Announcements

Professor Nathan Sayre Publishes "Corn and the range: rethinking ranching, agriculture and the feedlot"

December 11, 2023

Professor Nathan Sayre has published a new paper in the Journal of Peasant Studies on the history and political ecology of the feedlot in US livestock production. The key takeaway is that for over a century, corn-fed beef was sustained without chemical fertilizers, relying on a closed nutrient loop rather than the metabolic rift that defines the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) of today. This history is completely missing from current...

Associate Professor Brandi Summers Named Interim Director of ISSI

December 15, 2023

ISSI Director Stephen Small will be on sabbatical during spring semester, researching his new book on Black Liverpool. Brandi T. Summers, Associate Professor of Geography, has agreed to serve as Interim Director until Professor Small’s return on July 1, 2024. Summers is currently a member of the ISSI Advisory Committee and has been deeply involved with ISSI for a few years, including serving as a respondent for ISSI Graduate Fellows.

Professor Emeritus Michael Watts Awarded Ester Boserup Prize

December 20, 2023

Congratulations to Professor Emeritus Michael Watts, who received the Ester Boserup Prize for outstanding development research! The prize is awarded by the Copenhagen Centre for Development Research, a virtual centre connecting researchers from different disciplines, especially from the University of Copenhagen.

The Ester Boserup Prize is awarded to a scholar whose research has improved and deepened our knowledge of development...

Geography Professor Emerita Gillian Hart Publishes Paper on Antipode Online

January 31, 2024

Professor Emerita Gillian Hart's latest paper, Progeny of Empire: Defining Moments of Nation Formation in South Africa and Palestine/Israel, aims to confront and counter the equation of antisemitism and anti-Zionism by recognizing the value of—but also reaching beyond—the apartheid analogy by situating both South Africa and Palestine/Israel in a global comparative and spatio-historical frame. Using Hart's South African Jewish roots, the paper focuses on how South Africa and Palestine/Israel have been forged as...

Ally Matheson, Geography Undergrad, Chosen for Virginia Tech Internship

April 26, 2024

Ally Matheson, Geography undergraduate, has been hired as a summer research assistant for the Dayer Lab at Virginia Tech! Ally will be working closely with Nathan Thayer, a postdoctoral researcher, to analyze survey data collected from members of professional societies, review and report on social science literature on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in the sciences, assist in writing reports, and create presentations to report out...

Lecturer Joel Wanek Wins Berkeley Collegium Grant Award

April 18, 2024
Congratulations to Lecturer Joel Wanek, who has been chosen as a recipient of a Berkeley Collegium Grant Award for his proposal, "Deep Listening: Sonically Mapping Bay Area Creeks!”

Summer Nicholas, Geography junior, hired as an intern for Sustainable Oils

March 23, 2024

Geography junior, Summer Nicholas, has been hired as an intern for a Biotech/Agtech company, Sustainable Oils (SusOils). Sustainable Oils owns genetic patents of a crop called Camelina. Camelina is used to produce renewable diesel. Between May and August, Summer will be traveling across Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Montana, and Washington as part of a Sustainable Oils project in collaboration with the USDA. The focus will be on maintaining and ensuring the accuracy of crucial equipment, including carbon sequestration and water vapor...

Annabelle Law, Geography Senior, Shares Her Experience Presenting at the 2024 AAG Conference

April 30, 2024

Annabelle Law, Geography senior, was awarded $400 in department funds to participate in the weeklong 2024 AAG conference. Below, she shares her experience and insights from the event.

Attending the American Association of Geographers (AAG) conference in Hawai’i this year was an experience that intertwined learning, reflection, and immersion in a complex socio-geographical context. The choice of Hawai’i as the conference venue, though controversial due to the island’s challenges with tourism and militarism, provided a unique backdrop for exploring themes of indigenous knowledge,...

Lecturer Diana Negrín da Silva Named a Flourish Fellow for the Psychedelics in Society and Culture Program

May 15, 2024

The UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP) and the Center for Interdisciplinary Critical Inquiry (CICI) have announced the first cohort of the Psychedelics in Society and Culture program—an initiative aimed at expanding psychedelic research and dialogue across the arts, humanities, and social sciences. The program, in collaboration with Harvard University’s Mahindra Humanities...

Tianna Bruno Publishes New Article, "Black ecological relations and methodologies"

August 16, 2024

"Literature on black environmental geographies uplifts black land and water relations, marronage, placemaking practices, and the envisioning of black futurity in the face of environmental and climate precarity. This demonstrates the ways these communities are not only geographic actors, but also ecological actors and caretakers."

Black environmental geographies scholarship has made significant strides in expanding the ways we understand ecologies and ecological relationships interweaving the lives of black communities across the black diaspora. In this article,...