Human Ecology Commons^™

Sacred Scavengers: Vulture Conservation In Nepal, Hans Nedde

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In the 1990s, a veterinary drug used to treat pain and disease in cattle nearly brought the nine vulture species of Nepal to extinction. In a span of 15 years, over 97% of vultures in Nepal perished. For the past 20 years, governments, organizations, and communities have been working together to save these vital scavengers from vanishing. From the lowlands to the Himalayas, vultures have been interacting with the environment and humans for millennia. This study explores the role that vultures play both ecologically and culturally in Nepal. It investigates vultures as a crucial ecological influence and how human action …

Occurrence And Ecosystem Effects Of Hiking Off-Trail In Michaux State Forest, Diana Biesecker, Quinn Doherty, Kevin S. Ganjon

Student Publications

American public lands provide significant outdoor recreational opportunities that enhance an individual's physical and mental well-being. Hiking is an example of a highly accessible and affordable recreational activity that is popular and easy for people to engage in no matter how experienced they are. While hiking has improved the well-being of many individuals, its impacts on local ecosystems are often disregarded. For our research, we focused on the impacts that hikers deviating off-trail may have on a local ecosystem in Michaux State Forest in Southern Pennsylvania. Through partnering with the foresters at Michaux State Forest and using AllTrails data, we …

Restoring Dignity In The Gardens Of Ekhenana, Jordan Buser

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This case study investigates the lived experiences of eKhenana, a shack settlement under the leadership of Abahlali baseMjondolo, as they attempt to navigate the increasingly unequal urban landscape. The research presented is focused on theories of urban marginality, food sovereignty, and dignity. I advocate that, in the margins, dignity can be restored through the implementation of a communal garden. Presented as a case study, this research centers the voices and experiences of the commune. The paper first depicts a brief timeline of eKhenana, and explains how they have created not just a place to live, but a community and a …

Earth Stories: A Narrative Understanding Of Farmlife In Pokhara, Nepal, Grace Holmes

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Humans love to tell stories. The purpose of this Creative ISP is to collect stories, of the plants and of the earth, render them through quotations and summary, and then discuss and reflect on how these stories could describe the relationship between people and the land. I hope a narrative understanding of our dependence on agriculture can bridge the gap in modern society that separates us so fundamentally from the earth that we live on.

Los Impactos Del Cambio Climático En Las Comunidades Aymaras En Putre, El Valle De Azapa Y Arica, Lindsey Kaufman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Research Question: How is climate change affecting Aymara communities in Putre, the valley of Azapa, and Putre?

Objectives: To understand the effects of climate on communities by 1) describing which environmental problems exist and their impact on agriculture and ranching, 2) understanding the patterns of migration away from the ancestral land, 3) exploring the connections to the social determinants of health that exist with these change, and 4) analyzing the significance of these changes in the agriculture for the communities’ traditions and connection to the land.

Background: Aymara communities have historically inhabited agricultural and ranching lands in …

The Battle For The Sea: Tourism Development And Public Ocean Access In Jambiani, Zanzibar, Sophie Beauchesne

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The battle for coastal access is a prevalent and controversial issue in both the Global North and the Global South (Mongeau, 2001; Ojo, 2013). Due to investment in coastal land, vulnerable communities around the world are losing their access to the sea (Ojo, 2013; Bennett, Govan & Satterfield, 2015). Battles for ocean access in the Global North tend to focus on recreational activities, but what is to be said about ocean access in the Global South, where access to the sea is needed for the survival of entire communities? (Mongeau, 2001;). Using geographical mapping, environmental condition assessments and open-ended interviews …

Wanderscaping: Stirring Agitated Reflections Into Our Home The Campus, K. Annie Bingham

Selected Undergraduate Works

Wanderscaping is a two part project completed over the 2021-2022 school year. The first portion, "Wanderscaping Our Home The Campus" meanders through the physical space of Sarah Lawrence College, as a landscape and an institution, while the second, "Stirring An Agitated Reflection" floats that knowledge in the psychic space of an interconnected host of guides, through books, conversations, and other media. As a whole this project is a process-oriented wrangling of freedom, connection, and their borders. It has culminated in practices of public participatory performance, photography, mapping, iconography, audio recording, and writing. Wanderscaping aims to share a space to dream …

Honor Thyself, Alonzo O. Williams

Dance (MFA) Theses

The black male experience and identity in America are filled with complexity. We struggle to know ourselves. We work to see the way of love and the peace of an unviolated free spirit. We want to engage with ourselves with the highest degree of freedom and comfort, not to continue to question our identity in a life-threatening white patriarchal masculinity ideal. Honoring oneself from the lenses of the Reconstruction era of the United States is essential. Reconceptualizing this history explores the significance of emphasizing Reconstruction in my life as a black male to go through a process of self-discovery and …

Wilderness And The Geotag: Exploring The Claim That "Geotagging Ruins Nature" In The Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Wa, Mara Gans

All Master's Theses

This research explores the claim that “geotagging ruins nature” by quantifying and qualifying patterns in geotag use and visitors’ experiences in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, in Washington, United States. Many have raised concerns that geotags increase recreational visitation to public lands, which subsequently contributes to negative resource impacts. Others, however, claim that geotagging has made the outdoors more accessible to less privileged communities and raise concerns that condemning geotags will perpetuate the exclusion of certain groups from outdoor recreation. This debate is studied within federally designated Wilderness, which is legally defined as “untrammeled by man,” a definition rooted in problematic …

Transformation Of Farmer Resistance In Conservation Areas: Land Occupation By Farmers In Mount Halimun-Salak National Park, West Java, Sulastri Sardjo, Arya Hadi Dharmawan, Dudung Darusman, Ekawati Sri Wahyuni

Masyarakat, Jurnal Sosiologi

A number of studies have shown various agrarian conflicts as a response by local farmers against the policy of national parks that prohibits them from accessing conservation forest areas. However, previous studies had not explained the dynamics of power relations between park authorities and farmers who stand in opposition to these policies. This study employs a qualitative research approach complemented by secondary data to explain the transformation of farmer resistance in the Mount Halimun-Salak National Park (TNGHS) area, namely from their repertoire of everyday resistance to practices of land occupation. Specifically, this study uses the “powercube” analytical framework to explain …

Deep Roots In Eroding Soil: Building Decolonial Resilience Amidst Climate Violence And Displacement In A Louisiana Bayou Indigenous Community, Lia Mcgrath Kahan

Senior Independent Study Theses

The Pointe-au-Chien Indigenous community of coastal Louisiana is fighting for survival as climate change and socio-political factors threaten to displace them from their ancestral home. This project takes an ethnographic and historical approach to exploring how colonization and climate change have influenced Pointe-au-Chien tribal members’ ability to stay on their ancestral land. Climate projections estimate that the bayou this community has lived alongside of for generations will soon be unrecognizable, leading to potential displacement and devastating cultural loss. Due to the increasing severity of climate change, it is crucial to look to the experiences of frontline Indigenous communities to support …

Agricultural Adaptation To Climate Change: How Montana Farmers Make Proactive Changes Despite Unpredictable Conditions, Austin Schuver

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In Montana, climate change is projected to increase interannual variability and the severity of weather events like drought. To sustain agricultural production, farmers must adapt to climate change within a complex decision-making process responsive to a range of climate and non-climate stressors. This study explores how Montana farmers approach proactive and long-term adaptation, two types of adaptation which are not well studied, but are expected to be increasingly important for adapting to the impacts of climate change. To understand Montana farmers’ approaches to adaptation, I conducted 30 in-depth interviews with farmers across the state. Farmers explained how unpredictability in weather …

Instructional Scaffolding In Internships: Supporting Future Professionals In Family Science, Katy Gregg, Meghan K. Dove, Nikki Digregorio

School of Human Ecology Faculty Publications

Internships are known for being a valuable, albeit time consuming, opportunity for students, supervisors, and faculty in many fields. As undergraduate programs consider their current and future internship programs, we suggest the processes an intern takes to secure and complete an internship are key to furthering their learning and increasing their career marketability. In this article, we use scaffolding and self-efficacy theories as the foundation to developing an intentional internship program in the family science field. We share the steps faculty take to prepare students for the internship, use graduated guidance to support student learning, and to assess learning during …

Sons Of Disobedience And Their Machines: How Sin And Anthropology Can Inform Evangelical Thought About Ai, Gregory S. Mckenzie

Eleutheria: John W. Rawlings School of Divinity Academic Journal

The purpose of this paper is to further discussion about artificial intelligence by examining AI from the perspective of the doctrine of sin. As such, philosophy of mind and theological anthropology, specifically, what it means to be human, the effects of sin, and the consequent social ramifications of AI drive the analysis of this paper. Accordingly, the conclusions of the analysis are that the depravity of fallen humanity is cause for concern in the very programming of AI and serves as a corrupted foundation for artificial machine cognition. Given the fallen nature of human thought, and therefore, fallen AI thought, …

Pseudo-Patriotism, Polemics, And Propaganda: European ‘Indianness’ And Contemporary German Populism, Dagmar Wernitznig

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

This article highlights and explores new nuances of colonialisms that can be witnessed in German populist politics in conjunction with public discourses about migration and refugeedom. In their xenophobic aversion towards aliens, ultra-nationalist organizations and parties in Germany pervert the colonial trauma of Native American peoples by projecting it onto their own existence. By drawing analogies between their own lives and the plight of Native American expulsion or forceful assimilation since the arrival of the first European settlers, right-wing individuals and groups perceive themselves as a vanishing tribe that is threatened with extinction, caused by Arabic and African newcomers …

Table Of Contents Ije Volume 3 (1), Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

Editorial Introduction (Ije 3.1), Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

Anthropocentrism: More Than Just A Misunderstood Problem, Helen Kopnina, Haydn Washington, Bron Taylor, John Piccolo

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

Anthropocentrism, in its original connotation in environmental ethics, is the belief that value is human-centered and that all other beings are means to human ends. Environmentally-concerned authors have argued that anthropocentrism is ethically wrong and at the root of ecological crises. Some environmental ethicists argue, however, that critics of anthropocentrism are misguided or even misanthropic. They contend: first that criticism of anthropocentrism can be counterproductive and misleading by failing to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate human interests. Second, that humans differ greatly in their environmental impacts, and consequently, addressing human inequalities should be a precondition for environmental protection. Third, since …

Anthropocentric Tautologies: The Ape Who Mistook His Jabbering For A Self, George Conesa

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

American Letters: Mencken, Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.