ostfeld ’10, envs students meet with ct lawmakers

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Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies (and Wes alum) Rosemary Ostfeld, PhD ’10 and her students from ENVS344 / Renewable Energy and Negative Emission Technologies joined with members of the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters (CTLCV) on a visit the state capitol in Hartford earlier this month. Environmental studies majors in the group included Caroline Sgaglione ’19, Catherine Xi ’21 & Maggie Humphrey ’21. While there, Ostfeld and her students discussed renewables, green technologies, and the importance of making the environment a priority with State Reps Michael Winkler & Quentin Phipps and fellow Wesleyan University alums State Senator Matthew Lesser ’08 and State Rep Mike Demicco ’80.

 

coexist t-shirts: now available

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Our first-ever small-batch coexist t-shirts, handcrafted with eco-love. Made with conventionally grown cotton in a zero-waste facility, using 60% less water in production than standard tees (even higher than organic) and printed with eco-friendly inks by Middletown’s own cinder + salt, our soft and stretchy coexist t-shirts are free for our current environmental studies majors with a limited quantity available for $10/each for anyone else! Email me for more info!

poulos researches fire effects in arizona

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Adjunct Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Helen Poulos traveled to Arizona in March 2019 to research fire effects of the 2018 Pinery Canyon Fire on agaves in the Chiricahua Mountains. Poulos is working on the project in collaboration with Wes astronomy major Hunter Vannier ‘20.

While in the Grand Canyon State, Poulos also spent time researching the effects of the 2017 Frye Fire on mixed conifer forests of the Pinaleño Mountains, a project in collaboration with Dr. Don Falk at University of Arizona.

You can read more about Poulos’s research on the 2011 Horseshoe Two Fire in the Chiricahua Mountains, here.

sunrise shines light on the green new deal

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Wes students & faculty learned about the Green New Deal at a Town Hall event here on campus–one of hundreds of events organized nationwide by Sunrise Movement, cofounded by COE alum Evan Weber ‘13. Last night’s event, organized by WesDivest and Wesleyan Climate Action Group and cosponsored by the COE, featured Sunrise Movement rep Lauren Maunus, a senior at Brown U studying enviro science with a focus in environment & inequality. Lauren is on the leadership team of the Energize RI Coalition and the RI Green New Deal Research Council, and helped start Sunrise RI.

 

parker committed to breaking down communication barriers in environmental journalism

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Meaghan ParkerMeaghan Parker, executive director of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ), visited Wesleyan University earlier this month to present “Talking about the Weather: Communicating Complexity in the Era of Climate Change,” an event sponsored by the College of the Environment. As a previous editor at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Parker’s work has a strong focus on actionable ideas that can realistically be implemented in journalism and education. Her talk emphasized the roles that journalists play in environmental education, from raising awareness to holding politicians accountable, and how journalists can be more effective at communicating the intricacies of the environmental movement, current events, and the subtle relationships they often have with each other.

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sher ’07, students seek to improve material development through understanding electron transport

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Meng-ju Sher Group

The research explored here, “Spectroscopic Studies of Hybrid Perovskite Solar Cells,” was undertaken as part of the College of the Environment’s Faculty-Student Research Grant Program, which provides opportunities for faculty and students to work together on research projects.

Meng-ju Renee Sher ’07 is assistant professor of physics, assistant professor of integrative sciences, and assistant professor of environmental studies at Wesleyan University. Sher received her bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan in 2007 and PhD degree from Harvard University in 2013.

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franceschi ’19 exhibits senior thesis photos

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Kudos to art & art history and environmental studies double-major Paul Franceschi ’19, who showcased his senior thesis work, “Frontcountry Principles,” as part of an exhibition at Zilkha Gallery here at Wesleyan, earlier this month.

“One of the more expected ways to engage with the environment through images might be to highlight some kind of devastation that humans have wrought upon the natural world,” says Franceschi. “In my work I’m trying to identify a more subtle but possibly just as worrying impulse: a covering-of-tracks, a hidden curation and regulation of space, a totalization of the landscape. Rather than focusing on a conflict between the natural and human worlds, in my photos I’m trying to frame a kind of virtual reality of landscape, where images of the environment are illusory, malleable, and almost uncanny.”

Franceschi is also one of four environmental studies seniors to be inducted into Wes U’s Gamma Chapater of Phi Beta Kappa this academic year. Read more about the ceremony on News@Wes.