News

2026 Geography Mapathon

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 16:39:36 +0000

2026 Geography Mapathon Gabriela Rocha Sales Tue, 02/10/2026 - 09:39

�鶹ӰԺ's Geography Department is calling for maps that capture life affirming geographies. This year's theme is Cartographies of Hope.

"Cartographies of hope are doorways to rehearsing a liberatory world in the here and now." - Dr. Isaac Rivera

Submit Your Map

CU �鶹ӰԺ Affiliate Submission

Colorado College and University Affiliate Submission

Colorado High School Affiliate Submission

Email coga@colorado.edu with questions and technical difficulties.

Mapathon Events on Friday, April 10th:

Open House
- Food and refreshments.
- Gallery walk of map submissions and category winner.
- People's choice voting.
Dr. Isaac Rivera's Rita Martinez Spatial Justice Lab Grand Opening for Life Affirming Geographies.
Professor Sarah Elwood's Lecture 4:00-5:00pm.
People’s Choice Award Winner announced at 5:30pm.

Frequently Asked Questions

What maps are accepted?

Conventional, creative, drawn, digital, and abstract representations of geographic spaces or places are all acceptable. See this link for examples. Both digital and analog maps are accepted. For analog or drawn maps, please take a picture of your map and submit the picture to the online submission portal.

What will happen after I submit my map?

At the Open House map gallery before the Professor Sarah Elwood's Lecture on April 10th, attendees can vote on their favorite Map (People’s Choice Award). Two winners (Best Overall Map and People's Choice Map).

Categories:

Grand Prize: Best Overall Map
People’s Choice: Voted on by attendees
Thematic Awards:
- Life Affirming Geographies
- Geographies of Resistance and Repair
- Geographies of Care
- Geographies of Sustainability and Environmental Justice

How will my map be judged?

Once you submit your map it will be reviewed by a panel of CU Geography Faculty and Graduate Students based on the following criteria:

Content
- Evident engagement with the larger "Cartographies of Hope” theme.
- Evident engagement with the theme the map is submitted under (i.e. life affirming, resistance & repair, care, sustainability & Environmental Justice).
- Readability/educational value (i.e. can the content of the map be followed and does it provide an interesting or important lens of the topic it addresses?).
Design and Style
- Title (i.e. is the title engaging and clearly connected with the content of the map?).
- Color balance (i.e., are the colors engaging but not overbearing? Do they work well with each other?).
- Layout (i.e., is the layout balanced, easy to follow, and engaging?).
- Images/visuals (i.e., are they engaging? Are they balanced? Do they match the content?).
Symbology
- (i.e. does the content match the representation?).

I'm not a CU �鶹ӰԺ Student, can I still submit?

Yes! Those outside of CU �鶹ӰԺ are welcome to submit to the Mapathon and will be evaluated with their academic background in mind. For example, if you are a K-12 Educator, we encourage you to submit your students' maps and they will not be judged against PhD-level submissions.

What did last year's maps look like?

See our winners and other submissions here.

Off

Traditional

White

Colorado Geographies Panel

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 14:19:22 +0000

Colorado Geographies Panel Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 02/09/2026 - 07:19

Sid Whiting Jr (Sicinagu Lakota)
Indigenous Youth Educator
Cultural Engagement Coordinator

Jeanette Vizguerra
Community Organizer
Founder of Sanctuary For All

Kalyn Rose Heffernan
Education Freedom Fighter
Lead Singer of Wheelchair Sports Camp

In the geographic tradition of Clyde Woods, this panel underscores the knowledge holders of Colorado, making visible the everyday ways in which our speakers transform places, landscapes, and futures into spaces of life affirming possibility. This panel will discuss Native ways of knowing Colorado, accountable relations with Native nations and peoples; immigrant dignity and practices of relational liberation; disability justice and the transformation of the built environment to affirm all life. The seeds for a liberatory world are already here.

This panel will be held in the Map Libraries at CU-�鶹ӰԺ. This is located in the basement level of the Earth and Sciences building.

Panelist Bios:

Sid Whiting Jr

Mr. Sid Whiting is Sicangu Lakota from the Rosebud Sioux reservation in south central South Dakota. He has lived in Denver most of his life as a part of the Native American community. He began working in his community at a young age. Being the president of the metro Indian youth group at 16 years of age, his family has been a part of creating many Native American organizations in the Denver area. Sid has been a part of the Denver March Pow wow and TallBull Memorial Grounds since their inception in the mid 70's. His involvement in community has been with youth primarily. Such as a Board member for Casa Milagro Youth Services. Sid's involvement with youth has seen him as a teacher for the now defunct American Indian Academy of Denver. But currently he is a Cultural Academics Presenter for multiple school districts in the metro area. Doing presentations such as, Indigenous Drum Math, Tipi Calculus, Eagle Feather Physics, and Bison Science using Native objects. He also works for Create ayA, which is a Cultural arts promotional organization for Native Artists that puts on Denver's only Native American Comic Con and Futurism's event. As a Cultural Engagement Coordinator, Sid sits on the Denver Art Museum's Indigenous Council and the Native American Council at the University of Denver. He currently has objects at The Denver Art Museum Native American Gallery and a Gallery of objects at the Creative Nations Gallery in the Dairy Arts Complex in �鶹ӰԺ. Sid is currently working on the Living Land Project at Denver's City Park, transforming a portion of the park into a Native American inspired vision. This vision includes a Short Grass Prairie, a Medicinal Medicine Garden, and an Amphitheater meeting place for large events. Sid's work with the city of Denver has him working with others to build a Native American Cultural Embassy, a 20 million dollar project that was passed in the Vibrant Denver Bond last November. Sid has many other projects he is working on, including the Breathing Healing Bus, and the Sundance Film Festival in �鶹ӰԺ just to mention a few.

Jeanette Vizguerra

Jeanette Vizguerra originally from Mexico City came to the USA in 1997 for safety, as her husband suffered three express kidnappings in Mexico City. Like many immigrants, even though she has a degree in Psychology was unable to practice her profession here. Her first job was as a janitor. There she immediately began her activism for labor rights, which led the SIEU Local 105 union to invite her to work directly with them just three months after arriving in the USA. They saw her potential to organize, and from then on, her life has been dedicated to serving Colorado's most vulnerable communities. She is a champion of labor, civil, and human rights, and founder of immigrant rights in Colorado, her work is not only local but also national. She is the founder of the sanctuary movement in Colorado and independent organizations such as Sanctuary for All and Abolish ICE Denver. She supports and participates in all movements that affect her community. As someone impacted by the immigration system, she has been detained four times in ICE detention centers and twice sought sanctuary refuge. Her resilience led Time magazine to name her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2017. She sought sanctuary to resist deportation proceedings during the Trump administration, as her case became known worldwide. She has not stopped working for her community. For 30 years even while detained, she helped organize to liberate others within the detention center. She is the recipient of many civil rights awards and continues her work in the community.

Kalyn Rose Heffernan

Kalyn is the wheelchair-using, rap heavy, many arts, educating freedom fighter. Kalyn, who fronts the internationally acclaimed band Wheelchair Sports Camp has more recently stretched into theatre, performance art, politics, permanent installations, museum takeovers, prison tours, film and who knows what’s next. She infamously led Denver's first disabled, queer, artist campaign for the mayor seat 2019. Well known for fighting for access, human rights, and calling out those in power who protect capital interests over the future - Kalyn is well known for raising hell in a very loud and distinct high pitched sense of humor.

Off

Traditional

White

Bodies as Infrastructure: Gender, Water, and situated infrastructural violence in North Indian Cities

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:14:38 +0000

Bodies as Infrastructure: Gender, Water, and situated infrastructural violence in North Indian Cities Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 02/02/2026 - 07:14

Yaffa Truelove
Associate Professor
Department of Geography
University of Colorado at �鶹ӰԺ
truelove@colorado.edu

Abstract

Over the last decade, a growing number of North Indian cities have been declared “waterless,” referring to the temporary stoppage of piped water delivery for days or weeks on end. While receiving widespread media attention for these moments of water crisis – with newspapers often showing images of middle-class residents queuing in long lines at off-grid water sources – urban “waterlessness” is an everyday reality for working class residents who altogether lack access to the centralized network. These residents piece together fragmented and off-grid infrastructures as a normative practice, enabling water to flow to homes and across neighborhoods, maintaining city life. Through conceptualizing bodies as part of infrastructure, this research traces the ways the social and material work of the body helps to build, develop, and maintain cities and their water networks in North India. Bringing a feminist political ecology lens to infrastructure studies, I specifically show how gendered/casted/classed bodies act as part of urban infrastructure through the quotidian practices and labor of finding and circulating water to households in Delhi, Mohali, and Shimla. By examining when and how bodies become “internalized” as part of infrastructural networks, this research aims to render visible often overlooked dimensions of infrastructure and our analytic view of it. I argue that conceptualizing the body as infrastructure helps make visible 1) the embodied labor, maintenance and care work that subsidizes and enables infrastructural assemblages and networks, 2) the socio-political processes and forces that produce the necessity for particular gendered /casted/racialized/classed bodies to act as infrastructure in the first place, and 3) situated forms of infrastructural violence that emerge from everyday practices that enable water’s circulation in cities.

Over the last decade, a growing number of North Indian cities have been declared “waterless,” referring to the temporary stoppage of piped water delivery for days or weeks on end...

Off

Traditional

White

An Indigenous Geopoetics for the Apocalypse

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 22:38:04 +0000

An Indigenous Geopoetics for the Apocalypse Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 01/26/2026 - 15:38

Dr. Mabel D. Gergan
Assistant Professor
Department of Asian Studies
Vanderbilt University

Abstract:

Somewhere deep in the Dzongu valley, in the shadow of Mt. Kanchendzonga, lies a secret pathway to Mayal Kyong – a hidden paradise of abundance, home to seven immortal couples revered as ancestors by the Lepchas (Mutanchi Rongkup Rumkup). Mayal Kyong is one though perhaps the most significant of several hidden places believed to exist in Dzongu, where sacred scriptures, relics, religious teachings, and even precious jewels are said to lie concealed in rocky caves, crags, and waterfalls. These treasures are believed to reveal themselves only in moments of great need or at the end of the mortal world. One such sacred treasure is a pot filled to the brim with grains and seeds, meant to help the Lepcha people rebuild in the event of an apocalypse.

Since 2006, Dzongu has been the site of a vibrant anti-dam movement led by the Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT), which successfully pressured the state to withdraw four proposed dams on the River Teesta in Sikkim, India. Today, however, much of the Teesta has been dammed, and only a few free-flowing stretches remain. Hydropower development has also intensified the impacts of cyclical disasters, the most devastating of which include the 6.9 magnitude earthquake in 2011 and the 2023 Glacial Lake Outburst Flood. Despite significant pressure and criticism, ACT members continue to nurture the hope that the Teesta will remain a free-flowing river. Their activism is nourished and sustained by their belief in the power and protection of Sikkim's sacred landscapes. It is this act of nurturing hope, and the beliefs and practices that sustain it, that inform my analysis here.

In Lepcha oral histories and prophecies, the apocalypse much like in its original Greek meaning signals not only a time of disaster and doom but also a moment of sacred revelation. In conversation with Indigenous Himalayan and critical geographic theorizations of geopoetics, sacred landscapes, and prophecy, I understand these articulations as an Indigenous geopoetics: a praxis and philosophy grounded in the particularity of place, one that reads the earth and its signs in ways that maintain hope in times of crisis and uncertainty.

Off

Traditional

White

Professor Emily Yeh: SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education welcomes 13 faculty fellows

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 20:40:13 +0000

Professor Emily Yeh: SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education welcomes 13 faculty fellows Gabriela Rocha Sales Fri, 01/23/2026 - 13:40

Copied from CU �鶹ӰԺ Today online publication on 1/23/2026 for archival purposes.

1/22/2026

The SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education at CU �鶹ӰԺ has selected 13 faculty members as its inaugural SPIKE Faculty Fellows, launching a new initiative designed to strengthen and expand sustainability education across campus.

The SPIKE Faculty Fellows will play a central role in advancing sustainability-focused teaching and praxis at CU �鶹ӰԺ. Together, they will build a cross-campus network of faculty committed to integrating sustainability into curriculum and applied learning, while providing critical faculty perspective to broader university initiatives connected to sustainability education.

During the program’s first six months—starting in January 2026—the fellows will focus on two primary objectives: developing and delivering an annual Sustainability Across the Curriculum training for CU �鶹ӰԺ faculty, beginning each May, and offering faculty voice and input into campuswide visions and initiatives that intersect with sustainability education.

In spring 2026, fellows on academic-year appointments will concentrate on teaching strategies responsive to the current moment, as well as foundational sustainability content. The theme for the spring 2026 cohort will be environmental and climate justice.

Advancing transformational learning

In coordination with administrators, staff, students and faculty colleagues across CU �鶹ӰԺ, the inaugural class of SPIKE Faculty Fellows will work toward a range of outcomes that benefit both the Buckley Center and the campus community. These include:

Co-creating and coordinating a campuswide agenda for transformational learning related to sustainability (distinct from formal curriculum development, which will be supported through a separate ambassadors program)
Informing and illuminating best practices in sustainability education to guide campuswide efforts and reinforce CU �鶹ӰԺ’s role as an international leader
Sharing experiences and challenges encountered in sustainability education and praxis
Advocating for innovative initiatives that energize and support pathways toward more sustainable futures
Cultivating networks of faculty support across campus, including serving as liaisons to centers and institutes
Collectively preparing and delivering a faculty training on sustainability education
Identifying, assessing and curating sustainability education materials for teaching and learning

Through these efforts, the SPIKE Faculty Fellows program aims to deepen collaboration, elevate faculty leadership and embed sustainability more fully into the educational experience at CU �鶹ӰԺ.

Spring 2026 SPIKE Faculty Fellows

The inaugural cohort of faculty fellows includes:

Thomas Andrews, Professor, History and Social Science
Karen Bailey, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies and Natural Science
Dave Ciplet, Associate Professor, Environmental Studies and Natural Science
Azza Kamal, Associate Teaching Professor, Environmental Design and Communication
Gregor Macgregor, Assistant Teaching Professor, Environmental Studies and Natural Science
Cresten Mansfeldt, Assistant Professor, College of Engineering and Applied Science
James C. Rattling Leaf, Sr., Geography, Natural Science and CIRES
Esther Rolf, Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering
Jonathan Skinner-Thompson, Associate Professor, Colorado Law
Seema Sohi, Associate Professor, Ethnic Studies and Social Science
Katharine N. Suding, Distinguished Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Natural Science
Meghan Van Portfliet, Assistant Teaching Professor, Leeds School of Business
Steven Vanderheiden, Professor, Political Science and Social Science
Emily Yeh, Professor, Geography and Natural Science

Together, these faculty leaders represent a wide range of disciplines and perspectives, underscoring the SPIKE Center’s commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration and inclusive approaches to sustainability education at CU �鶹ӰԺ.

Off

Traditional

White

A Mountain Debate on Climate/Relational Change: Revitalizing the Voice of Indigenous Territorial Sovereigns in Tibetan Contemporary Literature

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 22:11:35 +0000

A Mountain Debate on Climate/Relational Change: Revitalizing the Voice of Indigenous Territorial Sovereigns in Tibetan Contemporary Literature Gabriela Rocha Sales Tue, 01/20/2026 - 15:11

Dr. Tashi Dekyid Monet
Post-doctoral Scholar
Modern Tibetan Studies
Weatherhead East Asian Institute
Columbia University

Abstract:

What do Tibetan mountains say about the recent climate change that is driven by and intensifies complex changes and disruptions to multiple relationships on the Tibetan Plateau? How do the mountains communicate their emotions, thoughts, pains, and resolutions? How can we listen, observe, know, and understand the mountains’ perspectives? In this paper, I explore how two Tibetan contemporary short stories provide creative and generative spaces to reflect on these questions. They are “Snow” (1999) by Pema Tseten and “The Conference of Lhanyen Mountains” (2020) by Joné Yumtsering. These questions emerge from Tibetan cosmologies and ontologies of the environment, personhood, life, and the plateau itself. Understanding the thoughts, moods, and visions of the mountains—known to Tibetans as Territorial Sovereigns (Zhidak གཞི་བདག; also rendered as mountain gods in English) —has been important for Tibetan communities in many ways, ranging o

ver cultural practice, agricultural production, and political governance. Territorial Sovereigns are both physical mountains and metaphysical figures who rule and protect specific places that constitute the Tibetan Plateau. I also engage the history of, and poetic evocations to, Mountain Sovereigns, including lived experiences of mountain ceremonies in my community. Similar to conclusions drawn by Indigenous climate studies (Whyte 2021; Cane 2025), these Tibetan stories illustrate how the “unnatural” events of natural disasters are signs of, and results from, disruptions in their human and more-than-human relationships. I argue that these stories offer a space for the emergence of fuller stories of Tibetan mountains and place-based relationships, including their entanglements with multiple changes today. They are also spaces where we can reflect on the possibilities and challenges of understanding places in their fuller being and senses than the often disembodied, objectified, extracted, and fragmented manners in which they are dealt with in research.

Speaker Bio:

Tashi Dekyid Monet (མོ་ངེ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་སྐྱིད།) is a Tibetan scholar, writer, and translator whose academic and literary work explores Indigenous Land-based traditions, multispecies care, and the intersections of literature, spirituality, peoplehood, and the environment. Born and raised in Minyak Rabgang, one of the Six Mountain Ranges of eastern Tibet, she earned her BA in Tibetan Literature from Minzu University of China. She received her Ph.D. in Education from the University of Virginia (2024), where her research connects Tibetan literary and oral traditions of Land, Buddhist sacred geography, Indigenous storytelling, popular culture—art, music, literature and film—with global conversations on decolonial methodologies, critical Indigenous education, human geography, environmental humanities, and multispecies justice.

Tashi Dekyid is a postdoctoral scholar in the Modern Tibetan Studies program at Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University, where she co-leads a collaborative Indigenous-led the project on “Indigenous Knowledge and Climate Change on the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas.” Her publications includes “Translating the Tibetan Lifeworld: An Ontological Bridge or Erasure” (Yeshe), a co-edited trilingual anthology Hope that Burns, Friendship that Heals: An Anthology by Tibetan Women Writers, and “Rejoicing in Reciprocity” (The Brooklyn Rail), She has authored three Tibetan-language children’s books—Ten Precious Yaks, Snow Friend, and Where Are You?—and translated works by Joy Harjo, Leslie Marmon Silko, Margaret Atwood, and others into Tibetan. She co-organized the 2022 international Symposium of Tibetan Women Writers at University of Virginia.

Zoom Option: https://cuboulder.zoom.us/j/91058919425

Off

Traditional

White

Fall 2025 Newsletter Now Available!

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 18:03:18 +0000

Fall 2025 Newsletter Now Available! Gabriela Rocha Sales Thu, 12/18/2025 - 11:03

You can now view our Fall 2025 Newsletter!

Off

Traditional

White

Katie Writer (BA, 1991): Photojournalist turning aerial art into climate archive

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 18:42:29 +0000

Katie Writer (BA, 1991): Photojournalist turning aerial art into climate archive Gabriela Rocha Sales Fri, 12/12/2025 - 11:42

12/4/2025 • By Cody DeBos

Copied from the A&S Magazine for archival purposes.

/asmagazine/2025/12/04/photojournalist-turning-aerial-art-climate-archive

On a clear day high above south-central Alaska, you can find Katie Writer pulling open the window of her Super Cub airplane and leaning her camera out into the rushing wind. Below, the landscape doesn’t look like the same one she once hiked and skied. That’s exactly why she’s flying.

For Writer (Geog’91), flying offers a unique vantage point from which to witness the planet changing in real time.

“Climate change is something I saw coming all the way back in my CU days studying geography, and I knew it would be a big part of my life’s calling. I have a sense of duty as a photojournalist pilot and an advocate for the environment. Whenever there’s a chance for me to tell the story of the landscape or point emphasis to an area that needs some protection, I jump on it,” she says.

From documenting glacier retreat to photographing generations of spruce trees withered by beetle kill, she’s built a career at the intersection of science, storytelling and adventure.

Skiing onto the page

Writer’s journey to the cockpit wasn’t traditional. At CU �鶹ӰԺ, she majored in geography and raced on the ski team, balancing course loads with weekend races. After graduating, she worked as an interpreter for the United States Olympic Committee at the 1992 Winter Olympics in France, and that lit a fire in her for world-class racing.

“I quickly moved up the ranks and placed 17th at the U.S. National Championships in 1994,” Writer recalls.

But when an injury derailed her career, she pivoted her skiing passion from racing to the page, becoming an aptly named writer of outdoor adventure articles for the likes of Couloir and Powder magazines. One story led her to Denali National Park.

“On that trip, I was inspired to become a pilot,” she says. “I’d also been on another ski trip where a Cessna 185 flew us into the wilderness in a ski plane, and it made me realize that these little planes give you some great access to the wilderness.”

After earning her pilot’s license with support from aviation scholarships, Writer settled in Alaska, where she has since filled her appetite for adventure and storytelling through the lens of her camera. She didn't give up competitive skiing entirely, though, and races in three World Extreme Skiing competitions in Alaska

“Others were noticing my photography and really appreciating the bird’s eye view I was getting as an aerial photographer/pilot. It helped me realize that capturing these images was something I was really passionate about,” she says.

Seeing the story from above

When Writer takes her camera into the sky, the viewpoint of Alaska’s stunning landscapes brings awe, but also a sense of urgency. From her Super Cub, she observes patterns of change. Hillsides of dying spruce. Once thriving glaciers shrinking every year. Riverbanks collapsing after torrential storms. She has returned often to the same places, documenting changes that most people never get to see.

“There’s no doubt when you live in Alaska, you see the effects of the beetle kill. I realized this was an excellent way to present climate change with the visuals from an aerial perspective,” Writer says.

Warmer winters have allowed spruce beetles to survive year-round, leaving entire forests stained with rust-colored decay. Glaciers tell a parallel story of loss.

“We spent a lot of time going back to the toe of the Ruth glacier, photographing the specific area year after year and seeing how dramatically the receding lines were, as well as observing the collapsing walls,” she adds.

She also tracks what happens downstream. After record rainfall from an atmospheric river in August 2025, she flew over the swollen Talkeetna River and saw entire stretches of bank washed away.

“These weather events with high levels of moisture, in my opinion, are another visual acceleration of erosion.”

These scenes are part of a photographic timeline Writer has spent years assembling. With each flight, she adds a new layer to the growing visual archive that captures the rapid reshaping of Alaska’s wilderness. For those of us on the ground, it’s a rare glimpse at what our world looks like from above.

Exploring a new medium

In time, the stories Writer wanted to tell outgrew both print and pictures. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she launched the All Cooped Up Alaska Podcast, a show born from isolation and the desire to connect. It’s since evolved into the Alaska Climate and Aviation Podcast, where she explores stories of weather, flying and environmental change.

The benefit of producing your own podcast is that you get to be as creative as you want and can tell the stories you want to tell,” she says. “A lot of the stories I used to create for our local radio station would be edited down to three and a half minutes for airtime. I was always a little bit frustrated by that.”

Now, Writer brings on regular guests, including prominent Alaskan climatologists Rick Thoman and Brian Brettschneider, to discuss everything from wildfire smoke to Arctic feedback loops. She also covers major events like the Arctic Encounter Symposium in Anchorage.

“Arctic Encounter is attended by world leaders from all around Arctic countries, including Indigenous leaders, policymakers, scientists, villagers and Arctic dwellers,” she says. “It’s a very inspiring event with fascinating panels of people talking about the problems they’re having and solutions they envision.”

Writer has also added a sightseeing business to Visionary Adventures, taking people out on Super Cub Airplane Rides so they can experience the beauty themselves. And these days, her children are her most frequent fliers: "We—my son, Jasper, and daughter, Wren—have also enjoyed soaring above the wilds looking for wild game and fishing spots."

CU at altitude

Looking back, Writer credits her time at CU �鶹ӰԺ with helping to shape her worldview.

“One of the primary things that made a major influence on choosing geography as a major was an upper-division course that was in the Arctic Circle, learning field research techniques,” she says.

She also recalls the atmosphere of both �鶹ӰԺ’s scientific community and cultural diversity.

“As a sophomore, our house was across the street from the Hari Krishnas, where we ate a meal a week and enjoyed philosophizing on life and world religions. It was just a really neat place to be,” Writer says. “All of the beautiful architecture and even the Guggenheim building for Geography really held a special place in my heart for a place of learning.”

Her advice for today’s students? Write often.

“Writing is a really important skill that I’m noticing more and more being lost with the use of AI. Getting the pen flowing onto a piece of paper lets you tap into a whole different type of creativity,” she says.

“Realize that you may not know what your whole career is going to be, but don’t be afraid to explore and take a risk in opportunities you might get. When I look back at the journals that I had at that time in my life, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m doing it,’” she adds.

Even now, after decades of flying and learning to balance the art with the business, Writer isn’t sure where her career will lead next.

“I always aspired to work for National Geographic as a photojournalist,” she says. “And I still haven’t met that goal—but who knows what could happen in the future.”

One thing is certain: Writer has no plans to stop flying over Alaska and documenting its changes.

“Being in the air and photographing the landscape feels like artistic movement and is a spiritual experience,” she says. “The natural world is just stunning.”

CU �鶹ӰԺ geography alumnus Katie Writer shares Alaska’s changing landscape from the skies

Off

Traditional

White

Jessica Finlay Named 2026 Research and Innovation Office Faculty Fellow

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 14:25:59 +0000

Jessica Finlay Named 2026 Research and Innovation Office Faculty Fellow Gabriela Rocha Sales Fri, 12/12/2025 - 07:25

December 11 , 2025 by Kelly Holguin

Copied from IBS for Archival Purposes

Assistant Professor of Geography and Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS) Faculty Fellow Jessica Finlay has been selected as one of 18 CU �鶹ӰԺ Research & Innovation Office (RIO) Faculty Fellows for the 2026 cohort. This is the largest and most interdisciplinary cohort since the program began eight years ago.

The RIO Faculty Fellows program identifies emerging leaders across CU �鶹ӰԺ who are poised to advance high-impact, collaborative research. Fellows are chosen through a competitive nomination and application process, with priority given to those whose work bridges disciplines and demonstrates strong potential for innovative scholarship and institutional leadership.

For Finlay, the recognition is both meaningful and motivating.

“It’s a true honor. Becoming a Faculty Fellow represents an opportunity to grow alongside a new, cross-disciplinary community at CU �鶹ӰԺ,” she said. “It feels deeply validating to have RIO invest time and resources into my development as an early-career scholar. I’m excited to learn from research leaders across campus and to contribute to a collaborative environment focused on leadership, innovation, and impact.”

Finlay’s work explores the social and environmental determinants of health across the life course, often integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches to understand how lived experiences and physical spaces shape aging, wellbeing, and equity. Her interdisciplinary research is anchored in geography and spans public health, environmental gerontology, and community-engaged scholarship.

Through the year-long fellowship, Finlay hopes to strengthen the skills that will support her evolving research program and growing mentorship roles.

“I hope to gain a tight-knit peer community and to strengthen my leadership skills so I can be a better scholar, mentor, and representative of CU �鶹ӰԺ,” she said. “I’m looking forward to structured time and creative activities for reflection, feedback, and skill-building.”

When asked what advice she would give to faculty considering applying in future years, Finlay encouraged authenticity and intention.

“Lean into the parts of your work that feel most meaningful, and articulate how leadership development can enhance your distinct contributions to the university and broader community,” she said. “Reflect on your scientific or artistic niche and your longer-term career aspirations. The program is designed for people who are eager to learn, collaborate, and stretch themselves.”

Finlay’s selection underscores IBS’s continued representation among campus research leaders and highlights the Institute’s commitment to supporting rising scholars whose work advances understanding of complex societal challenges.

Assistant Professor of Geography and Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS) Faculty Fellow Jessica Finlay has been selected as one of 18 CU �鶹ӰԺ Research & Innovation Office (RIO) Faculty Fellows for the 2026 cohort. This is the largest and most interdisciplinary cohort since the program began eight years ago.

Off

Traditional

White

Tim Oakes: Forthcoming book culminates a four-year project on the technopolitics of nuclear power in Asia

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 21:23:00 +0000

Tim Oakes: Forthcoming book culminates a four-year project on the technopolitics of nuclear power in Asia Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 12/08/2025 - 14:23

Between 2021 and 2024, working in collaboration with the Center for Asian Studies, Tim Oakes hosted a series of four workshops on nuclear power development and disaster in Asia. The workshops were funded by a generous grant from the Albert Smith Nuclear Age Fund. The first, held in commemoration of the 10year anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear meltdown in Japan, explored how people in Japan have lived with the aftermath of this disaster. The second focused on China’s efforts to expand its nuclear power industry and export its nuclear technology. The third examined the broader political and cultural configurations of the nuclear realm from an Asian perspective, while a fourth workshop brought together most of the participants of all three previous workshops for a final extended discussion on what we might learn from the different aspects of nuclear power development and disaster in Asia.

Residents in Pingtung County, Taiwan, protest against a referendum on whether to reactivate the Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant. July, 2025. Source: Taiwan Central News Agency: https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202507030010.

While the issues swirling around nuclear power are often portrayed in purely technical terms, the workshops sought to demonstrate that nothing is ever ‘just technical’. The project’s sociotechnical perspective sought to recognize that nuclear power enrolls people, as individuals and as groups, into a particular and peculiar set of relationships with technology. Those relationships blur the boundaries between science and society, and between technology and culture, in unique and compelling ways. How do people – in their everyday lives – understand and practice their relationship to radiation? How do they calculate different kinds of risk? How do they come to be involved in the measurement of radiation and the science of predicting its health-related effects? What have been the unexpected political outcomes of people’s encounters with nuclear technology? How do we define responsibility when considering the risks and benefits of nuclear energy? How have cultural practices been shaped by people’s relationship with the technologies and infrastructures of nuclear power, or with the technological interventions brought about by the disaster? These are just some of the questions workshop participants grappled with.

Residents in Lianyungang, China, protest government plans to build a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. August, 2016. Source: South China Morning Post: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2001726/nuclear-plant-scheme-halted-eastern-china-after.

Along with CU �鶹ӰԺ Anthropologist Kate Goldfarb, Oakes is co-editing a collection of papers from the workshops in a volume to be published in 2026 by the University of Toronto Press. Living in Nuclear Asia: Sociotechnical perspectives on nuclear power development, risk, and vulnerability will, in the broadest sense, address what it means to survive in the nuclear age in Asia. Collectively, the chapters in the book ask: what do we learn by paying attention to Asian experiences of ‘nuclearity’? Nuclear power is typically written about from the policy perspectives of proliferation, containment, and security. This is especially the case regarding work on nuclear development in Asia. Living in Nuclear Asia marks a departure from this trend, emphasizing instead nuclear technologies themselves, including nuclear power infrastructures, and the socio-cultural, economic, and political relations that swirl around them.

Off

Traditional

White