Environmental Studies Commons^™

Integrating Incentive Design And Spatial Prioritization For Climate-Smart Forestry Adoption In South Carolina, United States, Miah Maye Pormon

All Dissertations

Forests provide essential ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, water regulation, timber production, and habitat provision. However, increasing development pressures and land-use changes threaten forest persistence and long-run ecosystem service provision. Climate-smart forestry (CSF) practices, such as improved forest management and extended rotation, offer opportunities to enhance carbon storage, forest resilience, and economic livelihoods. The effectiveness of these practices depends on forest owners’ participation and the strategic allocation of financial resources or incentives. This dissertation develops an integrated framework that combines behavioral economic analysis and mapping to improve the design of current incentive programs. The first chapter employs the Contingent Valuation …

Toward An Integrative Anthropological Ecology; Pluralism, Power, And Socioecological Futures, Komang Ariyanto

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

No abstract provided.

Power, Knowledge, And Environmental Justice: The Dakota Access Pipeline Controversy, Mya Chapman

Honors Projects

In a time of rife political conflict and debate, it is important to understand the underlying power dynamics that permeate our society in America. As devised by French historian and philosopher Michel Foucault, power and knowledge are mutually constitutive forces that shape our social relations. Through the actions of certain discourses, distinct truths are cultivated that in turn, reinforce existing power structures. In this study, these concepts are applied to the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy in the form of a Foucauldian discourse analysis to understand how the pipeline remained operational in the face of great opposition. Written discourse in the …

Sustainability, Culture, And Higher Education: An Autoethnographic Sustainability Comparison Of The Sustainability Initiatives At The University Of Salzburg And Bowling Green State University, Madison Alt

Honors Projects

Human activity is already triggering damaging environmental tipping points (Lenton, 2020), emphasizing the need for sustainability in all aspects of development. Institutes of Higher Education (IHEs) have the power and responsibility to contribute to a more sustainable world (Parr et al., 2022). Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in Ohio, United States, and the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (PLUS) in Salzburg, Austria are two IHEs with multifaceted sustainability programs. While living and studying at BGSU and PLUS, I used autoethnography, a personal narrative approach, combined with public sustainability information to compare the sustainability initiatives at each university, and determine what …

Engaging Young People In Sustainable Finance: Opening Up Opportunities For Transformation, Allison Guerette

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

The field of sustainable finance could benefit from more meaningful engagement with young people, who offer a unique perspective and have a vested interest in addressing climate change and other global issues that will shape their future. In this post-qualitative study, three young people document what they see, hear, and experience as they attend a symposium for experts on sustainable finance and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing. These raw tellings are used in the cocreation of a youth sustainable finance assemblage and analysis tool, which the young people then apply to the Return on Sustainable Investment (ROSI™) methodology. Relationality, …

Land Epistemic Ethic: Exploring The Complex Intersection Of Human Bodies, Land, And Identity In Middle Belt Nigeria Cosmologies, Fwangmun Oscar Danladi

International Journal on Responsibility

The Indigenous cosmologies of Nigeria’s Middle Belt emphasize the relationship between human bodies and the land, transcending Western epistemological binaries and revealing profound socio-religious insights into environmental responsibility. Practices such as the burial of newborns’ umbilical cords, often dismissed as animistic or fetishistic, embody a sacred connection to the land that emphasizes belonging rather than ownership. Using an autoethnographic approach, this study critically examines these cosmologies and identifies how the sacredness of land can serve as a repository of communal memory and potential. By reframing land not as a possession but as a relational entity, this research challenges dominant narratives …

Impact Of Living Shorelines On Coastal Morphology And Sedimentology, Sydney Garber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Living shorelines, or nature-based solutions, have emerged as a preferred approach to coastal restoration, but have not been well studied or monitored postimplementation. This project evaluated the efficacy of living shorelines in protecting and stabilizing coastal morphology in Palm Beach County’s Lake Worth Lagoon. The study assessed surface and subsurface sedimentology, short-term water-level variability, and morphological change at two living shoreline areas of Jewell Steinhardt Cove and Snook Islands Natural Area. Each shoreline area has different breakwater designs aimed at stabilizing the shoreline with recruitment of oysters and mangroves in the Lake Worth Lagoon. Overall, seasonal morphology and sediment data …

Cripping The Border – Acompañamiento As Access: An Ethnographic Case Study Of Transborder Youth With Disabilities, Marco O. Amaral

Dissertations

The U.S.-Mexico border is a historical, geopolitical site of intense militarization where colonial logics of "othering" converge to marginalize disabled transborder youth. While transborder studies have expanded, students with disabilities remain relegated to the "void" and contained by educational systems that prioritize surveillance over access. Grounded in Sepúlveda’s (2011) acompañamiento and Transborder DisCrit, this ethnographic case study examines the lived experiences of both students and their families who cross the border daily to attend school in the U.S. It frames these journeys not as mere commutes, but as acts of defiance within the broader disability rights movement.

As a teacher-activist, …

Incorporating Local Expertise Into Environmental Research And Management, Jessica Black, Amy E. Scaroni, Stefanie L. Whitmire

Forestry and Natural Resources

This article is for researchers, government staff, land planners, and natural resource managers. In this paper, we will outline why incorporating local expertise works to scale down national or regional research to make it more useful for local communities. We will also provide examples of how a community’s knowledge about their local ecosystem, referred to as local ecological knowledge (LEK), can fill data gaps and contribute to improved land and wildlife management.

Arum–D Nexus: Adaptive Reflexive Urban Metabolism For Complex Construction And Demolition Waste Governance In Bengaluru, Talat Naaz, Rosewine Joy

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

Urban material systems exhibit nonlinear dynamics governed by feedback, adaptation, and emergent coupling among institutions, markets, and behaviors. Construction and demolition (C&D) waste in Bengaluru is a great example of such complexity, where fragmented regulation, informal actors, and digital asymmetries coalesce into unstable waste flows and resource leakages. This study conceptualizes Bengaluru’s C&D waste system as a Complex Adaptive System (CAS), where institutional, market, behavioral, and metabolic subsystems co-evolve through nonlinear feedback interactions. A meta-analysis of secondary literature combined with benchmarking of government datasets is used to evaluate two key complexity indicators, i.e., response speed and feedback density. The advancement …

Mission And Editorial Policy

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Reviewers And Referees

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Why Publish With Mssj?

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

The Courts Closest To The People: The Battle Between Populism And Democracy In The U.S. District Courts, Shruti Rana

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

The U.S. district courts have emerged as a critical site of contested terrain amid the chaos and controversies consuming American law and politics since the start of the second Trump administration. This article examines these frontline courts through the theoretical lens of populism, arguing that they have become a critical institutional flashpoint in the populist assault on constitutional democracy in the United States. As the courts closest to the people, the district courts occupy a unique structural position: They are the fact-finding courts, the most geographically dispersed and professionally diverse tier of the federal judiciary, and often the first institutional …

Call For Papers: 97th Annual Conference Of The Indiana Academy Of The Social Sciences

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Author Biographical Notes

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

George C. Roberts Award Recipients

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Statement From The Indiana Academy Of The Social Sciences And Board Of Directors

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Editor-In-Chief's Note, Surekha Rao

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

The Unsovereign Citizen: The Reconfiguration Of Rights And Belonging In Fascist Italy, Roberta Pergher

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Modern political thought tends to associate citizenship with democracy, equality, and political participation. This article demonstrates that citizenship can be profoundly important also for authoritarian rule. In Fascist Italy, citizenship remained central to political life, not as a vehicle of democratic participation, to be sure, but as a category through which the regime redefined belonging, hierarchy, and sovereignty. Drawing on citizenship legislation, imperial ordinances, racial laws, police reports, and ministerial commentary between 1912 and 1943, this article shows how the dictatorship hollowed out liberal citizenship within the peninsula, stratified it across imperial territories, consolidated it across diasporic populations, and ultimately …

Editorial History

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Rising Numbers, Rising Risks: Population, Growth, And Natural Disasters, Sophia Becker-Toro, Yu Ouyang

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

How does population size and growth affect the risk of natural disasters? On October 7, 2024, before Hurricane Milton makes landfall in the Tampa Bay area, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor issues a dire warning to affected citizens: “I can say without any dramatization whatsoever. If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you’re going to die.” While there is an extensive literature which focuses on the impact of climate change and/or natural disasters, there is a dearth of works on how population affects the risks of natural disasters. As both the frequency and severity of storms and …

Volume 28, Issue 2 Full Contents

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Submission Guidelines

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Assessing Environmental Changes Before And After The 2018 Kilauea Eruption In Leilani Estates, Hawaii, Rokeya Akter Liza

Scholars Week

The 2018 Kilauea eruption in Hawaii significantly impacted the natural landscape, especially in the Leilani Estates region. The aim of this study was to analyze and compare the environmental conditions of before and after eruption by applying remote sensing techniques. Landsat 8 satellite imagery was used for two different time periods as before the eruption (February 2018) and after the eruption (March 2019). ERDAS Imagine was used to process these images to evaluate the changes in vegetation and land cover. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was calculated for both pre- and post-eruption images to evaluate vegetation changes. Higher NDVI …

Navigating Sustainable Burial In Southern Nevada, Kristen Gibson

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Navigating Sustainable Burial in Southern Nevada investigates the accessibility of environmentally conscious end-of-life options for individuals throughout the region. Sustainable burial practices, including green burial, water cremation, and natural organic reduction, provide alternatives to traditional burial and cremation methods. Research was conducted through an analysis of Nevada statutes, local reporting, funeral service resources, and public discussions related to sustainable burial. The research revealed that although Nevada expanded legal recognition of sustainable burial by legalizing natural organic reduction, public access to clear information and available services remains limited. These findings informed the creation of a choose-your-own-adventure booklet designed to translate legal …

A Laboratory-Based Spectrometer Intercomparison For The Measurement Of Snow Spectra, Benjamin M. Roberts-Pierel, Christopher J. Crawford, Steven W. Brown, Raymond F. Kokaly, Kelly E. Gleason, Anne W. Nolin, Edward H. Bair, Brenton A. Wilder, Anton J. Surunis, S. Mckenzie K. Skiles, Multiple Additional Authors

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Seasonal snow is an integral component of global hydrological systems, global energy budget and Earth's climate. As an important part of many Earth systems, seasonal snow is also an essential source of water for many human populations and ecosystems around the world. As such, the measurement of seasonal snow and characterization of uncertainty in those measurements is crucial. To elucidate potential uncertainty attributable to commonly used field spectrometers (and to a lesser extent imaging spectrometers) and associated reference panels, this work presents results from an intercalibration experiment conducted synchronously with the NASA 2023 Snow Experiment (SnowEx) Albedo campaign near Fairbanks, …

Investigating Social Justice Implications Of Glyphosate Residues In Human Urine, Ananya Malhotra

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Background: Glyphosate, the nominal active ingredient in professional-grade Roundup weed and grass killer, is the most extensively used herbicide globally and in the United States (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2020). An increasing level of concern has surfaced regarding its health consequences, particularly because of contamination of our food supplies. Recent research indicates distressing levels of detection of glyphosate in human blood and urine samples, revealing many instances of frequent human exposure (Conrad et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2020).Most of the research about exposure is focused on agricultural workers or individuals living in close vicinity to agricultural lands.  Few …

From Reclamation To Restoration: Remaking Nature On Portland's Peninsula, Theus Richards

University Honors Theses

This environmental history of the North Portland Peninsula is a critical case study of a landscape in transition, where new "natures" have been constructed through shifting projects of reclamation and restoration. The Port of Portland, who controlled the Peninsula, transformed the marshy bottomlands near the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers to accommodate greater networks of industrial infrastructure and expand their capacity for global trade. Beginning in 1967, the Port began dredging operations to fill Ramsey Lake to make way for the construction of Rivergate Industrial District. Through this process, Smith & Bybee Lakes were set aside as a …

Bemerge Pop Ups: Social Media Meets Sustainable Fashion, Owen Mehring, Kyla Echols, Avery Edelbrock

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Our research into the online clothing shopping industry has revealed an opportunity to mobilize the strengths of online shopping to build an in-person community. One company we researched, Poshmark, a social, peer-to-peer resale app, uses the strengths of social media to create an online community-based secondhand clothing market. However, one of the largest problems facing society today is the ease of replacing human connection with screen time in today’s world. Online shopping provides convenience, variety, and a larger reach than traditional stores do. However, the human element is often lost. Our company seeks to take the goal of Poshmark to …