Tag: Humanities

Environmental Justice Timeline in the Global South

Presenter(s): Jason John − Environmental Science

Faculty Mentor(s): Sarah Wald

Poster 163

Research Area: Humanities

This project focuses on key events in the environmental justice timeline in relations to the Global North and the Global South. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. Does actions of the Global North affect environmental justice in the Global South? This is important because a lot of the countries in the Global South are often overlooked because they are classified as either Developing or Third World. These countries are often rich in natural resources but are mismanaged and exploited by some countries in the Global North. I decided to focus on the Global South because it is home to me. In addition, this project is to inform Bark, an environmental organization about Global environmental justice. I used peer-reviewed articles and books for this research. What I think I will find is that Environmental Justice in the Global South is largely dependent on countries in the Global North. Living in a developed country, one can easily forget about other countries and the problems that they encounter regularly. This project will start conversations and will enlighten others about the environmental injustice that’s been happening in the Global South.

Creating Climate Change Debate Through Think Tank Politics

Presenter(s): Katlyn Har − Psychology, Political Science

Faculty Mentor(s): Mark Carey

Poster 156

Research Area: Humanities and Environmental Studies

Scientists across the globe reached a consensus that anthropogenic climate change poses a serious threat to the human race. With little scientific dispute on the climate science, governments should be able to implement actionable policy to mitigate the consequences of climate change and prevent further anthropogenic warming. However, today’s climate discussion involves a two-sided debate with the climate scientists on one side and the climate change skeptics on the other. These skeptics are not climate scientists but rather physicists or economist that attempt to discredit the existing climate science. Despite their seemingly misaligned credentials, they have gained an audience with powerful politicians and American constituency. Why has scientific research been thwarted at the expense of officials not in the field, especially in the political realm that is critical to policy change? This think tank works to politicize the issue, claiming the climate change has been propagated by leftists, in order to gain party support and thus creates a formidable obstacle to climate change policy. This paper will investigate how The Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank, contributes to climate change denialism by attacking renowned environmentalists, mystifying climatology, and glorifying the fossil fuel industry. The research will involve analyzing the Heartland Institute’s main website and the surrounding literature on think tanks and conservatism. The following will analyze the methods and tactics used in order to attack climate change. This paper outlines the misinformation disseminated by the Heartland Institute so that we can dismantle unfounded denialism and promote progressive legislation.

Conservation Efforts in the Progressive Era: A Timeline

Presenter(s): Amanda Ganje − Environmental Science

Faculty Mentor(s): Sarah Wald, Paul Guernsey

Poster 151

Research Area: Humanities

Attempts to conserve and preserve the environment in the United States have been around for over hundred years with roots in the Progressive Era. This time period, from 1890-1920s, saw notable figures like John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt rise up to speak out on the importance of preserving the environment, and under Roosevelt’s presidency came the formation of national parks and monuments. I’ve made a timeline capturing the most significant events from this time period to show the foundation of the conservation movement. This timeline is being used as a part of BARK’s, the watchdog organization for Mt. Hood National Forest, efforts to teach the community on the history of conservation. BARK’s mission is making Mt. Hood National Forest a place where local communities have social, cultural, and economic investment in its restoration and preservation which this timeline hopes to help accomplish this by engaging the community more with the natural environment through learning about the background of its management. The events included in this timeline were found using relevant scholarly journals and books. This information is significant as it is an essential part of the United States conservation history, and educational for the general public.

Mental Health in Indigenous Inuit Communities and Canadian Climate Change Legislation: Conceptualizing the Link Between Research and Policy

Presenter(s): Eleanor Estreich − Economics, English

Faculty Mentor(s): Mark Carey

Poster 149

Research Area: Humanities

An emergent literature emphasizing community-based research examines the relationship between climate change and mental health in Inuit communities in Canada, which is driven in part by the fact that Inuit communities are “particularly vulnerable to health-related climate change impacts” (Harper et al. 2015: 1)*. While this academic research has identified approaches toward conceptualizing the link between climate change and mental health, national legislation in Canada about climate and health does not sufficiently reflect the lessons of these community-based efforts. By using methodological, theoretical, and rhetorical criticism, this paper will attempt to provide an answer for how the relationship between climate change and mental health is conceptualized for indigenous Inuit communities in the academic literature, and by comparison, how Canadian national laws dealing with climate change currently address this relationship. This paper will compare academic and legal approaches with the overall aim of judging to what extent national legislation has addressed the important link between climate change and mental health in indigenous Inuit communities. This comparative task is needed, because national climate change legislation shapes priorities and may help determine the extent of the human impacts of climate change in the future. The preliminary research seems to suggest that Canadian legislation primarily focuses on adaptive policies that target the general health of indigenous Inuit peoples as a result of a globally framed climate change issue; as a result, national legislation is currently poorly set-up to incorporate the insights from community-based participatory research. *Harper, S. L., Edge, V. L., Ford, J., Willox, A. C., Wood, M., & McEwen, S. A. (2015). Climate-sensitive health priorities in Nunatsiavut, Canada. BMC Public Health, 1–18. http://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-1874-3

Creating A Language Audit To Avoid Ableism For Bark Organization

Presenter(s): Ege Akinci − Environmental Studies

Faculty Mentor(s): Sarah Wald

Poster 138

Research Area: Humanities

Inclusive language can easily be ignored in most media sources like web pages or Facebook pages and include such words that carry colonialist, racist, sexist or ableist language without intentions. To avoid such language, this project will create a language audit and I will be focusing on ableism and accessibility in language, which is to make sure that the language used is including people with disabilities as this aspect can be easily ignored in writings. Through creating the language audit, I will use different previously created language audits and scholar papers written on ableism and how to avoid ableist language. This language will be created for the Bark-Out’s website and Facebook account. Bark-out’s mission is to transform Mt. Hood National Forest to a place where wildlife can be protected and local communities can have a social, economic and cultural investment in its preservation. Creating a language audit is particularly important to include each and every person in Barks mission, to preserve the natural, social and cultural aspects of Mt. Hood Natural Forest.

Research as Ceremony: Documenting and Stewarding UO Indigenous Community History

Presenters: Lofanitani Aisea, Cydney Taylor, Kata Winkler, Damian White Lightning, Toni Viviane Asphy, Allyson Alvarado

Faculty Mentors: Kirby Brown and Jennifer O’Neal

ARC Session 5M

Research Area: Social Science and Humanities

Native American And Indigenous Studies Academic Residential Community

Funding: Undergraduate Studies and University Housing

Members of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Academic Residential Community will present on the year-long collaborative project they developed regarding the core values, relationships, and responsibilities to Kalapuya Ilihi. They will present their collective UO Indigenous Mapping Project that highlights key Indigenous locations, history, and groups across campus. In addition, they will also share their Indigenous Oregon Language Map that highlights the unique native languages of the state of Oregon. Both projects will be shared gifted back to the indigenous communities which are represented.

The Infrastructure of Settler Colonialism: Roads, Dams, and Sawmills on the Warm Springs Reservation

Presenter(s): Seth Temple − Mathematics

Faculty Mentor(s): Kevin Hatfield, Jennifer O’Neal

Panel Session 1M

Research Area: Humanities

Most Americans think of military skirmishes with the Native tribes and the spread of small pox among the Indigenous population when they consider how the United States colonized the West. These images tell a part of the settler colonialism story; they do not tell the full story. Building infrastructure in the American West promoted the extraction of natural resources, made spaces for American settlers to occupy, and enabled the American military to restock on supplies and quickly traverse foreign landscapes. Roads, sawmills, dams, townships, forts, and other infrastructure changed the physical landscape of central and eastern Oregon during the 19th and 20th centuries. This paper provides case studies of Highway 26, the Powell Reregulating Dam, and the Warm Springs Forest Products Industries, contextualizing the infrastructure projects alongside Northern Paiute history. Creating infrastructure requires an author, a purpose, an implementation, and continued maintenance. Early infrastructure projects in the Oregon frontier came from white settlers and the federal military with the aim being to extract resources from Northern Paiute lands and subdue any resistance from the Indigenous peoples. In contrast, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs have exercised agency in the stewardship of reservation lands and natural resources since the mid-20th century. Though the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs now play a more significant role in the authorship, objectives, implementations, and maintenance of infrastructure projects on reservation lands than they once did, there is still evidence of the settler colonialist nation controlling some infrastructure on the reservation for its own pursuits.

Examining Personhood And Environmental Policy: Determing the Benefits and Risks of Granting Legal Rights to Non-Human Entities

Presenter(s): Matthew Stephens − Environmental Studies

Faculty Mentor(s): Steven Brence

Panel Session 1SW

Research Area: Humanities / Social Science

Funding: Humanities Undergraduate Research Award

This paper aims to determine the overall effectiveness of the Whanganui River Settlement Claims legislation, the ethical veracity of its central tenant that aims to grant legal personhood to the Whanganui River, and whether this recognition and protection afforded to the Whanganui River should be utilized as a model for other nations in the effort to protect and preserve our natural landscapes, resources, and cultural heritage while challenging the central tenants of a human nature division that environmentalism posits as a key contributor factor in issues of environmental degradation.

Another Girl Bites the Dust: Motherhood and Futurity at the End

Presenter(s): Megan Schenk − English

Faculty Mentor(s): Forest Pyle, Casey Shoop

Oral Session 2O

Research Area: English (Humanities)

Funding: Presidential and Summit Scholarships

A post-apocalyptic setting is a particularly potent arena for sexist narratives precisely because such an environment allows the author control over depicting how people will naturally act when stripped of modern conventions in order to survive. “Masculine” traits often appear favorable if not necessary to survival in the midst of a futuristic wasteland, while “feminine” qualities like hysteria, sentimentality, and domesticity deem an individual submissive, weak, and utterly incapacitated. Within these exaggerated patriarchal structures, women are simultaneously linked to a failing, stagnant past while providing the only true form of creation: motherhood. My research focuses on how women writers like Megan Hunter, Claire Vaye Watkins, and Louise Erdrich confront and repurpose certain apocalyptic tropes to force readers to reevaluate preconceived notions about male dominance, femininity, and motherhood, specifically in interaction with a post-apocalyptic environment. By engaging with existing literature on gendered heroics in apocalyptic media, intersectional feminist histories in speculative fiction, feminist theory in futurism studies, and the representation of motherhood in popular film and literature, I illuminate how these authors demonstrate that the nurturing of motherhood, not masculinity, is the ultimate means of conquering a decaying world. My research contributes to the important and growing feminist criticism of popular media that works to reveal how we think about the world and how that might (and hopefully, will) change.