A Publication of Macalester’s
Environmental Studies Department
October 2022
Letter From the Chair
Dear Friends of Environmental Studies,
Welcome back to campus! The first month has been a whirlwind of classes, EnviroThursday talks, field trips, and chances to gather for ice cream and pizza. This is my first turn as chair in the department and it has been great to meet with the steady stream of students flowing into the ES office, both for official business and just stopping by to say hello.
We are lucky to have two continuing full-time visiting faculty with us this year, Anika Bratt and Stotra Chakrabarti. Both bring exciting classes and research approaches to the department, so if you haven’t crossed paths with them yet be sure to seek them out!
Last year we graduated 37 majors and 17 minors, shattering the department’s previous record for largest graduating class and doubling the 2012-2017 average of 18 per year. Of the 2022 graduates, 18 had interdisciplinary emphases and 19 had disciplinary emphases—a good indication of the wide range of your interests and the interdisciplinary breadth of the department. That range is also evident in the winners of last year’s departmental awards. A special congratulations to Christine McCormick and Rachel Percy, winners of the ES Citizenship Award; Matthea Najberg, winner of the ES Scholarship Award; and Wei-Chieh (Jarita) Chen, the inaugural winner of our new Environmental Justice award. These students reflect the very best of the thoughtfulness, passion, and skill that all of you bring to the major. A profound thank you to them for the positive mark that they left at Macalester.
Rapid growth has both benefits and challenges, though even the challenges are overshadowed by the larger events of the last few years. These have included not only tumultuous national politics and an overdue racial reckoning, but also an ongoing global pandemic, with its Zoom Mods, social distancing, and masking. In this context we have been working as a department to make sure that all students are supported and to ensure a sense of community and belonging. I sent an update recently to the department on our anti-racism and justice work, which I encourage you to read if you haven’t already. Here I will just offer my thanks to Dheera Yalamanchili, who is continuing her work this year as the department’s anti-racism fellow. I encourage you to be in touch with her (and with ES faculty) with your ideas and aspirations, and to look for communication from her about how to be involved in the peer mentoring program and other opportunities for engagement that she is organizing.
Finally, I encourage you to read the updates in this newsletter from each faculty member. You should be proud of the great faculty and staff in this department. You already know about the terrific work that they do in the classroom but may be less familiar with other parts of their work and lives, which include an impressive range of scholarly work, collaborations with students and community groups, activism, community service, and family adventures. They are an impressive group and amazing colleagues.
As always, keep us posted on your exciting news and drop by the office to say hello if you find yourself nearby.
Chris Wells
Chair, Environmental Studies
First Inaugural ES Alumni Happy Hour
Interested in catching up with old friends, talking with current professors, or networking with other alums from the Environmental Studies Department? Join us for our inaugural ES alumni happy hour on Tuesday, November 15, from 5-7 pm in Olin-Rice 243 (drinks and light appetizers provided). No RSVP required, but if you know you’re coming, email Ann Esson ([email protected]) to help us figure out how much food and drink to provide. We hope that you can join us!
Environmental Studies Student Award Winners
Jarita Chen, Matthea Najberg, Christine McCormick and Rachel Percy
The 2022 Environmental Studies Student Award winners are:
- Environmental Studies Justice Award – Jarita Chen ’22
- Environmental Studies Scholarship Winner – Matthea Najberg ’22
- Environmental Studies Citizenship Award Winners – Christine McCormick ’22 and Rachel Percy ’22
These Environmental Studies majors also won awards in 2022:
- Christine McCormick ’21 and Dheera Yalamanchili ’23—Ann Bolger Vision Award
- Alex Thomas ’22—Global Citizenship Student Award
Year in Photos
Sustainability Update
By Ellen Gurrola, Sustainability Coordinator
The Sustainability Office has been going through some significant changes. The office is now reporting directly to Facilities Services. There are many advantages that come with being able to closely collaborate with Facilities Services towards Macalester’s goals for zero waste, environmental justice, and carbon neutrality. Another significant change is Dr. Christie Manning resigned from her Director of Sustainability role to return to teaching in the Environmental Studies Department. The Sustainability Office achieved too many accomplishments to list all of them under the direction of Dr. Manning. However, a few standout achievements included an ASHEE Gold Star Rating, a Bike Friendly University Silver Rating, and prizes of 1st Place for Total Diversion and a Waste Minimization Case Study through Recyclemania. The Sustainability Office will continue to work closely with Facilities to improve and maintain many of the current sustainability initiatives on campus, which includes the bike program, the Free Swap (with a new epoxy floor), the Community Gardens, and 1550 Summit (move out items).
The office is currently under the guidance of Ellen Gurrola who started in April of 2022 as Sustainability Coordinator. Ellen joined Macalester after being a public school science teacher for ten years. She is almost finished pursuing her Master’s in Natural Science and Environmental Education through Hamline University. She enjoys her new position and is continually impressed by the commitment and passion Macalester students have towards Sustainability. Beginning in January of 2023 Dr. Megan Butler will assume the role of Sustainability Director at Macalester. Dr. Butler received her PhD in Natural Resources Science and Management from the University of Minnesota. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Lake Superior State University.
EnviroThursdays
There were 14 EnviroThursday presentations during the 2021-22 school year with over 514 in attendance.
- “Animate” by Lucas Erickson from On Stage
- “Defining a 21st Century Relationship for the Metro Mississippi River” by Dr. John Anfinson, former Mississippi National River and Recreation Area Superintendent
- “2021 Smail Gallery Exhibition Opening: Resilience – Looking Towards a Post-Pandemic Future and the Ephemeral Moments Throughout ”
- “Reimagining Restoration: Grasslands Under Global Change” by Daniel Hernández, Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at Carleton College
- “What’s in the Water? Using Molecular and Ecological Approaches to Improve Disease Surveillance” by Karena Ha Nguyen, Postdoctoral Fellow with the Fellowships in Research and Science Teaching (FIRST) Program at Emory University in Atlanta, GA
- “COP26: Behind the Scenes and Stories” by Panel of Macalester Faculty and Staff
- “Earth Body” by Prof. Devavani Chatterjea, Biology Department Macalester College, and Donna Sternberg, Choreographer
- “Is This the End of Night?” by Paul Bogard, Associate Professor of English, Hamline University
- “The Twin Cities Boulevard: Rethinking I-94 for Racial, Economic and Environmental Justice” by Alex Burns, Transportation Policy Coordinator at Our Streets Minneapolis
- “Lion Rangers: Community Conservation of the Desert-Adapted Lions” by John Heydinger, Co-founder of the Lion Rangers
- “The Nature of Shoreham Yards” by Gudrun Lock
- “Accelerating Climate Resilience in Minnesota and Beyond” by Dr. Heidi Roop, Assistant Professor of Climate Science and Climate Change and Adaptation Extension Specialist at the University of Minnesota
- Environmental Studies Honors Presentations – “Land is Life: Settler Colonial Governance of National Parks and Hunting in Taiwan” by Jarita Chen ’22 and “The Abolitionist Presence of Food in Oakland, CA Food Deserts” by Ayize James ’22
- “Fighting for Clean Water: Protecting Lake Superior and the Boundary Waters from Copper Sulfide Mining” by Maya Swope ’18, Outreach and Volunteer Coordinator, Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness
You can read more about these presentations on the EnviroThursday home page. Click on the Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 links. EnviroThursdays take place every Thursday during the school year in Olin-Rice 250 at 12 noon.
Environmental Studies Faculty News
Prof. Louisa Bradtmiller
Louisa was on sabbatical in Fall 2021, which was a welcome break. She worked on research, traveled, and took a lot of walks! In November she traveled with a group of faculty and staff to the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP 26) in Glasgow, Scotland, to observe negotiations aimed at reducing global carbon emissions. It was her first time at a COP meeting, and she was fascinated (and a little overwhelmed) to see these negotiations happening up close and in real time. In Spring 2022, Louisa taught Earth’s Climate System to another delightful group of ES majors – because of the large and growing number of majors, most of the core courses have been effectively limited to ES majors in recent years.
Louisa continues to conduct paleoceanographic research and was happy to be able to work with a student in the lab again in the summer of 2022. She and her student collaborator measured biogenic silica content in ~1 million-year-old sediments from the Southern Ocean as part of an ongoing project to understand how upwelling in this region has been impacted by and important to changes in climate on long timescales. As a side project, they also measured some samples from the North Atlantic as part of a newer project seeking to understand changes in the Gulf Stream and their relationship to climate, nutrient distribution, and heat transport in the past 1.5 million years.
Over the summer Louisa was also able to travel a bit with her family, in addition to enjoying the summer in the twin cities. Family camp in northern Minnesota was a highlight, as usual, especially because she and the kids were joined by her brother (Macalester ’05!) and niece. At the end of the summer, Louisa attended the International Conference on Paleoceanography in beautiful Bergen, Norway. She presented research conducted with a previous Macalester summer research student, and enjoyed reuniting with colleagues after several years of virtual meetings. Louisa is looking forward to a hopefully more ‘normal’ year of teaching in 2022/23.
Prof. Anika Bratt
Last year, Anika taught ‘Sustainable Cities: Urban Environmental Science’ both in the fall and spring. Across both semesters, students conducted group research projects that yielded interesting insights on redlining impacts across the Twin Cities Metro Area and other US Cities like Chicago. Students projects included: impacts of redlining on groundwater nitrate (a common water pollutant), transit availability and tree diversity. In the spring, Anika also co-taught Ecology and the Environment with Dr. O’Connell. It was fun and challenging to teach! She infused some extra Urban Ecology into the course and has enjoyed starting to teach it again this fall.
Anika began an exciting new collaboration with Drs. Naima Starkloff (Emery University), Jessica Worl (Davidson College), and Jacqueline Gerson (Michigan State University) studying the impacts of mercury emissions from artisanal gold mining on the human food-web in Kakamega, Kenya. This summer, we completed our first field season, surveying locals on mining practices and food sources, as well as collecting data on local mercury emissions, and mercury concentrations in crops and song birds. Anika plans to bring Macalester students on another field season in the next few years.
Over the summer, Anika also collaborated with ES majors Alex Jabbarpour, Ahmed Abdalla Ahmed, and CJ Denney to study the impacts of redlining on water quality across Minneapols and Saint Paul in collaboration with Dr. Paula Furey at St. Catherine University and the new Urban Long Term Ecological Research site housed by the University of Minnesota. We surveyed small lakes and ponds for nitrogen, phosphorus, and harmful algal blooms. We also mined data from the Minnesotoa Pollution Control Agency for historical datasets on nitrogen and phosphorus in local lakes. We found that redlined neighborhoods have higher concentrations of both water pollutants. Data on algal blooms is forthcoming. Alex and Ahmed presented these data at the Summer Showcase in September.
Prof. Stotra Chakrabarti
Stotra is a Visiting Professor of Animal Behavior appointed across Environmental Studies and Biology Departments since August 2021. Since he has joined, he has curated, developed and taught five cross-listed courses (2 upper-level courses with labs and 2 upper-level seminar courses). The courses he has developed and taught are 1. Animal Behavior: Fundamentals and Applications (with lab), 2. Wildlife Monitoring Techniques (with lab), 3. Wildlife Conservation in the Anthropocene, and 4. Wildlife Disease Ecology. His courses often include hands-on experiences for students – observing and working closely with wildlife such as wolves, bears, pumas and deer, and overnight field trips to Ely. His Animal Behavior class was featured on Macalester News as a spotlight. He has also received the Educator of the Year Award from the Academic Affairs Committee, a college level award nominated by students for 2021-2022.
Besides teaching, his research work through the year include:
- Peer-reviewed published papers (one as a lead author and the other as the organizing author) on wolf population status in Minnesota and the other on wolf behavior and personality.
- Lead-author book chapter (in press) on Social Correlates of Asiatic lion behavior for a Springer Nature Publication.
- Preprints that includes a suite of international collaborators looking at a) Prioritizing areas to safeguard biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services and human wellbeing in India, and b) understanding wolf-human-deer interactions through experimental manipulations with a graduate mentee in Michigan
- Op-ed on the recent Cheetah Introduction to India
- Traveling to India to initiate behavior and conservation research projects with Asiatic lions – his long-term study site
- Mentoring two summer research students (who are now continuing as Research Associates) working on lion diet from Tsavo (Kenya) and wolf-beaver interactions from Voyageurs in Northern Minnesota
Prof. Jerald Dosch
This fall Jerald started his 19th year at Macalester with continuing roles in both the Environmental Studies and Biology Departments as well as continuing to serve as Director of Macalester’s Ordway Field Station. His 2022-23 teaching schedule includes Outdoor Environmental Education (OEE) and its lab as well as Ornithology and its lab. Jerald’s very excited to welcome hundreds of elementary school children back to Ordway for field days this autumn at which the Macalester OEE students teach the children.
Jerald again spent this past summer working at Ordway conducting ecological research and land management activities. It was wonderful to share those experiences with Mike Anderson and several Macalester students again after two years of not being able to work collaboratively due to the pandemic. Along with Mary Heskel and Mike Anderson from the Biology Department, Jerald and five Macalester alumni who worked at Ordway are co-authors on a new Ordway based research paper just published this month.
This year Jerald was awarded a Macalester Trustee Award for excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service.
Prof. Christie Manning
Christie returned to full-time teaching this fall after spending two years as Macalester’s Director of Sustainability. She is very glad to be back in the classroom. Christie’s teaching schedule this year includes Psychology of Sustainable Behavior and Environmental Classics in the fall, and Environmental Justice, the Environmental Leadership Practicum, and another section of Environmental Classics in the spring.
Last fall (2021), Christie enjoyed her very first sabbatical. In addition to finally cleaning out the basement and putting many miles on her bike, she managed to make progress on several research projects. One, a report from the American Psychological Association and ecoAmerica, Mental Health and our Changing Climate, was published last November. She also co-authored an article in Ecopsychology describing Minnesota mental health professionals’ need for training and resources as patients and clients increasingly report worries about climate change.
Prof. Dan Hornbach
Dan is on Macalester’s phased retirement program and continues his research. He currently is working with folks from the St. Anthony Falls Lab of the UMN and the USGS to examine methods to locate and quantify zebra mussels in lakes and native mussels in rivers. He spent time this past summer on Macalester’s pontoon boat sampling White Bear Lake and the St. Croix River.
He was a co-author on a paper with a former Mac student, Shannon Hahn, and authors from 15 other institutions from across the world including Canada, Ireland, Switzerland, Sweden, and Australia. The paper examined temperature distribution in small ponds which are important in global biogeochemical cycling. Shannon and Dan collected data from ponds at the Katharine Ordway Natural History Study Area.
Dan’s daughter Kelsey, a former Macalester ES minor, had her second child in February (Henry). Dan has enjoyed spending time with Henry and his 5 other grandchildren in Chicago and Durham, NC.
Prof. Christine O’Connell
Christine is on maternity and sabbatical leave for this school year.
Prof. Roopali Phadke
Roopali handed the department chair reins over to Chris this year. She is teaching the senior capstone course (Environmental Leadership Practicum) and Environmental Politics & Policy this Fall. She had a full research lab this summer, with the help of Nili Barnoon, Romeo Gomes and Amber Wiedenhoeft. They spent much of the summer running focus groups on the Mississippi River. You can read about their project here. Roopali has taken on a few new roles on campus this year, including serving as Associate Director of the Center for Scholarship and Teaching. In this capacity, among her tasks is hosting a reading group on the book Why Fish Don’t Exist (ES alums will love this book!).
Prof. Chris Wells, Chair
Chris is beginning his first year as department chair, which has had the unexpected benefit of getting to connect with a steady stream of new majors. This fall he is teaching US Environmental History and US Urban Environmental History, and in the spring he will teach Consumer Nation: Twentieth-Century American Consumer Culture alongside a new upper-level
topics course on environmental justice called Unequal Burdens. Over the summer he worked his way through the final page proofs and index for his new book, Nature’s Crossroads: The Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota, which he co-edited with George Vrtis, the environmental historian at Carleton College. After nearly a decade of managing this collaborative project, which includes the work of nineteen different contributors, it will be a real treat to have the final book in hand sometime next month.