Ms.  Cordelia Martin-Ikpe will take her oral comprehensive examination on Monday, November 30, 2020, starting at 1:00 pm via Zoom.

All Geography faculty may attend and participate in the oral examination.  Geography graduate students and other non-committee members (e.g., family and friends) may attend with prior approval of the student being examined.

Committee:

Joe Darden (chair)
Igor Vojnovic
Renee Canady (CHM-Flint)
Richard Sadler (CHM-Flint)

Zoom Meeting: https://msu.zoom.us/j/93294885225

Meeting ID: 932 9488 5225

Passcode: 473611

Mr. Aaron Kamoske will defend his dissertation on Tuesday, November 17, 2020, at 10:00 AM.

Title: Seeing within the Canopy: Measuring Three-Dimensional Forest Traits and Processes Across Ecosystems and Spatial Scales

First stage by Webinar (see Webinar directions below):
The defense will consist of two steps:  a 30-60 minute uninterrupted presentation by the student summarizing the dissertation research, and a subsequent two-stage questioning session.  Anyone, including faculty, students, and staff, is welcome to attend the presentation and to participate in the initial portion of the question session, which will be moderated by the Advisor.  Graduate students and other non-committee members (e.g., family and friends) CANNOT attend the second questioning stage.

Webinar Info:

https://msu.zoom.us/j/98866122710
Passcode: trees!

Second stage by Zoom:

The Advisor and Guidance Committee will ask questions in the second stage of this session.  Faculty are welcome to stay for this stage.

Faculty may contact Aaron’s advisor, Dr. Kyla Dahlin kdahlin@msu.edu for access to the Zoom portion.

Successful completion of the defense and approval of the dissertation will be determined by a majority vote of the dissertation committee.

Committee:

Kyla Dahlin (Chair)

Ashton Shortridge

Scott Stark (Forestry)

David Rothstein (Forestry)

To access a recording of the colloquium session with Dr. Jennifer Ho, please visit the link below:

• https://mediaspace.msu.edu/media/t/1_g3b8449m

To access links that were shared during the session, please visit the links below: 

• https://www.colorado.edu/asmagazine/2020/04/08/anti-asian-racism-and-covid-19
• Anti-Racism I Course on Coursera — free, self-paced, 3 weeks 5-10 hours/week: https://www.coursera.org/learn/antiracism-1
• PSA on Model Minority Myth: https://youtu.be/zHFvEvPo5z0

Please join the MSU Geography Graduate Group (Triple G) on Friday, November 20, 2020, at 4:00 PM EST for our third and final virtual colloquium session this semester. We will be joined by Dr. Jennifer Ho, Director of the Center for Humanities & the Arts, Eaton Professor of Humanities and the Arts, and Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is also the president of the Association for Asian American Studies.

In her talk “Anti-Asian Racism and Covid-19,” Dr. Ho will discuss the rise of anti-Asian racism with the advent of COVID-19. Beyond that, this conversation will engage us with ways in which anti-Asian and anti-Black racism have common roots in white supremacy and what we can all do to be anti-racism allies and educators.

We are excited to have Dr. Ho as our speaker who will close this Fall series on uneasy conversations about Race, Ethnic, Migration, Gender, and Justice Studies.

This event is enthusiastically co-sponsored by MSU Asian Studies and MSU Asian Pacific American Studies. We are anticipating a large crowd given the wide-ranging interest in this topic. If you would like to submit a question in advance for Dr. Ho to consider addressing during the session, please do so by the end of the day on Wednesday, November 18 at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/18mykpLOUIrxTUWXDKtXhdwP9fqp48QxzIS4qmDkN5Ws/edit?usp=sharing

Meeting ID: 977 0472 7393 Passcode: GGG2020

Mr. Kevin McKeehan will take his oral comprehensive examination on Friday, October 30 starting at 10:00 am via Zoom.

All Geography faculty may attend and participate in the oral examination.

Geography graduate students and other non-committee members (e.g., family and friends) may attend with prior approval of the student being examined.

Committee:
Alan Arbogast (Chair)
Kyla Dahlin
Ethan Theuerkauf
Robert Richardson (Community Sustainability)

Zoom Meeting
https://msu.zoom.us/j/97293882518

Meeting ID: 972 9388 2518
Passcode: 558667

Mr. Ryan Nagelkirk will defend his dissertation on Friday, November 6, 2020, at 10 am

Title: Evaluating the Ecogeographical Effects of Earth’s Largest Terrestrial Herbivore

First step by Webinar:
The defense will consist of two steps:  a 30-60 minute uninterrupted presentation by the student summarizing the dissertation research, and a subsequent two-stage questioning session.
Anyone, including faculty, students, and staff, is welcome to attend the presentation and to participate in the initial portion of the question session, which will be moderated by the Advisor.

Webinar info:
https://msu.zoom.us/j/96444741266
The passcode is 454745

Second step by Zoom:
The Advisor and Guidance Committee will ask questions in the second stage of this session.  Faculty are welcome to stay for this stage.

Faculty may contact Ryan’s advisor, Dr. Kyla Dahlin kdahlin@msu.edu  for access to the Zoom portion.

Graduate students and other non-committee members (e.g., family and friends) CANNOT attend the second questioning stage. Successful completion of the defense and approval of the dissertation will be determined by a majority vote of the dissertation committee.

Committee:
Kyla Dahlin (Chair)
Nathan Moore
Jennifer Olson (Media & Information)
Gary Roloff (Fisheries & Wildlife)

Please contact me ruggles@msu.edu if you would like an electronic copy of the dissertation.

Mr. Donald Akanga will take his oral comprehensive examination on Thursday, October 15, 2020, starting at 2:30 pm via Zoom.

All Geography faculty may attend and participate in the oral examination.  Geography graduate students and other non-committee members (e.g., family and friends) may attend with prior approval of the student being examined.

Committee: 
Kyla Dahlin (Chair)
Nathan Moore
Leo Zulu
Robert Richardson (Community Sustainability)

Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 970 2798 0323
Passcode: akanga

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Meeting ID: 970 2798 0323

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Meeting ID: 970 2798 0323

Passcode: 822729

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Ms. Ida Djenontin  will present and defend her dissertation proposal

Title:  Governance of People-centered Forest-Agricscapes Restoration in Malawi: Institutional and Modeling Approaches

Date: Friday, October 23, 2020

Time:  10:00 am

Location:   Zoom – see instructions below

Two hours will be allowed for the presentation and subsequent questioning. An initial uninterrupted presentation of the proposed research should be 20-30 minutes in length. Anyone, including faculty, students, and staff, is welcome to attend the presentation.  The question session that follows will be moderated by the student’s Advisor, and all Guidance Committee members will actively participate. However, all persons attending may ask questions and offer comments.

Committee Members:
Dr. Leo Zulu, Chair (Geography)
Dr. Arika Ligmann-Zielinska (Geography)
Dr. Robert Richardson (Community Sustainability)
Dr. Nzokou Pascal (Forestry)

Join Zoom Meeting
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Passcode: INSD

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US: +1 646 876 9923 or +1 301 715 8592 or +1 312 626 6799 or +1 669 900 6833 or +1 253 215 8782 or +1 346 248 7799
Webinar ID: 990 8265 5824
Passcode: 124519
International numbers available: https://msu.zoom.us/u/akoshM8PF

Or an H.323/SIP room system:
H.323:
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Meeting ID: 990 8265 5824
Passcode: 124519
SIP: 99082655824@zoomcrc.com
Passcode: 124519

Join the MSU Geography Graduate Group (Triple G) for the second session of the Fall 2020 Triple G Colloquium Series. Dr. Aretina Rochelle Hamilton, Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Interlochen Center for the Arts will present “The White Unseen: Anti-Blackness in the Discipline of Geography.”

Description:

Despite our understanding of colonial thought and power, geographers–like many scholars–are less willing to look within. We speak in platitudes and identify oppression as placeless when the place is here and now. Even as some geographers unpack the systemic inequality and violence initiated by the state, how is violence perpetuated within our departments, institutions, and professional conferences? How does this refusal to look inward perpetuate anti-blackness and racism with our field? In the wake of the acquittal of the police officers in the murder of Breonna Taylor, what have we learned, and what are we doing? In the works of Dr. Clyde Wood (2002: 62), “the whipshaw of social, cultural, and physical destruction seems invisible to all but the amputees.”

In this talk, Dr. Hamilton will use the concept of the “white unseen” (Hamilton, forthcoming)–an intentional though pattern and epistemological process where the everyday action, terrors, ruptures, and tensions faced by black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) are rendered invisible–to illuminate how whiteness within our discipline is normalized.

Meeting ID: 947 8454 3304; Passcode: GGG2020 

Ms. Zihan Lin will take her oral comprehensive examination on Tuesday, October 13, 2020, starting at 2:30 pm via Zoom.

All Geography faculty may attend and participate in the oral examination.  Geography graduate students and other non-committee members (e.g., family and friends) may attend with prior approval of the student being examined.

Committee:
Dr. Jiaguo Qi (Chair)
Dr. Joseph P. Messina (College of Arts and Sciences, University of Alabama)
Dr. Daniel Kramer (James Madison College)
Dr. Yadu Pokhrel (College of Engineering)

Contact Sharon Ruggles ruggles@msu.edu for Zoom information once you have the approval to attend.

Featuring: Matthew L.M. Fletcher
Foundation Professor, MSU College of Law
Director of the Indigenous Law & Policy Center

This talk on policing and Anishinaabe political theory draws on work inspired by the statements of support for the Black Lives Matter movement from state supreme courts like those in Washington and elsewhere. In part, the article is addressed to the state judges who have spoken out on BLM and the judges on the Michigan forum who speak out in favor of Indian children. The novel claim of the article is that the Supreme Court long has used what Fletcher terms “social contract talk” to demean, dehumanize, and marginalize POC and lower-income persons most likely to be subjected to police interventions. This “social contract talk” is not the law but enables judges to grant police (and prosecutors, though not addressed directly) immense discretion to target POC and lower-income persons and to immunize them from legal consequences. Weaponized “social contract talk” recalls the origin of the social contract in America, which enabled and encouraged slavery and dispossession of Indigenous peoples. Fletcher offers an alternative to social contract talk rooted in Anishinaabe political philosophy, which encourages inclusion, healing, and accountability. Many tribes have relatively little policing of their territories and a completely different mentality about criminal justice.

Zoom Meeting ID: 921 3282 5090
Pwd : GGG2020

Mr. Rajiv Paudel will defend his dissertation on Thursday, August 27, 2020, at 2:00 PM.

Title: A Systems Approach to Analyze Household Vulnerability to Food Insecurity in Rural Southern Mali Using a Spatially-Explicit Integrated Social and Biophysical Model

Please contact me ruggles@msu.edu if you would like an electronic copy of the dissertation.

The defense will consist of two steps:  a 30-60 minute uninterrupted presentation by the student summarizing the dissertation research, and a subsequent two-stage questioning session.  Anyone, including faculty, students, and staff, is welcome to attend the presentation and to participate in the initial portion of the question session, which will be moderated by the Advisor.  The Advisor and Guidance Committee will ask questions in the second stage of this session.  Faculty are welcome to stay for this stage.

Graduate students and other non-committee members (e.g., family and friends) CANNOT attend the second questioning stage. Successful completion of the defense and approval of the dissertation will be determined by a majority vote of the dissertation committee.

• Arika Ligmann-Zielinska (Chair)
• Leo Zulu
• Bruno Basso (Earth and Environmental Sciences)
• Laura Schmitt Olabisi (Community Sustainability)

Ms. Ana Rivera will take her oral comprehensive examination on Wednesday, August 26, 2020, starting at 10:00am via Zoom.

All Geography faculty may attend and participate in the oral examination.  Geography graduate students and other non-committee members (e.g., family and friends) may attend with prior approval of the student being examined.

Committee:

Igor Vojnovic (Chair)
Sue Grady
Nathan Moore
Jun Hyun Kim (School of Planning, Design & Construction)
Dr. Zeenat Kotval-Karamchandani (School of Planning Design & Construction)

Mr. Pouyan Hatami will present and defend his dissertation proposal at the following date and time:

Title: Applications of Machine Learning in Geospatial-Temporal Data Analysis

Day and Date: Friday, August 14, 2020

Time: 1:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Location: Zoom 

Two hours will be allowed for the presentation and subsequent questioning. An initial uninterrupted presentation of the proposed research should be 20-30 minutes in length. Anyone, including faculty, students, and staff, is welcome to attend the presentation.  The question session that follows will be moderated by the student’s Advisor, and all Guidance Committee members will actively participate. However, all persons attending may ask questions and offer comments.

Please contact me ruggles@msu.edu  if you would like to be sent an electronic copy of the proposal.

Committee members:
Lifeng Luo (chair)
Ashton Shortridge
Igor Vojnovic
Pang-Ning Tan (Computer Science and Engineering)

Ms. Michelle Church will defend her thesis.

Title:  SINGAPORE, MICHIGAN, A BURIED COASTAL GHOST TOWN:  A GEOGRAPHICAL CASE STUDY AND ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY MICHIGAN.

The defense will consist of two steps: (1) a 30-60 minute uninterrupted presentation by the student summarizing the thesis research; and (2) a subsequent two-stage questioning session. Anyone, including faculty, students, and staff, is welcome to attend the presentation and to participate in the initial portion of the question session, which will be moderated by the Advisor. The Advisor and Guidance Committee will ask questions in the second stage of this session. Graduate students and other non-committee members (e.g., family and friends) are not permitted during the second questioning; it is closed.

Committee:
Raechel Portelli (Chair)
Kyle Evered
Alan Arbogast

Please contact Sharon Ruggles ruggles@msu.edu if you would like a copy of the Thesis electronically.

Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 929 8323 4556
Password: 833968

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Meeting ID: 929 8323 4556

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Mr. Chris Baish will defend his thesis

Title:  “Glossic Horizon Formation in Coarse-Loamy Bisequal Soils of Northeastern Lower Michigan”

The defense will consist of two steps: (1) a 30-60 minute uninterrupted presentation by the student summarizing the thesis research; and (2) a subsequent two-stage questioning session. Anyone, including faculty, students, and staff, is welcome to attend the presentation and to participate in the initial portion of the question session, which will be moderated by the Advisor. The Advisor and Guidance Committee will ask questions in the second stage of this session. Graduate students and other non-committee members (e.g., family and friends) not permitted during the second questioning; it is closed.

Committee:
Randy Schaetzl (Chair)
Alan Arbogast
David Rothstein (Forestry)

Please contact Sharon Ruggles ruggles@msu.edu if you would like a copy of the Thesis electronically.

Join Zoom Meeting

PASSCODE: 824157.

https://msu.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwscu-sqTMiE9ROPJz1zkhXEsrMnuAVO9Z6

Ms. Dee Jordan will defend her dissertation.

Title: A RISK REDUCTION APPROACH TO TSETSE AND TRYPANOSOMIASIS CONTROL IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA CASE STUDY: THE CANVAS METHOD

The defense will consist of two steps:  a 30-60 minute uninterrupted presentation by the student summarizing the dissertation research, and a subsequent two-stage questioning session.  Anyone, including faculty, students, and staff, is welcome to attend the presentation and to participate in the initial portion of the question session, which will be moderated by the Advisor.  The Advisor and Guidance Committee will ask questions in the second stage of this session.  Faculty are welcome to stay for this stage.

Graduate students and other non-committee members (e.g., family and friends) CANNOT attend the second questioning stage. Successful completion of the defense and approval of the dissertation will be determined by a majority vote of the dissertation committee.

Joseph Messina (Chair)
Joe Darden
Ashton Shortridge
Jinhua Zhao (Economics)

Please contact Sharon Ruggles ruggles@msu.edu if you would like a copy of the dissertation.

Join Zoom Meeting

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Password: tsetse

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Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):

US: +1 312 626 6799  or +1 646 876 9923  or +1 301 715 8592  or +1 346 248 7799  or +1 669 900 6833  or +1 253 215 8782

Webinar ID: 949 9515 3989

International numbers available: https://msu.zoom.us/u/aszpQyw3

Or an H.323/SIP room system:

H.323:

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Meeting ID: 949 9515 3989

Password: 192363

SIP: 94995153989@zoomcrc.com

Password: 192363

Ms. Leah Mungai will defend her dissertation.

Title:  Multi-scale Sustainable Intensification (SI) of Small-holder Agriculture in Malawi

The defense will consist of two steps:  a 30-60 minute uninterrupted presentation by the student summarizing the dissertation research, and a subsequent two-stage questioning session.  Anyone, including faculty, students, and staff, is welcome to attend the presentation and to participate in the initial portion of the question session, which will be moderated by the Advisor.  The Advisor and Guidance Committee will ask questions in the second stage of this session.  Faculty are welcome to stay for this stage.

Graduate students and other non-committee members (e.g., family and friends) CANNOT attend the second questioning stage. Successful completion of the defense and approval of the dissertation will be determined by a majority vote of the dissertation committee.

Joseph Messina (Chair)
Jiaguo Qi
Leo Zulu

Please contact Sharon Ruggles ruggles@msu.edu if you would like a copy of the dissertation.

Join Zoom Meeting

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Password:  chambo (all lower case)

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US: +1 646 876 9923 or +1 301 715 8592 or +1 312 626 6799 or +1 669 900 6833 or +1 253 215 8782 or +1 346 248 7799
Webinar ID: 986 0340 6955
International numbers available: https://msu.zoom.us/u/accWnLNIz2

Or an H.323/SIP room system:
H.323:
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69.174.57.160 (Canada)
207.226.132.110 (Japan)
Meeting ID: 986 0340 6955
SIP: 98603406955@zoomcrc.com

Ms. Laura Medwid  will take her oral comprehensive examination

All Geography faculty may attend and participate in the oral examination.  Geography graduate students and other non-committee members (e.g., family and friends) may attend with prior approval of the student being examined.

Committee:
Elizabeth Mack (Chair)
Ashton Shortridge
Erin Bunting
Scott Loveridge (Fisheries & Wildlife)

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Meeting ID: 646 351 524

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