LACS/PAIS Event -- March 16

LACS/PAIS Event

It would be great to see geography faculty and students -- especially those who have studied or visited Latin America, at this event. Those who took Geography of Latin America last fall will remember that Dr. Shanahan was an excellent guest speaker! In general, these reflections on the literature of the realm can help us to understand its cultural geography.

Incidentally, LACS is soon changing its name to Pan-American and Iberian Studies (PAIS) to reflect the broader scope of studies taking place at BSU.

Storied Lives: New Frontiers in Latin American and Caribbean History and Fiction

We cordially invite you to join us for a LACS symposium featuring brilliant new scholarship from BSU faculty

March 16, 10:00-11:30, Small Ballroom, RCC.

Refreshments will be served.  Open to students, faculty, and staff.

                                 

Featured lecturers are:

"Pushing Gender Boundaries? Dancehall, Migration and Trade in Contemporary Jamaican Culture” – Dr. Diana Fox, Acting Chair, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology

"Domestic Relations: Gender, Household, and Nation in Latin American History since 1850" – Dr. Erin O’Connor, Department of History

“La Frontera as Creative Space for Artistas Chicanas” – Dr. Jenny Shanahan, Director, Office of Undergraduate Research

 Moderator: Dr. Leora Lev, Department of Foreign Languages, Coordinator of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program

  

Sponsored by the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program

Contact Information:  Prof. L. Lev at x2449

DEP Summer Internships - March 15 Deadline

Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
Summer 2011 Summer Internship Opportunities
Application Deadline: March 15


Our department strongly encourages students to pursue internship and research opportunities because they deeply enhance learning while enhancing prospects for future employment. Students who have not yet done so should visit the Office of Career Services Office and the CSO web site for information about finding and preparing for internships. The office maintains a database of opportunities that students should check frequently.


Thanks to Internship Adviser Debra London for sharing a whole set of internship opportunities that should be of special interest to geography students. A variety of internships are available in various offices of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, and geography students are well-positioned to apply for several of them. Internships are not paid, but academic credit can be earned. 


Please note the application deadline immediately after Spring Break.

Contemporary Slavery: March 2

It is estimated that there are at least 27 million people living in slavery around the world today.

The Social Justice League at BSU has organized an informative presentation combining guest and student speakers, theatrical performances, slide shows, brief film clips, and discussion to raise awareness about the issue of modern day slavery.

AMIRAH Boston, an organization that provides shelters for females refugees in the Boston area, will join us to present about their work and how they have been helping thousands of women who have been displaced from their homes due to human trafficking, slavery, and other related causes.


Wednesday, March 2
7:00 PM
Moakley Center Auditorium
Bridgewater State University
This event is sponsored by the Social Justice League and the Christian Fellowship at BSU. Learn more at the event page on Facebook.

Coffee, Sustainability, and a Catchy Tune

In late 2010, students in BSU's Master in Public Administration program interviewed Dr. Hayes-Bohanan about coffee and sustainability. For those who watch the entire interview, there is an amusing treat at the very end.

GIS position

Overview:
FM Global is a leading property insurer of the world's largest businesses, providing more than one-third of FORTUNE 1000-size companies with engineering-based risk management and property insurance solutions. FM Global helps clients maintain continuity in their business operations by drawing upon state-of-the-art loss-prevention engineering and research; risk management skills and support services; tailored risk transfer capabilities; and superior financial strength. To do so, we rely on a dynamic, culturally diverse group of employees, working in more than 100 countries, in a variety of challenging roles.

Responsibilities:
Entry- to mid-level GIS Specialist to work as part of a GIS team. Participate in corporate projects and related activities to provide assistance in advancing the utilization of GIS technologies, processes and procedures. Take a proactive role in representing and promoting the GIS vision within the company. Assist with a variety of GIS applications and projects, assist in selecting and acquiring the appropriate geospatial data and technology for spatial analysis. Participate in the development of corporate GIS web and desktop tools by providing programming assistance for delivered tools and provide technical/operational support.

Qualifications:
Associate Degree/Diploma/Certificate in GIS, Geography, or a related discipline with a strong focus in GIS. 4+ years GIS Specialist experience, including data development, analysis, and cartography. Knowledge of GIS related concepts, products and geospatial industry. Basic knowledge of programming utilizing Visual Basic and/or VB.NET a plus. Must have strong project and time management skills, excellent written and oral communication skills, and organizational skills.

Apply for this job online:
https://jobs-fmglobal.icims.com/jobs/3340/job

Geographers of Coffee

L-R: Geography majors Anne Williams and Nicole Petit;

Geography minors Ryan Dexter-Hansen and Nikki Sauber;

Geography Professor James Hayes-Bohanan

BSU geographers posed with a relief map in the museum at the Parque Nacional Volcán Masaya yesterday, near the end of the department's fifth study tour in Nicaragua. The subject of the study tour is the Geography of Coffee, which integrates human and physical geography. The trip included visits both to active volcanoes Masaya and Cerro Negro and dormant volcanoes in the heart of the coffeelands of Matagalpa and Jinotega.

As the students in the course learned, fine coffees are found on rich, volcanic soils throughout the world.

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY available in the spring

Note from Dr. Hayes-Boh:
Are you looking for a spring-semester course that counts toward the geography departmental electives? Are you interested in how economies work? Do you want to recommend a truly excellent course to a friend from another discipline? One of our very talented visiting lecturers (and a BSU geography graduate) Prof. Phil Birge-Liberman is offering a dynamic, challenging, and informative course in economic geography.


The description and objectives from his syllabus are provided below. Here is Hayes-Boh's shorter definition: Economics without the limiting assumptions.


Sign up today, and learn how the world really works.
~~JHB


GEOG 350: Economic Geography
Professor Phil Birge-Liberman
Class Meetings: Wednesday 1:50pm-4:30pm
Spring 2011

This course examines some of the historical and contemporary factors that shape the global economy and current spatial economic order. This entails studying processes—such as economic restructuring, changing production systems, and the internationalization of trade and industry as well as studying the role of various actors in the economy— including states, producers, organized labor and consumers. We will unpack the term ‘globalization,’ which is so widely used to explain contemporary economic relations and explore the causes, effects, representations, contradictions, costs and benefits of globalization.  We will begin the course by discussing economic geography as a concept, sub-discipline and discourse. We will then study the historical development of the capitalist economy, including the role of new technology in changing production systems and the geography of firms. We will learn that economic change is accompanied by increasing inequality both across and within regions. This will lead to a discussion of economic development as a product of globalization. According to the World Bank, 2.8 billion people live on less than $2 a day. We will explore the contradictions of globalization marked by record corporate executive earnings at the same time as falling real wages for the average worker; new technologies that improve production and yet inefficient and uneven distribution; U.S. economic dominance and yet a shortage of secure well- paid jobs in the United States. The course will conclude with an examination of the current challenges facing the global economy including the greening of the economy and the role of consumption in changing our society.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• To develop an understanding of the political economy approach within economic geography.
• To connect the historical development of the capitalist economy to contemporary shifts in the spatial organization of production and consumption.
• To critically analyze globalization and be able to explore the connections between economic,
political and social processes shaping our globe.
• To examine how local and regional economies are implicated in global economic restructuring.
• To investigate the causes and patterns of spatial inequality.
• To develop critical thinking skills to examine the world around us and representations thereof.

Student Help w/ US Environmental Protection Agency - Narragansett, RI

Current Status: Solicitation posted December 14, 2010. All responses are due 01/03/11, 12:00 p.m., ET. See the Announcement file at the website for more information.

Brazil's Rising Star

Nobody who has been around the BSU Geography Department the past few years is likely to be surprised by the 60 Minutes segment on Brazil that aired yesterday, in which Steve Kroft described the achievements -- and challenges -- of this rising power. From its remarkable economic growth and narrowing social chasm to its upcoming role as host of the World Cup and Olympics, this 13-minute video makes the case that we already understand in the BSU Geography Department: learning about Brazil is as important as it is enjoyable.

In the past decade, BSU has received two grants from the prestigious Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) of the U.S. Department of Education and CAPES, its Brazilian counterpart. The first of these was in the area of special education (under the leadership of Dr. Lidia Silveira) and the second in geography (with Dr. James Hayes-Bohanan). The grants allowed for in-coming and out-going, semester-long exchanges with university partners in southern Brazil, and greatly enriched our campus.

In June 2011, we will build on this experience to provide BSU's first short-term study tour to Brazil. Dr. Hayes-Bohanan will lead a tour that explores the changes taking place in several key areas of Brazil, from coffee (in which "Brazilian gourmet coffee" is no longer a joke) to modern manufacturing and from transportation planning to hydroelectric power. More details about this trip will be available from the Office of Study Abroad in early January.

If the 60 Minutes segment whets your appetite to learn more about the dynamism that is today's Brazil, check out the Discovery Atlas DVD set that is available at the Maxwell Library Circulation Desk. It includes one DVD each on Brazil, China, Australia, and Italy. The Brazil volume illustrates the geographic variety of the country by focusing on the stories of seven very different individuals from disparate corners of the country. (Call number: PN1995.9.T73 D57 2007)

Reminiscence

Paulo Vela is one of eleven Brazilian students to have spent a semester at BSC (now BSU) as part of the department's US-Brazil Consortium on Urban Development, which was jointly supported by the United States Department of Education FIPSE program and CAPES, its Brazilian counterpart. Dr. Hayes-Bohanan will be leading a short-term study tour in Brazil next June. Details will be posted here in coming weeks.

The academic results of these exchanges (in which many of BSC students also spent semesters in Brazil) have been numerous, including regional and national conference presentations in both countries. Today we learned of an artistic legacy as well, as Paulo posted a music video based on his experience. The title can be translated as "Where I Walked" and it captures beautifully the joy of learning a new place.



(Go to YouTube for larger image.)