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PORTLAND STATE UNI VE RSI TY

Department Newsletter — Spring 2018 College of Liberal Arts and Science | Department of Geography | Post Office Box 751 | Portland, OR 97209

A Message from the

Chair

1

Congratulations,

Graduates!

2, 3

Announcements,

Upcoming Events, and

Awards

4, 5

What’s New in

Geography

6 - 9

Faculty Spotlight 10

Research & Publications 11

Student & Alumni News 12, 13

Faculty & Alumni

Interviews

14 - 17

Center for Geography 18

Inside this issue:

It has been another busy and productive year in the Depart-

ment. We have 39 students who will graduate this spring or

summer (pages 2-3). Five GEOG faculty members - Andrew

Fountain, Andres Holz, Paul Loikith, Melissa Lucash, and Hunter

Shobe - obtained prestigious university awards (page 5). Our

graduate students Katelyn Michelson, Janardan Mainali, and

Emily Slinskey also received awards from professional organiza-

tions (page 5). Congratulations to all of them for their excellent

endeavors!

With the arrival of the two new faculty members in the Department during winter term

(pages 14 - 15 for an interview with one of them), we are a fully functioning Department

serving a diverse population of students. The Department has become a magnet of diverse

learners from different backgrounds in the community. Our Climate Science Lab has been

recognized regionally, drawing 2nd graders to visit the lab and learn more about the dynamic

climatic system. Additionally, Center for Geography Education in Oregon hosted teacher

workshops for K-12 teachers (page 18). Our classes have been drawing diverse major stu-

dents and a sizable number of senior auditors who had professional careers in various fields.

During the 2018 Cartography Symposium on campus in April (pages 6 - 7), I had a pleasantly

surprising visit from one of our alumni. While he did not know anyone around the Depart-

ment, he wanted to say hello to me and ask how the department is doing. Our conversation

went into what he remembered while he was here and what he valued about his education

in Geography at PSU. He remarked that he had acquired valuable lessons from one of the

most demanding and challenging courses while enrolled in the program. Such testimony

signifies the long-term effects of education, which could have lifelong impacts of an individu-

al, personally and professionally.

While the faces of the Department have shifted and will change over time, the fundamental

spirit and mission of our Department - serving diverse learners in the community – and our

enthusiasm and dedication to achieve that goal will remain. To celebrate many of our un-

heard stories, I cordially invite you to join our year-end party on June 8th. I am looking for-

ward to seeing many of you there.

A Message from the Chair

Learning never stops: from K12 to senior auditors

2

Bachelor’s Degree

Haden Edward Earle Bighouse

Simon E. Dannenbaum

Benjamin Steven Delyea

Ariel J. Devros

Sierra Gabriele Antoinette Ellis

Griffin Harry Haugen

Dain Marshall Daryl Helmers

Erika Kay Jones

Theodore Elliot Lane

Coner Patrick Lee

Calla McKenna Malcom

Taylor Marx Miron

Steven James O’Toole

Lawrence Stanfill El

Emily Lai Fong Thompson

William Robert Dawson

Dmitri Alexander Kalashnikov

Phillip Jeffrey Lafrenz

Charles Mathew Rudnick

William Lee Smith

Eri Stern

Rebecca Elaine Tait

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Congratulations to our students who have graduated

in the 2017—2018 academic year! We wish you the

best in your future endeavors.

GIS Certificate

Kyla Joanna Blomquist

Andrew Daws

Jennifer L Edgar

Colin Joseph Finnegan

Christina Eileen Gray

Sean Nicholas Kaminski

Spencer Almon Keller

Allison Leigh Lawler

Alicia Ranae Milligan

Margaret Burant

Candice Loveland

Master’s Degree

Emily Anne Slinskey

Daniel Lawrence Uthman

Katelyn Rachel Michelson

Whitney B. Vonada

Ph.D. Degree

Zbigniew Grabowski

Gunnar Johnson

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A Message

from the Chair

ANNOUNCEMENTS

UPCOMING EVENTS

Course Projection Guide Now Available!

Want to plan your next term? How about next years' terms?

View a complete list of projected

geography courses offered over the next 3 years!

app.banner.pdx.edu/cpg

For more information, contact: Geography

Department, GEOG@pdx.edu, 503-725-3916

Geography and

Systems Science Spring Party

Friday, June 8, 2018 4:30—6:30 P.M. The Urban Center Rooftop Terrace

4th floor, 506 SW Mill Street, Portland

*Enter between Pizzacado and the PSU Bookstore

Join us to celebrate out graduating stu-

dents! This will be a potluck-style event; we encourage you to bring something to

share. Drinks and light snack provided.

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FACULTY AWARDS

GRAD STUDENT AWARDS

Dr. Andrew Fountain Professor of Geography & Geology

Dr. Andres Holz Assistant Professor of Geography

Dr. Paul Loikith Assistant Professor of Geography

Dr. Melissa Lucash Research Assistant Professor of Geography

Dr. Hunter Shobe Associate Professor of Geography

Branford Price Millar Award

Sigma Xi Outstanding Researcher

Award

Excellence in Sustainability

Research Award

Research Faculty Excellence Award

2018 John Eliot Allen

Outstanding Teaching Award

Katelyn Michelson

Janardan Mainali

b

Emily Slinskey

Student Travel Award

Spatial Analysis & Modeling AAG

Student’s Research Grant

Hariyo Ban Program

Dean’s Oregon Lottery

Graduate Scholarship

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A Message from the Chair

SUBTITLE

WHAT’S NEW

In Geography? 2018 Portland Cartography Symposium Recap

The 2018 Portland Cartography Symposium took place on

March 2nd, 2018, in the Smith Memorial Student Union

Ballroom on the Portland State University (PSU) campus. Prin-

cipal organizers of this free, public event were John Rogers,

graduate student and Vice President of the GIS Club; the PSU

student chapter of ASPRS; Alicia Milligan, graduate student

and Communications Officer of the GIS Club, and David Banis

of the Portland State University Department of Geography. The

majority of financial support was provided by the GIS Club’s

fundraising efforts and the generous donation from the Colum-

bia River Region of ASPRS (the Imaging and Geospatial Infor-

mation Society). Additional support was provided by MapBox,

the Department of Geography, and the Portland State Educational Activities Speakers Board.

The symposium was a one-day conference featuring 20 speaker presentations on a variety of topics related to cartog-

raphy, a panel discussing the mapping for social justice, a series of student Lightning Talks and an extensive map gallery dis-

playing outstanding examples of mapmaking and cartography. The purpose of the event was to provide an opportunity for

training and an exchange of ideas related to technique and philosophy among students and cartographic professionals from

all over the Pacific Northwest.

A total of 389 people pre-registered, and at

least 283 attendees were present on the day of the

event. The nearly 300 people easily doubled the

attendance from 2015. In addition, there was a

large group of geography students from a Washing-

ton university as well as industry professionals who

attended the symposium.

Seventeen registrants represented federal

agencies, and there were 63 people from non-

federal agencies, 3 from non-profits, 49 from pri-

vate commercial organizations, and 26 from univer-

sities and colleges. A total of 99 students registered,

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A Message from the Chair

SUBTITLE

The Portland

Cartography Symposium

53 were PSU students. While most attendees were from the

Portland-Vancouver metro area, people based in the Seattle,

Tacoma, Grays Harbor, Medford, Bend, Eugene, Corvallis and

Salem areas attended, as well as California.

The 14 presentations, 6 Lightning Talks, and lunchtime

panel represented a cross-section of cartographic practice, in-

cluding presentations by students, academics, commercial and

public agency professionals, and a local graphic artist. The key-

note presentation was given by Aaron Draplin, owner of Draplin

Design Co. in Portland. Draplin delivered an entertaining talk on

graphic design that had little to do with cartography, but many

people were delighted by his refreshing style and graphic-design paradigms that ended the day. 30 people submitted one or

more maps each for inclusion in the map gallery.

The first Portland Cartography Symposium took place in 2011, the second was held in 2013, and the third in 2015. All

three were successful gatherings of cartographers from the area sharing their work and their insights. For this year’s event

(we did not hold it in 2017), because the network of cartographers in the PNW is continually growing, we were optimistic in

our planning and attendance target of 250, a goal that was well above the number of previous symposiums. It was a goal that

we met very easily and quickly. Feedback from attendees was once again positive. In fact, organizations voluntarily offered us

financial support for the event, and they expressed interest in participating in the next cartography symposium. The symposi-

um ended up hosting a total of 6 vendor tables, online interactive mapping stations, and hand-drawn mental mapping areas,

which is something that the PCS has done in the past. The space in the Smith Memorial Student Ballroom was ample, which

allowed us to host these vendors, seat 300 people, display an

impressive map gallery, and network or socialize. All partici-

pants were impressed and inspired by the success and turnout

of this event, and we will strive to host the PCS on the same

level in 2019.

By

David Banis, Center for Spatial Analysis and Research

John Rogers, Graduate student, Vice President GIS Club

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A Message from the Chair

SUBTITLE

American Association

Of geographers

Key Highlights of the AAG Meeting

April 2018, New Orleans, Louisiana

Submitted by David Banis and Heejun Chang

Several sessions focused on how New Orleans is discussed and depicted as a city, with an emphasis on media portrayals

and the impacts of Katrina on the city. These presentations/talks helped inform thinking about our San Francisco/

Seattle/Portland book.

Sessions about authenticity and nature-based tourism.

Sessions on GIS and mapping for social justice and activism, including a presentation by our own students Tim Hitchins

and Sachi Arakawa.

Sessions about the use of Story Maps in the classroom and the possibility of the creation of a peer-reviewed journal for

Story Maps. The almost exponential growth of the use of Story Maps in the last several years highlights a need for us to

incorporate this tool into our curriculum.

Digital Geographies keynote panel exploring the possibilities for ongoing and future work in this subject area. Panelists

included Mei-Po Kwan, Sarah Elwood, Eric Sheppard, Elvin Wyly, and Clio Andris.

Lecture by Diane Sinton, Executive Director of UCGIS, titled “Truth and Lies About GIS Education Today.” It is helpful to

hear that all academic institutions are struggling with the direction of GIS education in light of the ever-quickening pace

of technological change

Waldo Tobler Lecture by May Yuan titled “GIS is Dead, Long Live GIS” about the changing nature of GIS research, and

how general paths and trajectories for that research are constantly changing as technology changes.

Harvey Miller, SAM plenary speaker, discussed how the availability of big data has transformed the ways that geogra-

phers and geospatial scientists conduct their research.

Floods and hazards were the big topics of the conference

theme. Papers ranged from modeling of hydraulics to institu-

tional analysis.

Alida Canor, Martin Swobodzinski, Melissa Haffner (ESM), and

Heejun Chang met with geographer Prony Rai, new incoming

faculty in International and Global Studies at PSU.

A field trip down to the Mississippi delta. Black mangroves live

there.

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A Message from the Chair

SUBTITLE

American Association

Of Geographers

Presentations

Heejun Chang, SeongYun Cho, Lumas Helaire, and Stephen Talke: Assessment of urban flood vulnerability to climate extremes

Martin Swobodzinski: Effects of virtual companion ani-mals on human emotional health

Benjamin Fahy and Heejun Chang: Evaluating Distribution of Stormwater Green Infrastructure on Watershed Outflow

Tim Hitchins and Sachi Arakawa: Getting Beyond ‘Neutral’: Building a Resistance Movement in the GIS Community

Janardan Mainali and Heejun Chang: Incorporating spatial structure in water quality modeling: A case study from Han River Basin South Korea

Elinore Webb: Mycorrhizal Biogeophysical Distribution in Response to Dike Removal

Junjie Chen and Heejun Chang: Relation between streamflow and turbidity during storm events in the Clackamas River wa-tershed, Oregon Katelyn Michelson and Heejun Chang: Spatial Characteristics of Urban Flooding from 2010-2017 through Citizen Science in Portland, Oregon

John Rogers: The effects of stratospheric polar vortex states and annual movements on winter weather anomalies and sea ice status in the Northern Hemisphere

Alida Cantor: When policy catches up with science: The challenges of operationalizing new legal recognition of groundwater-surface water interactions in California

Stacey Olson, Erica Smithwick, Melissa Lucash, Robert Scheller, and Jared Oyler: Poster: Modeling the spread of emerald ash borer under variable climate predictions in northeastern Wisconsin, U.S.A. using LANDIS-II

Sunhak Bae and Heejun Chang: Poster: Viewing from the past: Development and flood in South Korea

David Banis and Rebecca McLain: Poster: What we know and don’t know about human ecology mapping: Lessons from the field

Professor Heejun Chang finished his 3-year term as Chair of

the Spatial Analysis and Modeling Specialty Group of the AAG.

(Picture taken with other board members.)

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FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

Research Assistant Professor,

Dr. Melissa Lucash

Dr. Melissa Lucash, Research Assistant

Professor, is currently working on three

NSF grants in Oregon, Alaska and Wiscon-

sin and a Department of Defense grant in

the eastern US. In April, she co-authored a

new paper in Scientific Reports on fire in

the Klamath region of OR and CA (https://

www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-

24642-2). She was a co-author on two talks

on spatial resilience and virtual reality at

the International Association for Landscape

Ecology, and a poster on emerald ash borer

at the Association of American Geogra-

phers in April. She has started working on

her grant on fire and climate change in

Alaska (https://sites.google.com/a/pdx.edu/

alaska-reburns/). She is traveling to Fair-

banks at the end of May for a PI meeting

and to kick off fieldwork that will involve

her new Ph.D. student, Shelby Weiss, along

with students, post-docs and faculty from

University of Alaska, University of Florida,

University of Idaho and North Carolina

State University. Dr. Lucash is co-leading a

modeling training course in LANDIS-II in

Madison, WI, in June. She also continues to

work on her research on virtual reality of

forests under climate change, which was

featured on PSU’s website in March

(https://www.pdx.edu/clas/news/portland-

state-professor-helps-bring-forests-future-

life). She is working on several papers as-

sociated with her work on that project and

plans to visit the Menominee Reservation

in Wisconsin in June. Dr. Lucash also con-

tinues to work with Washington State Uni-

versity-Vancouver and NC State University

on a DoD project looking at climate-change

impacts across different scales and model-

ing platforms, and she plans to visit Wash-

ington D.C., this fall to present their initial

findings.

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RESEARCH & PUBLICATIONS

FACULTY & STUDENT PUBLICATIONS:

Pelling, M., Leck, H., Pasquini, L., Ajibade, I., Osuteye, E., Parnell, S., ... & Boubacar, S. (2018). Africa's urban adaptation transition under a 1.5° climate. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 31, 10-15.

Cantor, Alida and J. Emel. (2018). New Water Regimes: An Editorial. Resources, 7(2): 25.

Cantor, Alida, M. Kiparsky, R. Kennedy, S. Hubbard, R. Bales, L. Cano Pecharroman, K. Guivetchi, C. McCready, and G. Darling. (2018). Data for Water Decision Making: Informing the Implementation of Califor-nia’s Open and Transparent Water Data Act through Research and En-gagement. Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, UC Berkeley School of Law, Berkeley, CA.

Cantor, Alida, D. Owen, T. Harter, N. Green Nylen, and M. Kiparsky. (2018). Navigating Groundwater-Surface Water Interactions under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, UC Berkeley School of Law, Berkeley, CA.

Cantor, Alida, J. Emel, and H. Neo. (2018). Networks of global produc-tion and resistance: Meat, dairy, and place. In Food and Place: A Critical Exploration, eds. P. Joassart-Marcelli and F. Bosco. Rowman & Littlefield.

McPhillips, L. E., Chang, H., Chester, M. V., Depietri, Y., Friedman, E., Grimm, N. B., Kominoski, J. S., McPhearson, T., Méndez-Lázaro, P., Rosi, E. J., & Shafiei Shiva, J. (2018). Defining Extreme Events: A Cross-Disciplinary Review. Earth's Future, 6, 441–455.

Grabowski, Z, Chang, H., Granek, E. (2018). Fracturing Dams, Fractured Data: Empirical trends and characteristics of existing and removed dams in the USA. River Research and Applications.

Watson, E., Chang, H. Relation between stream temperature and land-scape characteristics using distance weighted metrics, Water Resources Management 32(3): 1167-1192.

Tepley, A.J., Thomann, E., Veblen, T.T., Perry, G.L.W., Holz, A., Paritsis, J., Kitzberger, T., & Anderson-Teixeira, K.J. (2018). Influences of fire–vegetation feedbacks and post-fire recovery rates on forest landscape vulnerability to altered fire regimes. J Ecol. 2018;00:1–16.

Holz A, Hart SJ, Williamson GJ, Veblen TT, Aravena JC. (2018). Radial growth response to climate change along the latitudinal range of the world's southernmost conifer in southern South America. J Biogeogr. 00:1–13.

Iglesias V, Haberle SG, Holz A. and Whitlock C (2018). Holocene Dynam-ics of Temperate Rainforests in West-Central Patagonia. Front. Ecol. Evol. 5:177.

Mundo I.A., Holz A., González M.E., Paritsis J. (2017). Fire History and Fire Regimes Shifts in Patagonian Temperate Forests. In: Amoroso M., Daniels L., Baker P., Camarero J. (eds) Dendroecology. Ecological Studies (Analysis and Synthesis), vol 231. Springer, Cham

Hong C, Chun H. (2018). Barriers, challenges, conflicts, and facilitators in environmental decision-making: A case of An'Yang Stream restoration. River Res Applic. 1–9.

Hong C, Chang H, Chung E. (2018). Resident perceptions of urban stream restoration and water quality in South Korea. River Res Applic. 1–12.

The Portland Mercury listed the book, Against the Fascist Creep, by Ph.D. student Alexander Ross among the short list of nine top reads of 2017.

APPROVED GRANTS

Professors Idowu (Jola) Ajibade and Alida Cantor received funding from the Faculty Development Program Grant covering their expenses over the next two years. Their projects are titled, “Identifying Windows of Opportunity for Transformative Adapta-tion in Southeast Asia Informal Settlements” and “Sugar Water: The shifting dynamics of land use, water rights, and social and environ-mental justice in Maui, Hawai’i,” respectively.

Professors Idowu (Jola) Ajibade, Alida Cantor, and Melissa Haeffner (ESM) have been approved by the PSU Institute for Sus-tainable Solutions for a grant of $7,000 for their project “Gender in water careers: Examining the implications of gender disparities in water resource management professions." This funding will support initial research and grant writing efforts to secure an NSF grant.

Incoming Geography Ph.D. student Shelby Weiss received a $5,000 scholarship from Dean’s Oregon Lottery Graduate Scholar-ship. The scholarship is designed to support Ph.D. students at Port-land State, with her award designated for the 2018 - 2019 academic year.

Chang-Yu Hong, geography adjunct faculty, received a travel grant for $1,000 for excellent scholars from East-West Center to to travel to the EWC International Conference from Sept. 2, 2018 - Sept. 12, 2018.

Katelyn Michelson, graduate student, received a grant from Gamma Theta Upsilon (international honor society in geography) for $200 and AAG Spatial Analysis and Modeling Specialty Group for $250. She will receive her awards in April 2018.

Martin Swobodzinski received an award of $85,201 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/PSU BUILD EXITO Pilot Project Program for a project titled “Effects of Virtual Companion Animal on Humans Emo-tional Health. National Institutes of Health” for the period February, 2018 - January, 2019.

Paul Loikith received a new $156,000 subcontract from JPL on a NASA project to evaluate the ability of climate models to simulate conditions favorable for lightning outbreaks in the western US. This is a 3-year project.

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STUDENT & ALUMNI NEWS

The PSU ASPRS student chapter (aka the GIS club) has been a prominent Geography depart-

ment sponsored club since 2004. Throughout this time, the club has hosted many successful events

and workshops for students to get involved in, and enhance their understanding and skills in GIS,

Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Additionally, the club is dedicated to connecting students to

the professional world of GIS by hosting events where students can network with professionals and

learn about the many possibilities a GIS career has to offer. Since our club is affiliated with the Co-

lumbia River Region (CRR) of ASPRS, we encourage students to attend CRR quarterly events and

socials for even more networking opportunities.

Some recurring events the GIS club has hosted over

the years have been the student map critique, career panel,

and Portland Cartography Symposium, which have all been

well attended and received by students and GIS professionals

alike. One highlighted event from the past two years was the

Resistance GIS mini-conference in spring 2017 that sparked a

lot of attention and praise. Tim Hitchins and Sachi Arakawa,

two of the main organizers of the conference, were featured

on Oregon Public Broadcasting to discuss concepts and ideas

behind Resistance GIS before the conference took place. A

highlight from this year’s board was the map sale in fall 2017

that raised about $1,200 in sales to support the club’s events

for the year. This day showed just how much enthusiasm stu-

dents and faculty from different fields have for maps — the

halls of the fourth floor of Cramer have never been so

packed. It was truly a sight to see!

If you are interested in knowing more about what the GIS club does or would like to get in-

volved, please attend one of our remaining events or feel free to contact the club directly by email

at ASPRS@pdx.edu, or visit our online profiles. Click an icon below to visit.

SPONSORED EVENTS:

May 2nd, 3:00-6:00 PM, Lincoln Hall 339: Microaggressions workshop

followed by a general club

meeting (please note work-

shop is intended for students

only)

May 18th, Cramer Hall 418:

Club board elections for next

year

May 31st, Cramer Hall 469:

Mapathon Event

June 1st, 3—5pm, Cramer Hall 413: GIS Career panel

PSU ASPRS Student Chapter: GIS Club

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TUDENT & ALUMNI NEWS

How might your career or understanding of the world be different if you had learned GIS skills in

middle school? Thanks to support from PSU professors David Banis and Dr. Hunter Shobe, an In-

ternational Baccalaureate middle school in Portland’s West Hills is being given the chance to find

out.

The French American International School is nestled on the western edge of Forest Park, just below

the crest of iconic Skyline Boulevard. Visit campus on a Wednesday and you’ll likely see 6th or 8th

graders wandering around in small groups with smartphones in hand. They’re using ESRI’s Collec-

tor app to create novel maps of their school campus that contribute to their school’s community.

“I decided to make an accessibility map displaying the easy, medium, and hard routes getting from place to place when

being on a wheelchair on campus,” says Sofia, an 8th grader in the school’s new GIS Design class. This map was in-

spired by analyzing several maps in Banis’ and Shobe’s book “Portlandness.” The students working on this map project

will present their final interactive Web App (made using ArcGIS Online) to the professors for analysis, as well as to the

school’s administration as a bid for more accessible campus design in upcoming construction projects. "Let's say we add

this map in every [student] planner in addition to the [existing] campus map,” says Coco, another 8th grader working

on the project. “I think that could be really helpful for students to think from that point of view and learn about how difficult [traveling via wheelchair] is." This student-led initiative could change this school for the better.

Every semester, students in two GIS Design classes learn about how GIS works, how to make their

own GIS maps of campus using a free AGO Enterprise account (thank you, ESRI!), how to analyze

maps effectively, basic principles of map design, and how to lie with maps. As students at an inter-

national school, they’re able to apply their learning to geography-based inquiry in other classes as

well. All 6th graders this year “discovered” the Ring of Fire through a GIS inquiry hosted in their

science classes, for example. More connections are being planned for the future, as GIS Design

teacher Lauren Sinclair envisions “foundational GIS experience for every student” in coming years.

These new GIS connections were made possible because of Sinclair’s GIS training in PSU’s Geog-raphy Department. Sinclair was a public school teacher and environmental educator before coming to PSU to study gla-

cial geomorphology, GIS, and geography in general. After taking Cartographic Applications of GIS with David Banis,

Sinclair was inspired to pitch the idea of a middle school curriculum that would teach GIS basics to kids using free soft-

ware like AGO. It took years of convincing to persuade school administrators to support the idea, but Sinclair was final-

ly cleared to add two GIS classes to a list of electives for the 2017-2018 school year, and they’ve been a hit. GIS Design

is now cemented into the school’s schedule.

“The success of these new classes is directly linked to our partnership with David and Hunter,” Sinclair reports. “I take

exit surveys of my students, and they cite our GeoMentors as a huge motivating factor in their design process.” “I think

it was useful because we were hearing from a professor that has been teaching about GIS and is very experienced with

it,” said one 6th grader. “It also gave insight on how designers use the design process in real life.”

Would YOU consider acting as a GeoMentor for local middle school students? Professionals and students alike are

needed in schools across the Portland area. Only a handful of middle schools in the country are teaching GIS, mostly

because teachers aren’t familiar with it. YOU can help bridge that

experience gap.

To learn more, email geomentors@aag.org or contact Lauren Sin-

clair at the French American International School to learn more

about how GIS education is working in her classroom: lsin-

clair@faispdx.org

GIS: Coming to a Middle School Near You

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Alumni and Faculty Interviews

I grew up in Pullman, Washington, in the eastern area of Washington state known as the Pa-louse. I attended Simon’s Rock College in Massachusetts for my BA in Geography, then got my MS at UC Davis in Community and Regional Development. I ended up back in Massachusetts at Clark University for my PhD in Geography, and then back in California after finishing my doctorate, where I spent some time living in San Diego and then moved up to Berkeley for a postdoc at Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment. How did you get into your field? I stumbled upon geography somewhat by accident in college. I was interested in taking classes in science, the social sciences, and humanities, and I was shopping around for a major where all of my eclectic interests could “count” towards my degree. Turns out geography was that major. I later realized that this interdisciplinarity is a fundamental characteristic of geography, and is something I still value very much. Within geography, I’ve focused primarily on resource geography and political ecology, including topics of food systems, waste, and water systems. I have always strived to apply a critical under-standing of human-environment relationships to real-world problems. I come at my work from a critical social science perspective, but I have a strong appreciation for the natural/physical/biological sciences that contribute to a robust understanding of our relationship with resources and the natural world. I love that geography can bring these different perspectives and understandings together. What is your current area of research? My research focuses on environmental policy, law, and politics with a focus on water resources in the Western U.S. I currently have one foot in the realm of critical human-environment geography and one foot in the practical, applied policy world. In the applied policy arena, I have a few differ-ent projects. One project looks at legal and management aspects of groundwater-surface water interactions. Another project is studying the relationship between regulation and innovation in the wastewater treatment sector. In the critical human-environment geography realm, I’ve been really

Faculty and Alumni Interviews

Q&A With Our New Faculty

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Alumni and Faculty Interviews meaning and practice of restoration and conservation in clearly human-influenced or “unnatural” places. I’ve been investigating these questions using the case study of Southern California’s Sal-ton Sea, which I studied for my dissertation research. All of these projects may seem a bit diffuse, but they all tie back to my broader themes of contemporary environmental policy and water re-sources management. What attracted you to Portland? First of all, the geography department at PSU is made up of a great group of faculty and students. I’m glad to have the chance to join such a good set of colleagues. I was also drawn to the broader PSU community. I came to PSU as part of a ‘cluster hire’ across the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. For this initiative, departments across the college — from English to Chemistry to, of course, Geography — hired new faculty around a common theme of ‘Environmental Extremes.’ Coming in as part of this cluster has meant I’ve been able to start at PSU alongside a strong co-hort of colleagues across departments. I’m finding a lot of common research interests and am re-ally enjoying getting to know everyone. Second, working in the Pacific Northwest means I can continue my research throughout the West-ern U.S. while developing a focus in Oregon. I’m looking forward to learning more about the issues facing Oregon’s water resources moving forward. And of course, I’m also delighted to be in the city of Portland. I have a 20-month old daughter who already loves outdoor adventures, and my family and I are having a great time exploring the beautiful nearby hiking and all the wonderful food that Portland has to offer. It’s a fun place to live. What courses will you teach? I am currently teaching Environment and Society (GEOG 230) and Water Resources Management (GEOG 446/546). I’ll also be teaching Resource Management (GEOG 345) and Political Ecology (GEOG 349). I hope to teach seminars on special topics in resource geography, water, and/or hu-man-environment geography as well. What can students expect in the classroom? I strive for a lot of interaction and discussion in my classes. I want students to dig deep into tough questions without easy answers: How should we relate to the world around us? How can/should we handle contemporary environmental problems? How do different theoretical approaches to understanding problems inform the potential range of solutions that are considered? We look at social and environmental justice issues with an eye towards understanding the deep roots of the problems. I also ask students to explore topics that are of interest to them through research pro-jects and papers. What is your future research plan? I have a few different projects on the near-term horizon, all centered on water resources manage-ment. One project, a collaborative effort with Idowu (Jola) Ajibade here in Geography and Melissa Haeffner in ESM, looks at gender in water resources management. We want to understand the gender disparities in the water sector, and whether this matters for management practices. A sec-ond new project involves understanding Hawai’i’s changing water regimes. As the sugar industry has declined, particularly in Maui, activists are leveraging this change as an opportunity to claim water for instream flows and Native and environmental water uses. And I’m in the process of planning a third project examining the global geopolitics and production networks of alfalfa, a wa-ter-intensive crop often grown for export around the world to support meat and dairy production in water-scarce countries. I’m also looking forward to the still unknown future research plans — the new research projects that may arise as I get to know the faculty and students at PSU, and exploring the ideas that will inevitably come from learning more about contemporary water issues in Oregon.

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PSU Alumni Shares His Experience

After dropping out of college in late 1969 (I had moved from Oregon to be a cinema ma-jor at USC), I traveled between Alaska and Tierra del Fuego. Sixteen months in Latin America and the Caribbean made me appreciate the interactions of humans and their environments. So when I returned to Oregon in 1972 to work and finish my undergraduate degree, I quickly learned that Geography was a viable academic discipline and that Portland State had an excellent depart-ment. Because my college GPA was under a 2.0, I had to wait until Summer 1973 to be admitted to PSU (when the 2.0 minimum was waived). While majoring in Geography, I acquired a Certifi-cate in Latin American Studies. This was useful because it exposed me to classes in History, An-thropology, Political Science, and Economics (none of which was as interesting as Geography, of course). The Geography Department was a different place back then: faculty were 100% white male (exception: visiting faculty) and most came to PSU from the University of Washington, where the Quantitative Revolution of the 1950s had a major impact on geographic theory. But there was also a sprinkling of Berkeley School influence, and the human-environment studies by Carl Sauer and his students appealed to me a lot. When I was a junior (1974), the Association of American Geographers (AAG) met in Seattle. But nobody told me about it! The following year (1975), several of us students raised money to travel to the AAG meeting in Milwaukee, Wiscon-sin, which turned out to be an enlightening event. I found out that I might qualify for a paid as-sistantship to go on to graduate school. I checked at the University of Oregon but was told that they preferred out-of-state students to give money to! So I looked for schools with Latin Ameri-can specialists, and then I visited each of them.

After working at the local cannery, traveling for six months in Latin America again (down the Amazon and into the Lost World area of Mt. Roraima), and hopping a banana boat to New York City (where I crashed the 1976 AAG meeting), I ended up that fall at Louisiana State Univer-sity (aka Berkeley on the Bayou). I had been impressed with PSU Geography, but I was even

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By Klaus J. Meyer-Arendt

more impressed with LSU Geography. I went there to focus on human-environment relations in Latin America, and I eventually (1979) finished a thesis on folk production of guava paste in the Colombian Andes. But LSU had a unique Coastal Studies Institute, and I started taking courses in coastal ecology and coastal morphology. This was in the pre-GIS and pre-lidar period, and we would do beach profiling, sediment analysis, water chemistry measurements, etc. After gradua-tion, I landed a job mapping the Louisiana wetlands (a project that first documented the extent of wetland loss in coastal Louisiana) and than working as coastal morphologist for a small envi-ronmental consulting firm for three years. This was a great experience, but when the next step in my career there entailed wearing a suit and drumming up new business, I decided to return to college for my Ph.D. By that time, I was married with one child. Dr. H. Jesse Walker, a coastal geomorphologist who specialized in deltaic processes along Alaska’s periglacial North Slope, was becoming more interested in human impacts upon shorelines. He invited me to work with him on human-environment interactions along the Gulf of Mexico shores. This topic entailed a lot of fieldwork, strengthened my knowledge of coastal studies, and also introduced me to tourism geography (a young subdiscipline in the 1980s).

From 1987 to 2016, I worked at two institutions: Mississippi State University (where I advanced from assistant to full professor) and the University of West Florida. I was a visiting pro-fessor at PSU in Summer 1990, and I received a Fulbright Research Award to Yucatan (Mexico) in Summer/Fall 1994. I was fortunate to have landed a job as a geographer and to pursue my inter-ests in coastal studies, human-environment interactions, tourism geography, and Latin America over several decades. I stayed involved in professional organizations (such as the AAG), and have received several awards for service, such as the Roy Wolfe Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Recreation, Tourism, and Sport Specialty Group. I managed to land —and be involved in —several grants pertaining to coastal studies, and that paid for summer salary and kept my re-search agenda going. Hurricane Ivan (2004) provided quite a few research opportunities. In 2006, I took a trip to coastal Ecuador accompanied by GIS specialist Stu Hamilton. We were amazed at the amount of mangroves that had been converted to industrial shrimp farms, and Stu went on to write a Ph.D. dissertation on the topic (and now he is a sought-after speaker around the world). Since then we have documented mangrove conversion in the Dominican Republic (2012) and Cuba (two weeks in March 2018). I retired in 2016 to move back to Oregon to be near my soon-to-be-96-year-old mother in Forest Grove, but we may be moving to Washington state in 2019. I still love to travel, do some coastal research, attend regional academic meetings, and occasionally present talks (most recently in April 2018 when I presented a lecture on Human Impacts and Shoreline Change along the Yucatan Coast to students and faculty at the Laboratory of Engineering and Coastal Processes, Sisal campus of UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) in Yucatan state.

Selected Publication

Meyer-Arendt, K.J., 2011, Grand Isle, Louisiana: A Historic U.S. Gulf Coast Resort Adapts to Hurricanes, Subsidence, and Sea Level Rise, Chapter 15 in Disappearing Destinations: Climate Change and Future Challenges for Coastal Tourism, (A.L. Jones & M. Phillips, eds.), CABI, Wallingford, UK, pp. 203-217.

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Center for Geography Education in Oregon

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In late February, the Center for Geography Education in Oregon (C-GEO) hosted its annual teacher professional development conference called “GeoFest.” This event gathers K-12 teachers from

all over Oregon to hear geographers speak about their areas of expertise, allowing them to stay up to date on groundbreaking ideas in geography as well as fun and innovative ways to bring the discipline to their stu-dents. By providing teachers with this opportunity (free of charge), C-GEO is not only helping expand teachers’ knowledge of geography, but also ensuring Oregon students are primed to be global citizens. This year the new C-GEO Director, Nancee Hunter, kicked

off the conference with a keynote presentation titled “Assessing Geo-Literacy and Sense of Place Indicators as Learning Outcomes of an International Teacher Professional Development Program.” Afterwards, the teachers broke into more specific subject groups for smaller presentations, including: “GeoTechnology Tools for 21st Century Education,” “Teaching Civil Rights through Geography,” and “Rain Shadows in Oregon and Chile.”

Taylor Allen, student employee for C-GEO, shares the following per-spective about her involvement in GeoFest:

“This was my first year helping prepare for GeoFest, as well as attending the conference. There is a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes on so that these teachers can get the best experience possible. I was surprised at the number of returning teachers and the community they have created to-gether. It was amazing to see the amount of net-working and collaboration between the teachers. During the conference I got to meet so many inter-esting teachers and graduate students from all over Oregon. The range of different perspectives that comes from a diverse community of teachers allows attendees to grow as individuals and educa-tors, and it prepares them for diverse classroom settings.”