Tag: Poster 170

Contextualizing the Role of Pre-20th Century Conservation Initiatives in the Contemporary Environmental Conservation Movement

Presenter(s): Trevor Meyer − Environmental Studies

Faculty Mentor(s): Sarah Wald

Poster 170

Research Area: Humanities

Modern environmental conservation initiatives are inseparable from centuries-old traditions, and attitudes toward nature. The purpose of this project is to present early conservation initiatives and interpretations, prior to the progressive era, that are especially foundational in the context of the contemporary conservation movement in the United States. It is critical
to acknowledge the parallelism between contemporary and traditional environmental conservation issues—deforestation, urbanization, and industrialization that spurred the first Euro-American conservation ideas during the 17th century. Despite the 18th and the 19th centuries being characterized mostly by the manifest destiny and the exploitation of natural resources, this time in history is also responsible for fostering immensely transformative valuations, understandings, and attitudes toward natural resources. During the 18th and 19th centuries the overuse and misuse of natural resources under traditional utilitarian conservation regimes was questioned, and contested by alternative conservation initiatives that perceived value in the preservation of nature, and wildlife habitat. From which values arose the nation’s first state parks, national parks, national forests, forest management practices, and wildlife protection organizations. In order to understand the complexities of decision-making in the contemporary environmental conservation movement we first ought to consider the age-old traditions and attitudes toward natural resources that provided foundation for the earliest conservation ideologies.

Immigration Customs Enforcement’s Deliberate Targeting of Undocumented Activists

Presenter(s): Giovanni Ricci

Faculty Mentor(s): Noah Glusman

Poster 170

Session: Social Activism ARC

In the nearly twenty years since September 11th attacks, the United States has seen, as a result of changed cultural values, a dramatic increase in aggressive immigration policy as a means of controlling the influx of both high risk individuals and various racial and ethnic groups. Paired with the refugee crisis from the Syrian Civil War, there has been an increase in the government’s pursuit of more aggressive immigration policy. Regardless of the effectiveness of such immigration policies, there has been increasing criminalization of South and Central American immigrants, a growing anti-Muslim sentiment, and a general increase in xenophobic rhetoric in the American political sphere. As such, the United States has seen intensifying public criticism of various administrations’ immigration policies, and perhaps most notably, the increasingly aggressive tactics utilized by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE). Many argue that the aggressive nature of these policies infringes on the human rights of immigrants. However, due to the vulnerable nature of their immigration status, these immigrants often lack the ability to make their voices heard without risk of detainment, deportation, and family separation. This has since raised the question of whether or not ICE is actively targeting immigrant activists as a means of preventing immigration policy criticism in the public eye. Upon review of various first hand accounts and the work of investigative journalists, there is evidence that ICE is deliberately targeting immigrant activists. This is immensely problematic as it poses a number of potential human rights violations under both US constitutional law and various international human rights treaties of the United Nations. ICE’s policies infringe on the human rights of the especially vulnerable population of immigrant refugees, as such practices limit the right to speak out against the potential human rights violations caused by current immigration policies and practices.