The Nelson Institute Blog

He left China during war time at age 10, and returned for the first time after 64 years. What did he find? What does “home” mean? Jean Feraca of Wisconsin Public Radio’s Here on Earth: Radio Without Borders talks to Yi-Fu Tuan, Emeritus professor of geography at University of Wisconsin-Madison, author of Coming Home to China, and one of America’s best-known writers on cultural geography. Listen to the show here.

To view photos of Frances Westley’s Farewell Reception from May 9, 2007 go to:
http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/events/westley_reception/

Tromsø, the site of a growing international partnership among the Norwegian government, the LaFollette School of Public Affairs, and the Nelson Institute, will be the location of the main celebrations of World Environment Day, 2007. The annual celebration was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972, just two years after the first Earth Day was celebrated in the U.S.A. under the leadership of Senator Gaylord Nelson. The nokia theme for WED 2007 is Melting Ice - A Hot Topic? focusing on the effects that climate change is having on polar ecosystems and communities, and the ensuing consequences of melting ice for freshwater supplies and sea levels around the world. (Previous themes have included deserts, oceans, cities, and human population.) Festivities this year will include street celebrations, ecumenical prayer services with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Church of Norway Bishop Per Oskar Kjølaas, roundtable discussions with winners of the Sophie Prize for creative & pioneering leadership in sustainable development, youth art & film festivals, and more. Visit the WED 2007 website of the Norwegian Polar Institute (or the links above) for more information.

Nelson Institute Professor Harvey Jacobs has had a busy winter-spring of guest lectures and teaching. In February he gave a lecture at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning under the sponsorship of the Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies. In early March he was in Taiwan, where he gave lectures at the Department of Real Estate and Built Environment, National Taipei University, and continued UW’s longstanding relationship with the International Center for Land Policy Studies and Training, teaching a one-week short course as part of the institute’s 102nd Regular Session on Land Policy for Sustainable Rural Development. In late March he was in Spain, where he taught a short course at the University of Santiago de Compostela and assisted his host in the design of a new master’s program in rural land management. In April he delivered the keynote address to an invitational conference for journalists at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and immediately afterwards went to the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, to teach a short course as part of the institute’s one-year master’s degree in urban studies.

Prof. Jacobs is the author of a featured articled in the April issue of Land Lines, the Lincoln Institute quarterly magazine: “Social Conflict Over Property Rights.”

The third annual Nelson Institute Graduation Reception took place on Saturday, May 19th, 2007, in Science Hall. To see the photos taken at the event, go to http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/events/grad_reception_07/.

In his new book, Breathing Space: How Allergies Shape Our Lives and Landscapes (Yale University Press, May 2007), Nelson Institute Professor Gregg Mitman explores the “ecology of injustice” in the interactions of history and health, consumerism and culture.

“Allergies are not things,” he says, “like bacteria, to be eliminated by drugs from our bodies. An allergy is instead the result of complex interactions that our bodies have with physical, chemical, biological and social factors in the environment.”

Read more about it in the UW-Madison News or in the Capital Times. Gregg also will be a guest on one of Wisconsin Public Radio’s live statewide morning call-in talk shows (Conversations with Joy Cardin) on June 28.

On Thursday, May 10, the students in Environmental Studies 600 – Certificate Seminar presented the final results of their semester long research project to a public forum open to the campus and public communities. The title of their program was the focus of the course: “Private Property and the Environment: Friends or Foes?” The students, seniors in majors ranging from Anthropology to Zoology, compared the perspectives of Wisconsin environmentalists, development and property rights advocates, and people and groups who consider themselves neutral on the issue. They also conducted a case study of the implementation of the Endangered Species Act in Wisconsin. (more…)

When thinking about carbon footprints, most of us don’t consider what is on the dinner table. But we should. By a recent measure, Americans emit more global warming pollution from eating than they do from driving! Focus the Nation sponsor Bon Appetit Management Company is helping educate students, staff and faculty across the country about food impacts on global warming with their Low Carbon Diet.

Read more at: www.focusthenation.org/walkthetalk

The UW-Madison Spatial Information and Analysis Consortium (SIAC) recently held their annual Student Paper Competition. Presentations could be on any topic involving Geographic Information Systems, cartography, GPS, remote sensing, surveying, and closely related geospatial technologies. Natalie Hunt, a Water Resources Management MS student, placed second. Her presentation was titled “Using Spatio-Temporal GIS as a Tool in Treating Metabolic Syndrome Diseases in Adolescents.”

To see a copy of her and the other placed contestant’s abstracts and presentations go to: http://www.siac.wisc.edu/paper_competition.php.

Lewis Gilbert will become interim director of the Nelson Institute on July 1 following the departure of Frances Wesley, who recently announced her resignation as director effective June 30. Gilbert has been the institute’s associate director since 2005. A search committee for Westley’s permanent replacement is expected to be appointed soon.

Other changes at the top:

• Eileen Hanneman will retire this fall. She has been the Nelson Institute’s assistant director since 1993. Her career with the institute began 33 years ago. During that time, she has also been a typist, departmental administrator, and administrative program specialist. One year ago, Hanneman received UW-Madison’s inaugural Martha Casey Award for Dedication to Excellence.

• Professor William Bland (soil science/environmental studies) will take over as chair of the Nelson Institute’s academic programs in July. He succeeds Professor Peter Nowak (rural sociology/environmental studies), who has been the academic chair for the past two years. Nowak will become the Nelson Institute’s first faculty outreach coordinator.

• Professor Sharon Dunwoody (journalism and mass communication/environmental studies) has been elected head of the Nelson Institute’s Academic Planning Council, a position previously held by Westley.