Poster 184 – Undergraduate Research Symposium Abstracts

Presenter(s): Ally Shaw − Asian Studies, Linguistics

Faculty Mentor(s): Mark Carey

Poster 184

Research Area: Environmental Studies

This study investigates the impacts of Arctic climate change on indigenous language sustainability. I argue that: climate change leads to a loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functions necessary to support human survival; reductions in ecosystem services can or may trigger community upheavals, human migrations, and cultural change; and community and cultural changes – most often for small, dispersed indigenous populations – lead to documented language changes that historically have included linguistic shifts, language attrition, and language loss. This investigation focuses primarily on North American and northern European Arctic regions, where climate change is affecting the predominant ecosystems at some of the fastest rates on the planet. I synthesize available scientific evidence from the fields of linguistics, climate science, wildlife studies, and anthropology to evaluate climate-induced language change in several indigenous, subsistence-based communities. Study results suggest that anthropogenic climate change and consequent impacts to ecosystem services coincide with language change, and, therefore, that sustainability of one (i.e., language) must involve sustainability of the other (i.e., ecosystem functions) in order for indigenous communities to persist physically and culturally. Language is tied to cultural identity; when languages change, ways of interpreting the world also change, inter-generational communication pathways are challenged, and a vast abundance of cultural knowledge cannot be passed on to the next generations without a shared common vocabulary. It is vital, therefore, that language sustainability be considered when assessing climate-change prevention and mitigation strategies.

Presenter(s): Ramon Hernandez

Co Presenter(s): Elliana Pastrano, Thomas Hesser

Faculty Mentor(s): Matthias Vogel

Poster 184

Global Engagement ARC

For over decades, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been in combat and dominating the remote fighting tactics that militaries around the world use. Despite being effective and reliable, the question that will be analyzed under this research is the morality behind remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs) in combat, public’s consensus on them, and the deadly effects drones have on countries and the targets they are being used on.

Within this research, different UAVs around the world will be examined and compared to Germany, which has recently joined countries like U.S., U.K., and Israel who currently use UAVs. From this approach, the research will take the angle of a country’s beginning stages of implementing combat drones. In this context, the research will analyze the countries that manufacture the equipment, the countries that use them and the legal hurdles they may have gone through, and the countries that participate in distributing the drones/ drone parts, though not in combat.
In part of doing this research, a clear hypothesis to the topic will be presented which will assist in future scholarly analysis of the subject moving forward as more countries begin to adopt UAVs as well help give a better understanding of how they will look like for the countries, its people, and the ethics of RPVs combat strategy.

Tag: Poster 184

Impacts of Climate Change on Indigenous Languages of the Arctic Region

Drones Implanted into Combat, and Their Effects on Countries that Manufacture, Use, and Distribute Them

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