghan run NGOs. These organizations are then tasked with the difficult and dangerous work of fulfilling the project or program mandate, which has generally been conceptualized by individuals living outside Afghanistan with little to know cultural knowledge or understanding of the complexities of daily life for Afghans. The Afghan-run NGOs operate on much less funding than there international counterparts, which led to extensive and rampant turnover within both international and Afghan organizations.

Factor 2: Internal Brain-Drain: Many Afghan run organizations experienced a form of internal brain drain from their organizations. Due to the massive pay disparities between international and local organizations. Many Afghan organizations had difficulty maintaining staff and institutional knowledge within their own organizations. The majority of organizational leaders—my research team and I interviewed—complained about investing time and energy into training young Afghan women to work within their organizations, only to have them leave, once they had enough skills to work for an international organization. While they did not blame these individuals for wanting to increase their salaries and provide for their families, this situation calls attention to income disparities, which made the process of creating sustainable and long lasting programs difficult if not impossible.

Factor 3: Not listening: Many programs funded by USAID and their implementing partners, were as mentioned, conceptualized by internationals rather than Afghan partners. This donor-driven approach has been critiqued by the vast majority of development scholars as a flawed system due to the lack of community support and therefore inability of the projects to continue over the long-term. For example, when interviewing international workers for the UN and USAID, I asked why they were not designing projects based on Afghan women’s ideas or needs, and the regular response was “because I don’t think they have good ideas.” While these international workers may have not agreed with Afghan women, their criticism was from the perspective of their own social, economic and political context. Additionally, their experiences were from the geographic location of their own “home-country”, not Afghanistan. They did not consider the complexities, complications, and at times contradictions that Afghan women endure within the diverse social, cultural, economic, and political contexts of Afghanistan.

Factor 4: Diversity of women’s experiences: Afghanistan is a multi-lingual and multi-ethnic country that is predominantly Muslim but with diverse belief systems based on different sects, teaching and interpretations of Islam. It is also stratified based on socioeconomic class, education levels, along with cultural diversity, and differential access to resources based on a number of factors. Therefore, a one-size-fits-all approach to assistance programs or advocating for women’s rights was a flawed endeavor from the start. Afghan women are not a singularly minded group, they have different ideologies and beliefs. This diversity should be celebrated and attended to with all of its complexities rather than attempting to push projects and programs that reflected the values and beliefs of US-based (and other international) organizations. In addition to these issues many international workers had limited access to Afghan communities due to strict security protocols, which prevented them from engaging with Afghans in their homes and with their families and communities.

Factor 5: Security: For women-led and women’s rights organization, security was regularly identified (followed by lack of funding) as the main barrier to starting a project or disrupting the flow or continuation of programs in many communities. Security concerns in Afghanistan over the past twenty years were regularly mitigated by the US and other international forces known as the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). However, ISAF officially closed its operations in Afghanistan in 2014, and security operations were transferred to Afghan forces, with US special forces and other US military support remaining until the withdrawal in August 2021. The Afghan forces were stymied by corruption and mismanagement including not paying soldiers or providing effective ground support. This was further buttressed by the Trump administration’s legitimization of the Taliban by way of its so-called “peace talks” in Doha, Qatar. These talks sidelined the Afghanistan government and included women leaders, as part of a performance of women’s participation. Several women we interviewed after their participation in the “peace talks” in 2019 discussed their distrust of the Taliban and the lack of effective listening or engagement with women leaders. Additionally, while the “peace talks” were occurring in Qatar, many places in Afghanistan were besieged by Taliban violence such as suicide bombings and extra-judicial murders.

Interestingly, despite these flaws and failures, many Afghan women, especially in the capital city Kabul, and other major urban areas were able to gain access to education, economic opportunities and public and political participation. However, this participation was contingent and often dependent on international assistance. Due to various failures as briefly discussed here, this assistance was neither sustainable nor self-supporting. It would be easy to place the blame on Afghans. Certainty there were entrenched and extensive problems across various branches of government throughout the country, such as corruption and cronyism. Yet, is absolutely necessary to also critique the US’ role in ongoing and unrelenting conflict and uncertainty in Afghanistan. Without a robust and continued critical reflection on the failures and successes of US-led interventions in Afghanistan, we are doomed to repeat our mistakes. I say this with confidence because we made these mistakes before. The US did not begin intervening in Afghanistan in 2001, that began in the 1980s during the Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan, when the US funded and supplied radical religious groups to fight the Soviet Union. Osama bin Laden was one of many foreign fighters allied with the US at that time, and later one of the many who turned against the US. In the 1980s it was the Soviets that were “saving” Afghan women. Fighting wars and providing assistance under the banner of “saving women” is a false and flawed narrative that is used to garner political support and far too quickly and easily abandoned for geopolitical expediency. Afghanistan is both a tragedy and a lesson for us all. Because the US continues to make the same policy and political errors, while expecting a positive result that never truly materializes.

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2019 Fall Newsletter Published

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 23:30:51 +0000

2019 Fall Newsletter Published Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/11/2019 - 16:30

The 2019 Fall Newsletter has been published and is available for viewing. The newsletter is packed with department news, alumni updates, and articles by faculty and students.

Contents:

Message from the Department Chair, pg 2
Editors' Comments, pg 3
Mark Serreze Named Distinguished Professor, pgs 4-5
The ��«��Ƶ Affordable Housing Research Initiative, pgs 6-7
Introducing Morteza Karimzadeh, Assistant Professor, pgs 8-9
Introducing Heide Bruckner, Instructor, pgs 9-10
Emily Yeh Sabbatical Notes: Post-disaster trajectories in mountainous Chinese village, pgs 11-12
Alumni Updates, pg 13
Department News, pg 14
Donor Support, pgs 15-16

All previous newsletters are on our Newsletters page.

For a more enjoyable reading experience, open the newsletter file and adjust your browser window to the same size as the newsletter page. The Table of Contents and other links are active within the document.

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Join Professor Jennifer Fluri on this Maymester Global Seminar!

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Sep 2019 23:33:43 +0000

Join Professor Jennifer Fluri on this Maymester Global Seminar! Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/12/2019 - 17:33

You will explore the unique history and geography of the Czech Republic, deepen your understanding of how political and economic changes and transitions have a diverse impact on social and cultural norms, and travel in and outside or Prague and engage in various experiential learning activities and observations. This course, GEOG 3842, has also been approved for A&S Core Contemporary Societies.

Go to Education Abroad and learn more at the info session on September 23, 2019 at 4:30 PM in C4C N215.

Professor Jennifer Fluri - Maymester Global Seminar!

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