GSCU Student Sydney Clements Named Switzer Fellow For Environmental Studies

July 16, 2024

Sydney Clements ’16 (CLAS), a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography, Sustainability, Community, and Urban Studies, was named a Fellow of the Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation for applied science, academic research, policy, and environmental activism. 

Clements’ research is focused on the intersection of food access, farmer viability, and environmental sustainability. She is currently studying best practices for network food hubs to build a more sustainable and fair local food system in Connecticut.  

The Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation is a national network that identifies and nurtures environmental leaders to create positive environmental change. This year, Clements is one of 24 Switzer Fellows to join the network of over 750 environmental leaders across the United States.  

Story reposted from UConn Today

UConn Hosts Just Transitions Symposium

May 23, 2024

UConn hosted a collaborative platform that brought together scholars, students, and experts from various disciplines. The Just Transitions Symposium aimed to explore themes and strategies for a sustainable and equitable global future, emphasizing the importance of diverse voices and disciplines in addressing climate change.

The idea for the Just Transitions Symposium stemmed from a faculty reading group that explores just transition themes, many of which have their roots in the social sciences and humanities, explained Professor and Head of the Department of Geography and Chair of Atmospheric Sciences Group Anji Seth.

Professor of Geography Carol Atkinson-Palombo drew a parallel between the symposium and this year’s UConn Reads selection, Braiding the Sweet Grass by Robin Wall Kimmerer:

“Thinking on how Wall-Kimmerer frames it, we don’t know what will spark the change, but we need to gather the materials and momentum to fuel the transformation. That is consistent with our role as educators, we are gathering this information to set the stage to think about this transition seriously.”

Learn more about this story on UConn Today.

Weixuan Lyu Wins AAG Peter Gould Award

April 20, 2024

Congratulations to Weixuan Lyu, a Ph.D. candidate in Geography, for winning the Peter Gould Award from the Health and Medical Geography Specialty Group (HMGSG) at the 2024 American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting. This highly competitive award is meant to promote written scholarship by students across the health and medical geography field. Weixuan’s awarded paper is entitled: Beyond Spatial Proximity: Conceptualizing the Perceived Food Activity Space.

Weixuan has also been awarded the Student Travel Award from AAG Environmental Perception and Behavior Geography (EPBG).

Big News for Geography: CLAS adds Two New Departments

March 21, 2024

The UConn Board of Trustees voted at its meeting on Feb. 29 to establish a new department merging the Department of Geography with Urban and Community Studies and providing an administrative home for Environmental Studies.

The new Department of Geography, Sustainability, Community and Urban Studies (GSCU) will draw on existing research and teaching strengths to address interdisciplinary issues in geography, environment, and sustainability.

The other new department is the Department of Social and Critical Inquiry, which will join four units:  American Studies Program, Asian and Asian American Studies, Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program.

Both new departments will be effective as of July 1, and they are set to launch at the beginning of the fall semester.

Learn more on UConn Today.

Learn more on Daily Campus.

Letter from Ken Foote: Announcement of New Department Home for UCS

Urban and Community Studies is now part of a new Department of Geography, Sustainability, Community and Urban Studies.

Over the last three years, our program, the Department of Geography, and the Environmental Studies Program have had very productive talks about bringing our programs together under one roof. The time seemed right to bring these programs together in ways that will strengthen all three.

As we wrote in our proposal to the UConn Board of Trustees that was approved last week, the new department will conduct “community-engaged research and teaching on the urgent environmental, social, and geographical challenges and opportunities faced by communities around the globe in the twenty-first century. Our world class faculty address questions related to sustainability, resilience, health, and social inequities from local to global scales under the converging impacts of rapid climate change and increasing global urbanization,” and that the new department will be “deeply committed to cultivating an inclusive environment for our diverse community of faculty, staff, and students. As part of this commitment, our vision and initiatives are centered around values of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion…to identify pressing environmental and social justice issues facing societies today.”

The creation of this new department will not alter the degree plan you are currently following in our program.  Your degree requirements are governed by the catalog year in which you declared the major or minor.

The name of the program will change on July 1st, but the majors and minors we support will continue to be offered as you move toward graduation.

Over the next 2-3 years the faculty and staff of the new department will work to create new course offerings, perhaps also new or revised majors, minors, and graduate programs, but these changes won’t happen immediately. For now, I just wanted to share this good news and what it shows about UConn’s commitment to our program.

Please let me know if you have questions about these changes. I can be reached by email at ken.foote@uconn.edu

Ken Foote, Director

Urban and Community Studies Program