On February 2, 2022, the College of the Environment hosted Atlas of the Invisible: Maps and Graphics that Will Change How You See the World, via zoom, featuring speakers James Cheshire and Oliver Uberti. Cheshire is a professor of geographic information and cartography in London, and Uberti is a designer who helps scientists translate their data into memorable visuals. The duo authored a book of the same name, Atlas of the Invisible (W.W. Norton, 2021), filled with data maps that visualize important issues and tell valuable stories about our planet. The Chicago Tribune called the book, “A cartographer’s dream, and often revelatory.”
events
coe sponsored and cosponsored events. A full list of upcoming events can be found on FB @wesleyancoe or IG @wes_coe.
wagner explores climate policy through econ lens
Climate economist Gernot Wagner shared his views on the current state of U.S. and global climate policy during a public virtual event sponsored by the College of the Environment on October 20.
wes celebrates the return of pumpkin fest!
On Saturday, October 16, members of the Wesleyan and greater Middletown communities attended the student-organized 2021 Pumpkin Fest at Long Lane Farm. The event was made possible with support from the College of the Environment and the Green Fund.
forklift, wes workers collab on wesworks
On October 14 & 15, 2021, Forklift Danceworks presented WesWorks, a performance celebrating the skilled movement and telling the often unheard stories of the people whose work sustains the daily lives of the Wesleyan campus.
WesWorks (2021) featured the movement and stories of Wesleyan U employees as directed by Forklift Danceworks of Austin, Texas, led by Artistic Director Allison Orr, Distinguished Fellow in the College of the Environment and Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, with Forklift choreographer and programs manager Gretchen LaMotte ’18.
levan ’22 indulges appetite for entomophagy
Every year, the COE awards fellowships to fund summer research opportunities for Wesleyan students across all majors and class years. Megan Levan ’22 is an environmental studies and South Asia studies in a global context (university major) major who was recently elected Wesleyan’s Gamma Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Megan’s research this summer centered on how edible insect-based products are being promoted by companies and received by consumers in countries not known for their entomophagic practices. Megan believes diets of the future will need to be supplemented with other available protein sources, and her research explored how insects fit into the picture.
where on earth are we going: examining glacier-related flood events
The development of glacial lakes from receding glaciers, contained by either terminal moraines or bedrock, is commonly linked with global warming trends that have occurred since the end of the Little Ice Age (LIA). Such lakes are prone to sudden and catastrophic drainage, popularly known as glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF). Although GLOFs continue to dominate the focus of both peer reviewed and popular media articles alike, a range of other cryospheric processes and hazards exist that are in need of further research attention and mitigation technologies.
Join Alton C. Byers, PhD, the 2021-22 Menakka and Essel Bailey ’66 Distinguished Visiting Scholar in the College of the Environment and a member of our 2021-22 COE Think Tank, for Recent Glacier-Related Flood Events in High Mountain Environments, a multimedia discussion of englacial conduit floods, periodic and recurrent flooding of lakes created by glacier- or ice-dammed lakes, permafrost-linked rockfall and debris flows, and earthquake-linked glacier floods. This event is the latest in the COE’s annual Where on Earth Are We Going? seminar series, sponsored by the Robert F. Schumann Institute of the College of the Environment. The event is a direct tie-in with this year’s COE Think Tank theme of visualizing environmental change. The event takes place Saturday, October 30, 2021, from 11 am to noon at Exley Science Center (Room 150) on the Wesleyan Campus.
how to think like an afrofuturist with ingrid lafleur
On April 17, 2021, the College of the Environment welcomed Ingrid LaFleur for her lecture “How to Think LIke an Afrofuturist.” LaFleur is the founder of The Afrofuturist Strategies Institute (TASI) and a globally recognized curator, design innovationist, pleasure activist, and Afrofuturist committed to exploring and implementing forward-thinking solutions across multidisciplinary industries including but not limited to art, technology, education, social enterprise, and finance. Her extended biography can be read on her website.