Click here for pictures<\/a> (you will be redirected to Flickr.com)<\/p>\nThis conference provided a venue for graduate students from departments across WSU to present environmental-themed research, for undergraduate students to discuss water issues following a film presented by the WSU Sociology Club, and for colleagues, friends, and family of Dr. Eugene A. Rosa to celebrate his contributions to the Department of Sociology, WSU, and the entire academic community.<\/p>\n
The event began with a very meaningful introduction by James F. Short, Jr., that touched on the history of environmental sociology at WSU, highlighting in particular Dr. Rosa\u2019s contributions to this tradition.\u00a0 Next, Richard York (PhD ’02), one of Dr. Rosa\u2019s many accomplished graduate students and an associate professor at the University of Oregon, provided the keynote address. It drew attention to the limits of relying on \u201cgreen\u201d technologies and improved efficiency to solve contemporary environmental problems, while simultaneously ignoring political and social structures.\u00a0 He brilliantly blended his academic research with easy-to-understand examples (e.g., connecting national energy consumption with personal potato chip consumption).<\/p>\n
Graduate students from academic departments across WSU presented their research in four sessions from about 10:45am to 2:15 pm. These presentations touched on a wide range of planetary boundaries that made up the conference\u2019s theme from climate change to biodiversity loss to changes in land use. All four sessions demonstrated high-quality academic work and stimulated thoughtful questions from the audience. Presenters included: Natalie Boyle (Entomology), Amber Vinchesi (Entomology), Joseph Astorino (Sociology), Sarah Blake (Sociology), Elaine Bodah (Department of Horticulture and Landscape Management), Brian Bodah (Biological Systems), Feng Hao (Sociology), Tiffany Fulkerson (Anthropology), Michelle Edwards (Sociology), Joseph Kremer (Sociology), Michael Lengefeld (Sociology), Sowmya Ramachandran (Plant Pathology), and Scot Hulbert (Plant Pathology). The smooth flow of sessions was made possible by the excellent efforts of the following moderators: Erin Beilstein-Wedel, Lauren Scott, Katie Bittinger, and Elliot Sanchez (all from Sociology).<\/p>\n
In the afternoon, a large crowd gathered to celebrate the academic contributions of Dr. Rosa, while undergraduate students viewed and discussed the documentary film: \u201cFLOW: For the Love of Water\u201d by Irena Salina. The screening and discussion, which was sponsored by the Sociology Club, was attended by approximately 60 students. The discussion centered on what students can do in their daily lives to help preserve water and considered the ethical dilemmas that come into play regarding water usage.<\/p>\n
The celebration of Gene\u2019s life and contributions began with an introduction by Don Dillman, who spoke of Gene\u2019s academic and artistic passions, setting a bright tone for the event. This speech was followed by a video made up of written and spoken comments by Gene\u2019s former graduate students, advisor, colleagues, and friends who reflected on his influence in their lives (created by Erin Beilstein-Wedel). With Don\u2019s thoughtful comments as the emcee providing an easy flow for the event, audience members took turns describing memories of Gene, which resulted in both tears and laughter. Some of Gene\u2019s photos, achievements, and art were also on display to provide a glimpse into the various aspects of his full life.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Inaugural EARThS Honors Scholarship and Professor Eugene Rosa By Michelle Edwards* *The editors thank Michelle L. Edwards (PhD ’13) for providing this article. Michelle is now an assistant professor of sociology at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, for providing this article. The inaugural EARThS Conference organized by Sociology graduate students with interests […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-builder.php","meta":[],"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1443,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1442\/revisions\/1443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=1442"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soc.wsu.edu\/socnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=1442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}