Research

John O'Loughlin awarded NSF grant for the study on the relationship between climate change and support for violence in Kenya

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 19:11:35 +0000

John O'Loughlin awarded NSF grant for the study on the relationship between climate change and support for violence in Kenya Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/18/2024 - 13:11

Professors John O’Loughlin (Professor of Geography and Fellow, Institute of Behavioral Science), Terry McCabe (Fellow, Institute of Behavioral Science and Emeritus Professor of Anthropology) and Andrew Linke (Associate Professor of Geography at University of Utah and former PhD student in Geography) have been awarded $804,990 from the National Science Foundation programs in Human-Environment and Geographical Sciences (HEGS) and Cultural Anthropology for a study on the relationship between climate change and support for violence in Kenya.

Using a geographically-stratified representative sample of 3000 rural Kenyan households in 11 counties (map) for a 5 wave panel survey, guided by in-depth interviews and focus groups of key informants, the project will examine how households adapt to environmental stressors caused by weather changes? Adaptions include the sources of incomes and household contributions, intentions to move, actual migration, increased sharing of scarce resources and political mobilization including protests and violence. The effects of seasonal changes in the weather on attitudes and behavior regarding cooperation or conflict with members of the same group/locale and with other ethnic groups will be examined by looking at the changing roles of formal institutions (national and local governmental), as well as informal institutions (traditional customs and the role of elders). Especially focusing on the levels of food insecurity that vary greatly between livelihoods and counties, the project will also map the level of both governmental and non-governmental aid reaching the communities.

The topic of the effects of climate change in the Global South continues to gain both public and academic interest as its consequences become more evident. Among the expected effects on human livelihoods are growing food insecurity, deteriorating health conditions, increases in migration, and pressures on scarce household resources. Less evident are outcomes that might lead to changes in traditional livelihood practices, including arrangements for sharing of resources; such outcomes could lead to more reliance on cooperative customs. This project on climate change effects will focus on the differential impacts across societal groups and across different ecological and livelihood zones since rural livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa are highly vulnerable to climate and environmental change.

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John O'Loughlin: Growing number of war-weary Ukrainians would reluctantly give up territory to save lives, suggests recent survey

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 18:25:31 +0000

John O'Loughlin: Growing number of war-weary Ukrainians would reluctantly give up territory to save lives, suggests recent survey Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/18/2024 - 12:25

See full article linked here.

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John O'Loughlin: Who supports Putin? Men, older generations and traditionalists, study shows

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Dec 2023 20:46:59 +0000

John O'Loughlin: Who supports Putin? Men, older generations and traditionalists, study shows Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 12/03/2023 - 13:46

Daniel Strain

An international team of researchers has released an exhaustive look at support for Russia’s autocratic President Vladimir Putin across several neighboring countries.

The study, published Nov. 30 in the journal Political Geography, was a massive effort. From 2019 to 2020, researchers led by John O’Loughlin at 91�Թ�� contracted with local polling companies to survey more than 8,400 people face-to-face in six nations: Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Ukraine.

The team’s findings give a deep look at the type of people who support Putin, a former KGB spy who once held a photoshoot of himself riding a horse shirtless. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the results reveal that Putin is more popular among men than women, and less popular among younger and more educated people.

“Our research has shown that Putin’s machismo and his authoritarian personality appeal to people who have more close-minded personalities, hold traditional values and don’t trust science,” said John O’Loughlin, professor in the Institute of Behavioral Science and Department of Geography.

In the former Soviet Union, Putin remains a complicated presence.

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Xiaoling Chen's essay published on China's healthcare workers

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 23:13:52 +0000

Xiaoling Chen's essay published on China's healthcare workers Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/29/2023 - 16:13

Xiaoling Chen's essay titled "‘They Want the Horse to Run but Without Providing Feed’: Labour Exploitation of Healthcare Workers in China" was published in the journal Made In China, as part of the issue "Out of the Fog". Completed in Spring 2023, this essay received generous support from the Gilbert White Doctoral Award granted by the Department of Geography at the 91�Թ��. This essay primarily draws from ethnographic research conducted at Ling County People's Hospital in Guangdong Province between 2021 and 2022. Xiaoling also extends gratitude to the Society of Woman Geographers, and the Geography Department, the Graduate School, and CARTSS at 91�Թ�� for supporting her research activities.

This essay is a part of Xiaoling's hospital monograph, which explores the healthcare provision and access landscape for older Chinese citizens affected by cerebrovascular diseases, the third leading cause of death in China. This monograph is distinct from Xiaoling's dissertation on China's Covid-19 response, which examines three biopolitical projects—digital surveillance (Chen 2023; Chen and Oakes 2023), vaccination campaigns, and online censorship (Chen 2020). Following the completion of her dissertation, Xiaoling intends to conduct follow-up research for this monograph, aiming to present both during- and post-pandemic perspectives within the public hospital space.

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Katie Clifford: 91�Թ�� geographer among inaugural group of public scholars

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 22:38:16 +0000

Katie Clifford: 91�Թ�� geographer among inaugural group of public scholars Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/08/2023 - 16:38

Katherine Clifford, a recent PhD and scientist at the Western Water Assessment, named to American Association of Geographers ‘Elevate the Discipline’ cohort

Katherine (Katie) Clifford, a researcher at the 91�Թ��, is among 15 geographers to be designated as “public scholars” in the realm of climate and society.

The American Association of Geographers (AAG) this month announced the first cohort in its new “Elevate the Discipline” program, which will train and showcase geographers in action—in the media, as voices for public policies and in advocating for change—on this year’s theme of climate and society.

The newly selected participants in 11 states and the West Indies “represent the rich and diverse range of practice within the discipline, including hydroclimatology, political ecology, climate and health, disaster geography, geoinformatics, soil science and more,” the AAG stated.

At the top of the page: Katie Clifford leads a discussion in a climate-adaptation workshop in Wyoming recently. Photo courtesy of Katie Clifford. Above: Katie Clifford

Clifford, who earned her PhD in geography at 91�Թ�� in 2019, is lead social scientist at Western Water Assessment, a research program funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that is under the auspices of the university. It supports “engaged science” to tackle real-world climate adaptation issues across Colorado, Wyoming and Utah.

With a strong background in environment-society geography, Clifford is known for her research illuminating the regulatory challenges and uneven consequences of climate hazards and effects.

Clifford’s work focuses on how frontline communities are uniquely affected by climate hazards, and her findings help diagnose policy loopholes and develop equitable and just adaptation strategies in partnership with communities, the AAG stated.

Her research has explored how the U.S. Clean Air Act has in many ways failed to adapt to increasing dust storms, which often leave Western communities with unsafe air quality. She also is currently working with rural, low income, Latinx and tribal communities on issues of extreme heat, flooding, wildfire and drought.

Clifford said she is honored to be selected “alongside so many talented geographers and know this will make me a better engaged researcher. This fellowship shows that the field of geography invests in and values scholars who are doing work that is actionable and impactful for pressing societal and environmental issues—something that not all disciplines have embraced.”

She added, “This is why I chose to be a geographer: We tackle real-world issues, with a holistic approach that embraces complexity, engage with multiple scales and center questions of equity and justice. Climate change is one of the most pressing issues we face today, and this fellowship harnesses geography’s strengths to make important contributions to policy and practice.”

Fifteen geographers were selected through a competitive process. The program will train them over the next several months in leadership, media skills and policy strategies, and thereafter will promote their work in public discourse.

This is why I chose to be a geographer: We tackle real-world issues, with a holistic approach that embraces complexity, engage with multiple scales and center questions of equity and justice."

“It’s exciting to support the work of these scientists as they engage in community-oriented, justice-based work on climate change,” said Rebecca Lave, AAG’s 2023-24 president and a professor of geography at Indiana University Bloomington, where her specialties include critical physical geography and the political economy of stream restoration.

“We want to open up avenues to value and protect geographers’ opportunity to do public and engaged scholarship.”

The program will be launched this month, with frequent virtual meetings culminating in a week-long intensive training onsite at AAG headquarters in Washington, D.C. Thereafter, AAG will work with the participants and their institutions to continue promoting their public scholarship.

“Geography is essential to understanding and solving the world’s most pressing issues,” said Gary Langham, AAG executive director. “We created Elevate the Discipline to help geographers raise the profile of their work, showing how instrumental our discipline is to addressing climate change and critical social issues.”

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Diego Melo and Colleagues awarded ‘Right to the Discipline’ Grant by The Antipode Foundation

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 19:15:03 +0000

Diego Melo and Colleagues awarded ‘Right to the Discipline’ Grant by The Antipode Foundation Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/17/2023 - 13:15

Diego Melo (CU Geography), Bernardino Mosquera (Río Quito, Chocó) and Juan Diego Espinosa (National University of Colombia) have been awarded one of ten Antipode Foundation “Right to the Discipline” Grants. They will develop a community-based film with Black and White-Mestizo peasant-farmer communities living along the upper Atrato River basin in northwestern Colombia. The project is titled “Living in the wake of a mining disaster: Co-creating film narratives along the Atrato River, from the gold they mined to the skin we inhabit.”

Antipode Foundation “Right to the Discipline” grants are intended to facilitate creative intellectual and political interventions, inventive forms of collaboration, and tears in the fabric of extant orthodoxies in geography. There are many radical practices, ideas, and sites of knowledge production that do not receive support in the current funding environment. These grants encourage imaginative, daring, and unruly scholarship and praxis, including but not limited to workshops, scholar-activism, and conventional modes of research. The Antipode Foundation recognises movements and forces of social and spatial change already at work inside/outside the academy, and wish to amplify interventions that might otherwise not receive funding. In so doing, the Antipode Foundation wants to support attempts to go beyond, and reshape, the boundaries of established academic practice.

Diego and colleagues will facilitate a series of workshops to explore the non-conventional, contradictory, deeply affective, and embodied narratives of people who have been exposed to mining-induced riverine pollution. The 10,000 GBP grant will be used for travel expenses, walk-along interviews, body-territory workshops, a poetry circle, and a script-writing and video editing workshop. These activities will facilitate the tools for participants to build their own narrative and co-produce a film about the slow violence of mechanized gold and copper mining on communities’ bodies and territories.

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John O'Loughlin awarded NSF grant for the study on the relationship between climate change and support for violence in Kenya

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John O'Loughlin: Growing number of war-weary Ukrainians would reluctantly give up territory to save lives, suggests recent survey

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John O'Loughlin: Who supports Putin? Men, older generations and traditionalists, study shows

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Xiaoling Chen's essay published on China's healthcare workers

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Katie Clifford: 91�Թ��� geographer among inaugural group of public scholars

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Diego Melo and Colleagues awarded ‘Right to the Discipline’ Grant by The Antipode Foundation

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Katie Clifford: 91�Թ�� geographer among inaugural group of public scholars