Human Dimensions of Environmental Systems

Soviet Modernization in the Arctic Environment.

2009-03-05T11:30:51-06:00

Andy Bruno, from HDES and the Department of History at the University of Illinois, presented "Soviet Modernization and the Arctic Environment: A Case Study of a Stalinist Mining Town"

This presentation will examine the environmental history of Soviet efforts to create a modern industrial world in the far north. I will tell the early history of the town of Kirovsk (Khibinogorsk) on the Kola Peninsula in northwest Russia. The town came into existence during the Soviet Union's first five-year-plan (1928-1932) as a new socialist city aimed at mining and processing apatite for phosphate fertilizers. I will seek to demonstrate the omnipresence of environmental factors in this project of Stalinist modernization. I will reflect on how centralized planning sought to grapple with environmental impediments and innovate ways to establish less wasteful and destructive industrial technologies. I will delve into the experience of the thousands of forced peasant migrants for whom harsh northern nature often served as a punitive agent. I will further explore the cultural representations of nature during the project, revealing how multifarious discourses coexisted in ostensible contradiction with a grand narrative of the conquest of nature. Within these three spheres of a new industrial civilization planning, social, and cultural central interpretation will emerge: Stalinist modernization here entailed an unsuccessful attempt to transform inhospitable natural environments into realms where humans and nature could abide in harmony. The uniqueness of this claim is that intentions, ignorance, and pure neglect were not totally to blame for the poor environmental legacy. Instead, the recalcitrance of the natural world exacerbated the failings of revolutionary optimism, chaotic central planning, and an abiding reliance on forced labor in Russia.

Nature Park Signage

2009-02-03T09:17:21-06:00

Richard Doherty, from the University of Illinois Institute of Communications Research, talked with us about the signs found in nature parks and how they differ from nation to nation and place to place. We discussed issues related to culture, legal restrictions, and images of nature.

4 December 2008: Interdisciplinarity.

2008-12-04T19:11:48-06:00

Professor Anton Endress from NRES at the University of Illinois discussed doing interdisciplinary research and teaching interdisciplinary courses. Tony regularly teaches NRES 420, a project based course with an interdisciplinary focus and and interdisciplinary enrollment. He distinguished between multidisciplinary work and interdisciplinary work, and noted the difficulties and advantages of both.

The audio of his talk is below.

23 October 2008: Public Transportation.

2008-10-23T08:45:05-05:00

Tom Costello, general manager of the Champaign Urbana Mass Transit District and a faculty member in Speech Communications at the University of Illinois will talk on public transit issues related to quality of life, fuel, congestion, and the environment more generally.

I hope you can join us. We meet in 362 NSRL at 4pm.

25 Sept 2008: Masterpiece Garden

2008-10-23T08:42:37-05:00

On 25 September 2008 the HDES Seminar met at the Masterpiece Garden in Urbana. Masterpiece Garden is an active aging park designed by HDES fellow and University of Illinois Kinesiologist Leticia de Matos Malavasi. She designed and secured funding for a park that is built in between the Clark Lindsey senior village and Urbana's Meadowbrook Park. The Masterpiece Garden was designed with input from the Clark Lindsey residents. It includes numerous features that encourage physical activity and which draw people outside.

The class was on a tour, so no audio was recorded.

First Post.

2008-10-23T08:31:05-05:00

This is the blog for the HDES Research Seminar for the 2008-2009 Academic Year. I will post the audio portions of the presentations on this blog. You may listen online or download them to your mp3 player. You may use one of the rss feeds to subscribe to the blog if you wish to be informed when it is updated. I also may be able to place the powerpoint and other visual materials here.

The audio and powerpoint presentations will be posted only if the presenter gives permission.

Hope you find these useful.

-- Michael Krassa