I spent this past summer in rural Costa Rica as an Art Program Aide Intern with La Asociación CREAR. This non-governmental organization focuses on providing free supplemental education to rural school-aged children in the communities of Playa Sámara and El Torito. For two months, I assisted the art teacher in developing lesson plans, preparing materials,…
Category: geography
Policy Pub: Generosity in Hurricane Michael’s Wake
Hurricane Michael hit Florida’s Gulf Coast in October of 2018 as a category five hurricane. The storm leveled communities to the West of Tallahassee, damaging homes, displacing residents, crippling some industries, and leaving piles of debris behind. In its wake, I set off to study how civil society – nonprofits, religious organizations, and less organized…
Is The Gender STEM Gap Smaller in Less Developed Countries Than in Highly Developed Ones? What Role Does Urbanization Play? Evidence From Cambodia
Women earn bachelor’s degrees at higher rates than men in most economically developed countries. Within these countries however, women continue to lag in postsecondary majors and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This has considerable implications for women’s earnings. While the relationship between economic development and urbanization and gender equity in educational…
Research Spotlight: Police Officer Use of Force and Citizen Complaints
While competing narratives have taken shape in American society little is known as to how officers choose to use force in situations and if there is any racial or gender bias during police encounters that amount in heightened levels of force used. To study this subject more meticulously I analyze citizen complaint outcomes for police use of force from two cities: Indianapolis and New Orleans. Analyzing citizen complaint data from these two cities serves several purposes.
Hurricane Michael recovery efforts point to the power of local generosity after overlooked disasters
Throughout my research in a string of beach towns and rural inland communities along a stretch west and south of Tallahassee known as the Forgotten Coast, I directly observed nonprofits relying upon donated funds, supplies and labor to meet housing and other needs not being met by flood insurance or government funding.
Policy Pub: Get Ready for more Sweaty!
Dr. James Elsner participated in the Policy Pub in September 2019. To listen to his pub navigate here. Summer is here and it’s hot. I love it. I loved summer in Milwaukee as a kid but it was always way too short. Not here. Summer starts in May and runs through most of September. Perfect….
Featured Blog by Award-Winning Faculty: Shared Histories
As the Lieutenant-Governor’s Medal highlights, this is a story with broader purchase. Focusing on a particular place, Shared Histories highlights how racial injustices developed through the complex mixture of local, provincial, and federal policies. But it also registers the possibility of implementing different policies and building different relationships. It is important to share the story of Indiantown, so it does not happen again. So we can learn from it and create a new and different future.
When Exactly is Flu Season?
At the start of the school year, I ran into a colleague in the elevator. Sam told me he enjoyed his summer break in spite of the hot and humid weather. His summer would have been perfect except for the severe flu he contracted a couple of weeks prior. This story might sound strange to…
Interning with Florida League of Cities
In early March, Florida lawmakers convened in Tallahassee to kick off the 2019 legislative session. The official start followed months of preparation, with lawmakers periodically holding interim legislative committee meetings to discuss and debate various policy and funding matters on tap for session. Legislative session is only 60 days in length, and the only action…
Hurricanes: A Growing Threat to an Endangered System
As part of my Ph.D. research, I surveyed longleaf pine habitats before and after Hurricane Michael. My goals were to assess baseline conditions in habitats that were considered to be in exemplary condition and the subsequent damage caused by the storm. This information should help land managers and policy-makers be better informed while making decisions about recovery plans. In total, 0.3-0.4 million acres of longleaf pine habitat within the Florida panhandle were impacted by hurricane force winds, while up to 2.6 million acres experienced tropical storm force winds. My detailed surveys at four sites showed that the site nearest to the storm center experienced catastrophic losses with an estimated tree mortality of 88.7%. At the other sites further away, mortality ranged from 1.3 – 8.4%.
