Geography Commons^™

Introduction, Alexandra Ganser, Vibha Arora

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

At the time of finalizing EcoCultures for publication, nearly all discussions in mass media remind us that climate change has been caused by anthropogenic excesses in the last three centuries. Environmental concern, intertwined with a critical and scholarly perspective, is also at the heart of EcoCultures: Culture Studies and the Environment. The twelve academic articles comprising this issue were written by scholars based in the North and South, speaking different languages yet living in a multicultural global world, and positioned in disciplines ranging from landscape and environmental history, literature and gender studies to visual studies and art. …

High Resolution Dune Complex Mapping For The Monitoring Of Coastal Landform Change, First Landing State Park, Virginia, George M. Mcleod, Joe Daigneau, James Collins, Norma Swan, Thomas R. Allen

Virginia Journal of Science

First Landing State Park is located on the southern shore of the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. The park contains a prograding shoreline and dune complex that has been steadily growing northward. Accurate three dimensional mapping of the resident coastal dune features is challenging due to the dynamic nature of the dunescape. Precise mapping within First Landing was accomplished through careful planning, employ of advanced Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, and intensive data analysis. Mapping ensued during a period of optimal satellite signal availability and strength. Data points were collected at manual intervals with a Leica GS50+ GPS receiver, utilizing …

Contemporary Art Facing The Earth’S Irreducibility, Amanda Boetzkes

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

This article considers the aesthetic strategies and ethical implications of contemporary earth art. Drawing from feminist and ecological phenomenology, I argue that an ethical preoccupation with the earth is identifiable in works that evoke the sensorial plenitude of natural phenomena, but refuse to condense it into a coherent image or art object. By denying a perceptual grasp of the earth, contemporary earth artists question the possibility of representing it as such. They thereby position the earth as a territory of alterity that exists beyond our conceptual and perceptual limits. This approach counters two deeply flawed but nevertheless pervasive stances towards …

Women Of The New Walden: Gender In Sound Culture, Now And Then, Phylis Johnson

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Sonic diversity in the midst of wilderness, as original and untamed, can confound and discomfort the novice listener who becomes overwhelmed by its plethora of mysterious languages. Transcendentalist Margaret Fuller, author of Summer on the Lakes (1844), expressed sensory overload when she was confronted with the sights and sounds of Niagara Falls. Sound permeates our life, from conception, birth, and varied sonic spheres of influence that penetrate our physical space. Sound acknowledges its relevance as a cultural influence within the socialization of the individual. For instance, high-powered car stereos and subwoofers swimming in bass overtones have become associated with masculinity. …

Gestures Toward Cross-Species Reciprocal Relations In Contemporary Poetics, Mary Newell

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

In this essay, I explore some embodied bases of ethical attitudes toward human/ animal exchanges in the texts of three contemporary authors: Mary Oliver, Heller Levinson, and Adrienne Rich. Since other species share with humans varieties of agency, sentience, and purposive activity, I suggest that reciprocity is a fundamental aim in cross-species relations. Phenomenological philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty depicts the correlation between embodied actions and attitudes, for example, between the hand movement of grasping and an appropriative attitude toward the natural world. His concept of reciprocity, grounded in the experience of one hand touching another, provides a reference for encounters that …

Translating Ecocriticism: Dialoguing With Michel Serres, Stephanie Posthumus

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Since its humble beginnings in the Western United States, ecocriticism has grown under the banner of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment into an organization of over 1000 members with international affiliates in Australia-New Zealand, Canada, Europe, India, Japan, Koria and the UK. At first sight, it would seem that ecocriticism has achieved global status. But as Ursula Heise remarks in her assessment of ecocriticism, this process of globalisation has been mainly a process of becoming known internationally. In truth, ecocriticism has remained strongly rooted in Anglophone literary studies even as it has been exported to …

Thinking Like A God: Nature Imagery In Advertising, Catherine M. Roach

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

This essay examines selected recent imagery from American advertising that evinces a "negative" sense of nature as hostile other - often portrayed as a persecuting and conquered female - and of humans as its/her master. Examples to be examined of nature as this "Bad Mother" include TV commercials, print advertisements, and a comic strip. I argue that these images spring from a fundamental ambivalence toward nature and that they assuage the anxiety aroused by such ambivalence through a fantasy that casts humans as gods. More specifically, I use the medieval Christian scholastic concept of 'aseity' to suggest that these media …

Can Nature's Language Be Written, Spoken, And Heard? Mahasweta Devi's "Pterodactyl" And Marlene Nourbese Philip's Looking For Livingstone, Lori Martindale

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

How do traditional western epistemologies affect natures' subjectivity? This essay deconstructs the status of nature as silent Other. I argue Mahasweta Devi's The Pterodactyl and Marlene Nourbese Philip's epic Looking for Dr. Livingstone translate nature, or the radical Other, as subject. Scientific, xenophobic, and imperial behaviors have affected the status of natures' subjectivity in the naming, mapping, and exploitation of land, during colonial and commodity enterprise. As a result, nature’s language has become increasingly radical and is one to be translated for an awareness and avoidance of imposition; nature is a language yet to be understood.

Bird Watching: Global-Natural Worlds And The Popular Reception Of Winged Migration, Lisa Uddin

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

This paper examines the contemporary visual cultures of economic globalization and natural history by considering the popular French wildlife film, Winged Migration (dir. Perrin 2001). Through the small-scale of a single film's reception, the paper offers a critique of the Euro-American tendency to conceptualize the global world and the natural world in totalizing and mutually constitutive terms. How have images of a timeless and universal global world become a way of imagining the natural world, and vice versa? How has Winged Migration's circulation amongst an American popular audience reproduced, but also undermined, these joint constructions? Analyzing the film's central theme …

Nature In Ayn Rand's Fountainhead, Anand Silodia

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Half a century ago the novelist Ayn Rand [1], a Russian refugee who settled in America, gave us one of the most original and influential philosophies of individualism namely objectivism, which she advanced as 'a philosophy for living on earth.' First propounded through her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand's philosophy of objectivism has surpassed the test of time. In her objectivist philosophy, human-nature relationships are an important (indirect) concern although rarely discussed in an explicit manner in her humongous novels.

The World Is White And Slow And Infinitely Flat, Rob Baum

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Eco-feminism, cultural study and the environment coalesce in the form of poetic cultural commentary, originally fieldnotes. I draw exclusively from my years in the Alaskan Arctic among the Iñupiat Eskimo, who call themselves "the People of the Whale." The striking and severe natural environment, a landscape of endless ice, is central to the poetry, which richly portrays a vision of the Arctic absent from tourist travel guides, National Geographic and anthropological volumes. These magazines vend the Far North's beautiful austerity, including at times the physical beauty of its animal inhabitants, including humans, while disregarding human specificity and violence …

Growing Up With Glen, Kathryn Miles

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Ecologists refer to it as 'shifting baselines.' Anthropologists call it 'environmental generational amnesia.' Both refer to the slow change in the ways we respond to and define the environment. As biologists and social scientists have deftly argued, definitions of environmentalism and sustainable resource use are often based on our earliest experiences with nature. We then use these memories as the basis for our understanding of the natural world and its use. Ultimately, this creates a generational approach to issues of conservation, particularly with regards to such contentious issues as water rights and the changing face of the American West. At …

Whistler’S Fog And The Aesthetics Of Place, Bruce Janz

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

The concept of place has usually been understood as either a phenomenological, epistemological, or ethical category. An understanding of place as aesthetic or rhetorical, on the other hand, tends to focus on the widely varied uses of the concept. First, I sketch out the wide range of uses of place, that have been drawn from writings on the concept. These uses are not definitions of place, but rather functions that the term performs. Place stands in for other ideas, and allows access to different aspects of human experience. Second, I will draw from this range of uses some ideas about …

On Joel Weishaus' Forest Park: A Journal, Rania Masri

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

How do we define place? How do we develop our sense of identity and how do we recognize that development? With our constantly changing locations and with our locations themselves constantly changing into more urbanized areas, how do we locate and understand ourselves within our idea of place? How does our relationship with 'nature' touch our lives? In essence, how do we live, with - and within - ourselves?

A Politics Of Place: Reading The Signs At Walden Pond, Joy Ackerman

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Pilgrimage begins with a vision of place. Look down! The holy is here beneath your feet. The boundary of heaven and earth is not the distant horizon, ever out of reach. It shimmers on the surface of the water. As Thoreau ponders the sky reflected in Walden Pond, he sees the earth encompassed within the spiritual realm. The concept of ‘sacred geography’ also suggests such an embrace. Through the recognition of a pattern in the landscape or the orientation of a temple in the holy city, sacred geography claims that the landscape is a map of the divine order, the …

The Edge Of The World, Joy Kennedy

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

“The Edge of the World” tells a true story of a mapping expedition in the second longest cave in Texas. When her survey group becomes lost inside the cave, the author uses the experience to propel questions of the duplicity of maps and the ambiguities of human perception. Detailed are the gritty nuances of caving that the average tourist never experiences: the tightness of squeezes, digging for air flow, and pushing for passages. The author finally questions if the blank spaces on maps should really be filled in with new discoveries, for perhaps something is being lost in the process.

Discovering Your Cinematic Cultural Identity, John Shelton Lawrence, Marty S. Knepper

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

This paired set explores the experience of cultural identities constructed by and experienced through popular film. The essay “Discovering Your Cinematic Cultural Identity” reflects the authors’ decades of residence in the state of Iowa and their personal irritation with the stereotypes that Hollywood regularly calls upon in evoking the American rural. We gained a new perspective on this sort of imagery when it surfaced again in Field of Dreams (1989) and The Bridges of Madison County novel (1992) and film (1995). Each of these films triggered unprecedented film tourism for the state. Through an exploration of these films and others …

Nurturing Sense Of Place Through The Literature Of The Bioregion, Patrick Howard

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

This paper explores the possibility that a participatory engagement with the literature of the bioregion, in this case the North Atlantic coast, may work against the life alienating tendencies of our modern culture, to reaffirm and renew our children’s consciousness of and sensitivity for their place in a larger Earth community. We are in need of another way of knowing our place, a way to activate and reactivate the complex articulations and relations of things. Through the literature of the bioregion and a bodily, imaginative and participatory engagement with the other-than-human, children can return to the conditions of human embeddedness …

On Joel Weishaus' Forest Park: A Journal, Christine Cusick

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

I tend to have an often stubborn suspicion of the convergence of art and technology, language that loses and finds us in the throes of new and unbound understanding somehow, seems diminished when the materiality of its record cannot be felt, when visceral responses cannot make a palimpsest of the text through the marginalia of an earnest reader. And so, when I first heard mention of a highly respected poet and thinker chronicling his time-felt ruminations and intuitions on cyberspace, I was initially hesitant to pursue the encounter. However, my hesitation quickly turned to humble engagement as I …

The Smugglers' Landscape: Geography, Route Selection And The Global Heroin Trade, James Dallis Medler

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This study focuses on transnational smuggling, and puts forth an analytical framework from the smugglers' perspective with respect to route selection, focusing primarily on aspects of economic, political, and human geography. It is predicated on three interconnected decision-making domains that constitute the smuggler's operational landscape, namely access, risk and connectivity, which interact to drive the smugglers' perceptions of route attractiveness. The first two domains operate reciprocally, primarily at the national level of analysis, and together both shape and are shaped by the third at the transnational level to form a feedback loop. With respect to connectivity, the convention of the …

Bio-Optical Properties Of The Arctic Waters: Empirical And Theoretical Observations, Jian Wang

OES Theses and Dissertations

Bio-optical observations were made during August 2000 in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. Chlorophyll a concentration (Chl) ranged from 0.068 to 18.51 mg chl m⁻³. Both total particulate and phytoplankton absorption at 443 nm were closely correlated with chlorophyll concentration. There is no strong correlation between chlorophyll concentration and absorption by soluble materials or nonpigmented particulates. Absorption, scattering, and attenuation all show strong first-order spectral relationships. Two semianalytical remote sensing reflectance models were evaluated and validated using bio-optical data collected in this region. Both models were proficient at retrieving chlorophyll concentration, phytoplankton absorption coefficients, and particulate backscattering coefficients. …

Satellite Evidence Of Hurricane-Induced Phytoplankton Blooms In An Oceanic Desert, S. M. Babin, J. A. Carton, T. D. Dickey, J. D. Wiggert

CCPO Publications

The physical effects of hurricanes include deepening of the mixed layer and decreasing of the sea surface temperature in response to entrainment, curl-induced upwelling, and increased upper ocean cooling. However, the biological effects of hurricanes remain relatively unexplored. In this paper, we examine the passages of 13 hurricanes through the Sargasso Sea region of the North Atlantic during the years 1998 through 2001. Remotely sensed ocean color shows increased concentrations of surface chlorophyll within the cool wakes of the hurricanes, apparently in response to the injection of nutrients and/or biogenic pigments into the oligotrophic surface waters. This increase in post-storm …

Review Of Tourism: Between Place And Performance, Edited By Simon Coleman And Mike Crang, Alexandra Ganser

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

No abstract provided.

Review Of Mapping Tourism, By Stephen P. Hanna And Vincent J. Del Casino, Jr., Alexandra Ganser

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

No abstract provided.

Atmospheric Water Vapor Lidar Measurements Using Analog And Photon Counting Techniques, Anuj Maheshkumar Shah

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Atmospheric water vapor measurements are essential for the understanding of Earth's weather and radiation budget, along with the water cycle. The remote sensing Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) technique is a commanding method used for water vapor measurements from aircraft, spaceborne, and ground-based platforms. The new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) water vapor DIAL system provides great feasibility due to the weight and size limitations. The system has significantly less weight, power consumption, and noise presence, thus making it great for UAV applications.

This thesis discusses a UAV water vapor DIAL system that was designed, developed, and evaluated. The research effort was …

New Evidence For Enhanced Ocean Primary Production Triggered By Tropical Cyclone, I. Lin, W. Timothy Liu, Chun-Chieh Wu, George T. F. Wong, Chuanmin Hu, Zhiqiang Chen, Wen-Der Liang, Yih Yang, Kon-Kee Liu

OES Faculty Publications

[1] New evidence based on recent satellite data is presented to provide a rare opportunity in quantifying the long-speculated contribution of tropical cyclones to enhance ocean primary production. In July 2000, moderate cyclone Kai-Tak passed over the South China Sea (SCS). During its short 3-day stay, Kai-Tak triggered an average 30-fold increase in surface chlorophyll-a concentration. The estimated carbon fixation resulting from this event alone is 0.8 Mt, or 2-4% of SCS's annual new production. Given an average of 14 cyclones passing over the SCS annually, we suggest the long-neglected contribution of tropical cyclones to SCS's annual new production may …

Virginia Geographic Information System (Gis) Programs And Resources For Libraries, Stuart Frazer

Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

Over the last ten years geographic information systems (GIS) have drawn increasing attention from the library community. In Virginia the way has been led by the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech library systems, both members of the Association of Research Libraries' GIS Literacy Project (http://www.arl.org/info/gis/index.html) begun in 1992. Many of the Commonwealth's other college and university libraries are now offering GIS services at varying levels of complexity. As library interest in GIS grows, the time seems right for a roundup of resources available from higher education and public sector organizations across the Commonwealth.

Remembering Dehlie: A Chrono-Topo-Graphy Of Imagination, Subhash Jaireth

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

In a few weeks I shall be going to India to see my daughter. This will be our first meeting after she went back to India with her mother five years ago. She is fifteen now, and, in a way, a complete stranger to me. You don't know me, she tells me often on the phone, Neither do I know you. The little girl whom you carried on your shoulders and played hopscotch with, is nothing but a shadow. Come and see what has become of me. I have made up my mind to go but I know …

Rich Earth Below The Sand' And The Origins Of The Thames Embankments, Stuart Oliver

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

This essay explores the designing of the Thames embankments that were built between 1866 and 1874 for the Metropolitan Board of Works. In particular it concentrates on the origins of what might be called the production of the conditions of production of the embankments. By looking at the motivation of those advocating embanking as a means of exerting literal and figurative control over the river, and the ways in which society influenced such advocacy and determined its effectiveness, the essay explores modernity's construction of a regulated natural in the context of an analysis that is sensitive to the …

Cabbagetown: (Re) Placing Identity, Jeremy W. Crampton

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Cabbagetown is one of Atlanta's oldest industrial settlements, built for employees of the South's first cotton processing mill in 1881 during the heyday of southeastern textile mills. Today its identity and sense of place is highly contested. Originally a white working class community oriented around the mill, today it is undergoing gentrification -- the mill has been converted into gated lofts, and there are few long-term residents still left. Remarkably, the neighborhood is still distinct and unusual. It's almost as if a sense of history has settled into the neighborhood's bones and imbued its new residents with a …