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Wednesday, May 16th, 2012
Forest ecologist receives distinguished award
David Mladenoff, the Beers-Bascom Professor in Conservation in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, has received the 2012 Distinguished Landscape Ecologist Award.
Wednesday, May 16th, 2012
Nelson Institute class of 2012: Q&A with graduating students
Nearly 200 environmental studies students are just days away from becoming the newest alumni of the Nelson Institute, energized by the possibilities of a more sustainable future and their role in building it.
We caught up with eight graduating members of Nelson Institute undergraduate and graduate-level academic programs to ask about their fields of study, highlights from their time at the university, and advice for students following in their paths.
Wednesday, May 16th, 2012
William Cronon and Donald Waller: Conservation in the Anthropocene
On the afternoon of May 10, the cramped hall on the fourth floor of Memorial Union hummed with the energy of more than a hundred enthralled minds.
For the first time since “The Great Wilderness Debate” of the 1990s, two University of Wisconsin-Madison luminaries, William Cronon, the Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas Research Professor of history, geography and environmental studies, and Donald Waller, professor of botany and environmental studies, sat down to discuss some of the key points from that debate and modernize it for today’s political and environmental reality.
Monday, May 14th, 2012
Shalini Kantayya: Storytelling and activism in the new environmental movement
On a rainy day in March in Madison, filmmaker Shalini Kantayya sat down with us to discuss her views on the environmental movement, the power of storytelling and strategies for moving forward.
Actually, Kantayya does not consider herself an environmentalist, but an eco-activist.
She feels that this term is more inclusive, and it doesn't separate the planet from the people. But the difference is more than one of semantics because it belies a shift that is underway in the environmental movement, toward what's being called the Third Wave of Environmentalism.
This shift is an emphasis on solutions instead of reactive regulations. From Kantayya's point of view it has the capacity for energizing the mainstream by reframing environmental issues into issues of social justice, economics, racism and sexism. And this is exactly where her work finds meaning within the movement.
Friday, May 11th, 2012
Finding your passion through internships and study abroad: Lessons from student Joe Shook
Joe Shook can attest to the value of major and career exploration.
“Students shouldn’t settle into one mind set or one academic track to the point where they exclude other opportunities," said the University of Wisconsin-Madison junior. "I came in as an engineering major and decided that it wasn’t where I belonged. I went to landscape architecture and decided that field wasn’t for me either and switched my major again.”
Tuesday, May 8th, 2012
Assistant professor Monica White hired to lead environmental justice teaching and outreach
Monica White has been named assistant professor of environmental justice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a new position created and shared by the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.
Monday, May 7th, 2012
Bhutan Minister Yeshe Zimba: Environment is top priority
Who better to give a keynote address at a conference focused on sustainability, security and happiness on a finite planet than a leader from Bhutan? With its alternative economic measure of "gross national happiness," the small Himalayan kingdom has been showing the world how to grow sustainably and how to monitor success based on happiness rather than finances.
The Doris Duke Fellows had the honor of speaking with Lyonpo Yeshe Zimba, Minister of Works and Human Settlement and former Prime Minister of Bhutan, following his address at the sixth annual Nelson Institute Earth Day conference April 16.
Speaking in a metered tone, with a diplomatic presence, his statements were straightforward and clear. The things he said made so much sense that it was easy to miss how the development he is enacting is so profoundly different from the path most of the world’s nations are on.
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012
Juliet Schor: Environmentalism through the lens of consumers
As Doris Duke Fellows, we have been charged with engaging in environmental leadership in our communities. Sometimes, this means figuring out how to integrate seemingly disparate ideas and tell an interesting and compelling story. At the Nelson Institute’s Earth Day Conference on April 16, we found ourselves in just that position. We spoke with several guests in rapid-fire succession, all of whom had unique and fascinating takes on the idea of happiness and our connection with the world around us.
Juliet Schor, author of True Wealth, The Overworked American, and The Overspent American and a professor of sociology at Boston College, generously spoke with us at the conference and provided a really interesting way of thinking about the environmental movement through the lens of how we choose to act as consumers.
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012
Lion Guardians project led by Nelson alumna wins St Andrews Prize for the Environment
Lion Guardians, an innovative project led by Nelson Institute alumna Leela Hazzah and Ph.D. candidate Stephanie Dolrenry in Kenya, has won this year’s St Andrews Prize for the Environment.
Tuesday, May 1st, 2012
Nelson Institute students win Burrill Business Plan Competition
Aleia McCord and Sarah Stefanos, both graduate students in the Nelson Institute Environment and Resources and Humans and the Global Environment programs, won the $10,000 top prize in the Wisconsin School of Business G. Steven Burrill Business Plan Competition on April 27.
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