Research & Creative
Finding economic connections in the urban/rural divide
Identifying rural solutions to urban needs, and vice versa, has been a big part of Professor Stephan Weiler’s work for decades. With the Regional Economic Development Institute, Weiler and others are examining the many ways to bridge the urban-rural divide. Whether it’s malting barley, charter school supply and demand, or poverty and incarceration, rural and urban communities can learn from and benefit one another and provide opportunities for more people to succeed.
Order, Authenticity, and Context Collapse: Life in virtual space
The idea that virtual space is a space is much easier to grasp in immersive worlds such as virtual reality (VR), but is that possible when looking at a flat screen with images and text? When you are in a digital conversation with friends or strangers, one-on-one or in a group, supportive or combative, does it feel like a space is holding you all there?
From Nomad’s Land to No Man’s Land: The Historic Transformation of Mediterranean Space and Place
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Mediterranean world was a haven for nomads. They lived side-by-side with farmers and played a prominent role in regional agro-pastoral economies. But mobile pastoralism gradually faded from the Mediterranean landscape of Provence, French colonial Algeria, and Ottoman Anatolia. This new book shows the unlikely role of French scientific foresters, whose efforts at conservation had mixed results for Mediterranean forests and spelled ruin for Mediterranean nomads.
Spring 2019
A liberal arts lens: technology’s role in society past, present, and future
We’re aware of the role technology plays in shaping our individual lives, but how does technology affect and influence our society and our future? The specific skills and tools unique to the liberal arts can provide understanding as well as a way to navigate the ways technology does (or doesn’t) advance the human experience.
Understanding identity in online worlds
What is the difference between ‘real life’ and ‘virtual life’? How do we construct identity? How do we create social norms? For many years, experts have studied how social norms are created, and with the advent of the internet and online gaming, researchers are now exploring the way people interact with, use, and respond to technology as they perform and craft those identities.
Using Geography to Explore Land Policy and Management
Geographers use a variety of technologies to investigate human-environment interactions: remote sensing data, satellite imagery, aerial photographs, lidar, GIS, and fieldwork. But they also engage collaboratively with communities to understand the impact of land-use and land-cover changes, all of which can assist with land policy and management decisions.
College of Liberal Arts Spring 2019 News
Updates, retirements, alumni career data, and award winners from the College of Liberal Arts.