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IE3 Global Internship Pre-Departure Orientation
This Pre-Departure Orientation is intended for students who have completed the application process for an IE3 internship, and are preparing to depart for their internship during the summer term 2013. Plan to come dressed in business casual attire for orientation.
http://ie3global.ous.edu/events/details/pre-departure_orientation-oregon3/
Fulbright U.S. Student Program Informational Session
Please see press release for competition opening.
General information meetings to be held:
Thursday May 9
12-1 PM
Heckart Lodge 205
Tuesday May 21
3-4 PM
Heckart Lodge 205
Monday June 3
12-1 pm
Heckart Lodge 205
For more information, please contact LeAnn Adam, OSU Fulbright Program Adviser (leann.adam@oregonstate.edu) or visit our Fulbright information page.
CANCELLED: Fulbright U.S. Student Program General Information Meeting
*****THIS INFORMATIONAL SESSION HAS BEEN CANCELLED. Please refer to the links below for further information, or contact LeAnn Adam via e-mail.*****
Thank you for your interest in the US Student Fulbright program. Fulbright grants are for research, teaching, project or course work in any eligible country.
For more information, please contact LeAnn Adam, OSU Fulbright Program Adviser leann.adam@oregonstate.edu and see our Fulbright information page.
See: press release for competition opening.
Connective Tissue
Environmental philosopher Michael P. Nelson gamely copes with “ginormous” mosquitoes and gobs of “moose grease” as he necropsies a moose on Isle Royale in Lake Superior. (Photo: John A. Vucetich)
When Michael P. Nelson talks about his work, he mentions carcasses and cadavers to a startling degree — startling because Nelson is not a physician or a veterinarian or even a biologist. He’s a philosopher. So at first glance, necropsy seems an odd topic of discourse. But it starts to make sense when you notice that Nelson’s office is in Oregon State’s College of Forestry, not the College of Liberal Arts where universities typically house their philosophers. And, as the only philosopher ever hired to lead one of the National Science Foundation’s 27 Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites — in this case, OSU’s H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest — Nelson again defies tradition.
“We started the search assuming we’d end up with some sort of ecologist, hydrologist or biophysical scientist,” recounts John Bliss, the associate dean of forestry who led the hiring process. “I knew we’d turned a corner when the ecologists on the committee stopped me in the hall to say things like, ‘Maybe a philosopher is what we need!’”
With -ologists already well represented, they opted instead for Nelson’s novel viewpoint. “Michael brings a philosopher’s logic to complex problems, unencumbered by disciplinary straitjackets,” Bliss says.
Mind Over Matter
To understand these discrepancies, you have to go back to Nelson’s hometown of Janesville, Wisconsin, where, in a high school anatomy class, he saw a dead body laid out on a steel slab. “I thought that cadaver was the coolest thing in the world,” he recalls. But once he got to college, the study of biology struck him as tedious. Too many equations to solve, too many chemical reactions to memorize. In contrast, he found himself relishing his philosophy classes. Ideas like the moral imperative and the inherent nature of being quickened his imagination. He soon switched majors and began to ponder the world on a cerebral rather than cellular level.
Michael P. Nelson
His fascination with biological systems, however, never went away. Eventually, this man whose mental petri dish was awash in syllogisms instead of cell divisions circled back to where he started — to that raw, physical nexus of life and death that is a carcass. It happened about a decade after he earned his Ph.D. at England’s Lancaster University, the cradle of environmental philosophy. By then, Nelson was teaching at Michigan State University, where he met John A. Vucetich, co-director of a long-term, multidisciplinary study of predator-prey dynamics. Vucetich invited Nelson to visit the study site: a wild, isolated, mist-wrapped island in Lake Superior. Nelson was enchanted. Soon he became the “resident philosopher” for Wolves and Moose of Isle Royale.
Which is how, in 2005, he came to be kneeling beside a pile of bones and sinews where wolves had devoured a moose. Every summer, Nelson participates in collecting biological samples, including scat and skulls, for DNA analysis and pathology studies. Now in its 55th year, the project has tracked the dynamics between wolves and moose over a timespan unprecedented in the annals of predator-prey studies. Surprising insights into island biogeography and wildlife management are emerging from the mists.
“What I really like about my work, is that it exists at the edges of disciplines.”
— Michael P. Nelson
Sting Like a Bee
In front of a crowd, Nelson moves nimbly, like a boxer, on the balls of his feet. An aura of great energy emanates from his face and hands. It’s clear that he’s in a hurry to push his thoughts outward. Planet Earth is, after all, poised on the cliff of calamity, he says during a joint presentation on ethics and climate change with OSU conservation philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore. He and Moore challenge the scientists in the audience to couple their facts (climate models, data sets, statistical analyses) to their values (as parents, as community members, as global citizens). It’s time to kick the advocacy taboo to the curb, the two philosophers exhort, arguing that meaningful action arises only when facts (“what is”) are welded to values (“what ought to be”).
To drive home the urgency of curbing fossil fuel use, Nelson cites sources as diverse as “Genesis” and Dr. Seuss. At last year’s meeting of LTER scientists nationwide he did a riff inspired by The Lorax. This scholar of striking contrasts can recite playful couplets one moment and the next, dare scientists to rethink the most basic assumptions of their careers.
“Look, we don’t know how to create careers in science that fully empower scientists,” Nelson tells a roomful of researchers. “What we do know is this: Everything has changed. You have taught us that. You should ask yourself some questions: Are the old forms of scientific practice working? Or do you need to create another path? What does it mean to be a scientist now? You are studying systems, ecosystems; you know about the necessity of connections. Live what you know. That’s integrity.”
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Read more
See details about Michael Nelson’s teaching, books, ongoing projects and affiliations.
Predator and Prey, a Delicate Dance, The New York Times, May 8, 2013
Wolves Teach Scientists Their Limitations, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 1, 2013
SEA Semester Program Informational Session
Come and learn more about the SEA Semester program!
SEA Semester is an OSU-approved program that is open to any majors at OSU. Every SEA Semester program begins with a shore component on SEA's campus in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and is followed by an open ocean research voyage. Each program combines elements of oceanography, maritime history & culture, environmental studies, public policy, and nautical science.
For more information, please visit: http://oregonstate.edu/international/studyabroad/programs/sea-semester
There will be a seminar on Marine Plastic Debris at 4pm at Burt 193, followed by another informational session at 5pm in Wilkinson 207.
SEA Semester informational session
Come and learn more about the SEA Semester program. Informational session held right after the seminar on "Plastic Marine Debris" (4pm at Burt Hall 193) by Erik Zettler, Associate Dean at Sea Education Association.
SEA Semester is an OSU-approved program that is open to any majors at OSU. Every SEA Semester program begins with a shore component on SEA's campus in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and is followed by an open ocean research voyage. Each program combines elements of oceanography, maritime history & culture, environmental studies, public policy, and nautical science.
For more information, please visit: http://oregonstate.edu/international/studyabroad/programs/sea-semester
The Ecology of Plastic Marine Debris: Life in the “Plastisphere”
Dr. Erik Zettler from Sea Education Association will speak about plastic marine debris.
Location: Burt Hall 193
Plastic is now the most common form of marine debris, and the effects of this human-generated pollution on marine life due to entanglement and ingestion are well documented. Media interest in the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' and debris generated by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan has focused public and scientific attention on plastic marine debris. This persistent debris can move across ocean basins to distant shores and has the potential to change ecosystems. With the help of student research projects on SEA Semester boats, we have accumulated the best plastic marine debris data set in the world. Moving beyond simply counting pieces, we are now characterizing the plastic and discovering that it represents a novel marine ecosystem supporting a unique biological community, with potential impacts on the health of marine systems and even humans.SEA Semester is an OSU-approved program advministered by the office of International Degree and Education Abroad (IDEA). For more information, visit: http://oregonstate.edu/international/studyabroad/programs/sea-semester
Semester at Sea Networking Social
This event will link past, present, future, and prospective students, as well as OSU staff and faculty who have or may sail with Semester at Sea. The main purpose of this event is to allow all those who have experienced SAS to be able to connect, network, reminisce, and encourage future participation in Semester at Sea to expand the SAS-OSU community. Refreshments will be provided by Semester at Sea.
For more information about Semester at Sea, visit http://www.semesteratsea.org/
GE Spring Session 2 Begins
Higher Education Readiness Program
The American Military & Diplomatic History Conference
Conference Panels, Tues. May 7, 2-5pm, Memorial Union, Journey Room:
*with light refreshments
-2pm: "The Impact of International Revolutions on Political Discourse in Antebellum America,"
Danielle Holtz, University of Pennsylvania
Moderator: Christopher McKnight Nichols, Oregon State University
-3pm: "The Art and Science of American Diplomacy,”
David Milne, University of East Anglia
Moderator: David Bernell, Oregon State University
-4pm: "The Forgotten History of American Foreign Policy Success,"
Timothy Lynch, University of Melbourne
Moderator: Amy Below, Oregon State University
Keynote Panel, Tues. May 7, 7pm, LaSells Center, C&E Auditorium:
"American Power in Historical Perspective"
with Christopher McKnight Nichols (Oregon State), Timothy Lynch (Melbourne), and David Milne (East Anglia)
Moderator: Ben Mutschler (Oregon State)
*followed by a reception hosted by Oxford UP
NOTE: Some of the conference talks and events will be recorded and can be viewed after the event.
American Military and Diplomatic History Conference
This conference will bring together international and U.S.-based scholars to offer new perspectives on the historical and contemporary relationship between the United States and the world. The daylong event features scholars from three continents and draws on experts from OSU’s School of History, Philosophy, and Religion, as well as from political science and public policy. It will address a wide variety of scholarly accounts and innovative interpretations of American military and diplomatic history, 1776-present, and seeks to engage the OSU and Corvallis communities in discussions about the pressing international challenges that the U.S. and the world face today.
The timing of this conference coincides with the publication and launch of The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Military and Diplomatic History, a major two-volume encyclopedia that will be discussed at the keynote panel by its main editors: Timothy Lynch, David Milne, and Christopher McKnight Nichols. In the keynote these three scholars will talk about the insights drawn from their multi-year, multi-volume study of American military and diplomatic history since the 18th century and will situate American power in historical and global perspective.
In addition to the scholarly and community benefits of the conference, this event also aims to foster new intellectual connections and to embed the work pursued at the School of History, Philosophy, and Religion and the OSU community in a transnational dialogue around the international role of the U.S. and its relationship to and with the world.
Schedule of Events:2-5pm, Conference Presentations - OSU Memorial Union, Journey Room:
2pm: "The Impact of International Revolutions on Political Discourse in Antebellum America"
Danielle Holtz, University of Pennsylvania
Moderator: Christopher McKnight Nichols, Oregon State University
3pm: "The Art and Science of American Diplomacy"
David Milne, University of East Anglia
Moderator: David Bernell, Oregon State University
4pm: "The Forgotten History of American Foreign Policy Success’"
Timothy Lynch, University of Melbourne
Moderator: Amy Below, Oregon State University
7pm, Keynote Panel - LaSells Stewart Center, C&E Auditorium:*
(* NOTE: C-SPAN will be filming this event!)
and the Launch of Oxford Encyclopedia of American Military and Diplomatic History
In the nearly two-and-half centuries since the Declaration of Independence, the United States
has gone from being a distant trading outpost on the eastern seaboard of British North America to one of the most significant political, economic, and military powers in world history. This rise is
due to many factors. Americans were fortunate in their geography, which lessened their vulnerability to foreign threat, and in their climate, which made much of the nation’s land arable and
prevented famine. Through robust design, the flexible, often messy political system of the United States tended to generate vibrant democratic politics, characterized by peaceful transitions of
power, and a booming economy. These opportunities and political constructions provided the foundation for the military power and diplomatic capacity of the United States. Bringing to bear the
latest scholarly insights to analyze that power and capacity over the last 300 years is the central concern of the Oxford Encyclopedia of American Military and Diplomatic History.
The editorial board directing the conception and writing of this major reference work will discuss and debate scholarly approaches to American power, historical and contemporary, as part of Oregon
State University’s conference on American Military and Diplomatic history launching the Oxford Encyclopedia of American Military and Diplomatic History.
purchase the volumes at $100 off the list price (@ $295)
The panel will feature:
• Professor Christopher McKnight Nichols, Senior Editor, Assistant Professor, School of History,
Philosophy, and Religion, Oregon State University, author of: Promise and Peril: America at the Dawn of a Global Age (2011); co-editor/co-author with Charles Mathewes, Prophesies of Godlessness:
Predictions of America’s Imminent Secularization from the Puritans to the Present Day (2008)
• Professor Timothy Lynch, Editor-in-Chief, Associate Professor and Director of the Graduate School of
Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne, author of: After the Cold War: American Foreign Policy in a New World (2014); co-authored with R.S. Singh, After Bush: The
Case for Continuity in American Foreign Policy (2008); Turf War: The Clinton Administration and Northern Ireland (2004)
• Professor David Milne, Senior Editor, Senior Lecturer, University of East Anglia,
author of: America's Rasputin: Walt Rostow and the Vietnam War (2008)
• Professor Ben Mutschler, Director of the School of History, Philosophy, and Religion
Sponsors:Funding for this event comes from the OSU Office of International Programs, the School of History, Philosophy, and Religion, the Hundere Endowment for Religion and Culture, Oxford University Press, and the College of Liberal Arts.
GE Spring Session 2 Orientation
US Fulbright Information Session
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is the largest U.S. exchange program offering opportunities for students and young professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and primary and secondary school teaching worldwide. The program currently awards approximately 1,800 grants annually in all fields of study, and operates in more than 155 countries worldwide.
During their grants, Fulbrighters will meet, work, live with and learn from the people of the host country, sharing daily experiences. The program facilitates cultural exchange through direct interaction on an individual basis in the classroom, field, home, and in routine tasks, allowing the grantee to gain an appreciation of others’ viewpoints and beliefs, the way they do things, and the way they think. Through engagement in the community, the individual will interact with their hosts on a one-to-one basis in an atmosphere of openness, academic integrity, and intellectual freedom, thereby promoting mutual understanding.For more information, please contact LeAnn Adam, OSU Fulbright Program Adviser (leann.adam@oregonstate.edu) or visit our Fulbright information page.
ISOSU's Spring Festival
The International Students of Oregon State University presents Spring Festival. Spring Festival is a collection of performances put on by both students and professional performers. There will be activities and games, free food ranging from the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, and Asian, and cultural booths. Come enjoy an afternoon of music and performances from around the world.
US Fulbright Information Session
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is the largest U.S. exchange program offering opportunities for students and young professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and primary and secondary school teaching worldwide. The program currently awards approximately 1,800 grants annually in all fields of study, and operates in more than 155 countries worldwide.
During their grants, Fulbrighters will meet, work, live with and learn from the people of the host country, sharing daily experiences. The program facilitates cultural exchange through direct interaction on an individual basis in the classroom, field, home, and in routine tasks, allowing the grantee to gain an appreciation of others’ viewpoints and beliefs, the way they do things, and the way they think. Through engagement in the community, the individual will interact with their hosts on a one-to-one basis in an atmosphere of openness, academic integrity, and intellectual freedom, thereby promoting mutual understanding.
Learn more about the Fulbright U.S. Student Program: http://us.fulbrightonline.org/GE Spring Session 1 Ends
Biochar video
John Miedema of BioLogical Carbon Inc., Philomath, Ore., makes biochar at a wood processing plant and explains his process in this video.
Perry Morrow, student in the Oregon State University Water Resources Graduate Program, produced this video on biochar, the carbonized remains of plants. Turning low-value wood and other biomass into biochar sequesters carbon from the atmosphere for hundreds of years. The resulting material may also benefit water quality by absorbing pollutants such as copper, lead, zinc and other metals.
Learning to Fly
Heidi Igarashi studies the “sandwich generation,” parents who care for their adult children as well as their own aging parents. Listen to a podcast with Igarashi. (Photo: Nick Houtman)
For many first-year college students, going to a new school represents “leaving the nest.” They are now responsible for housing, bills and their own education. But according to Heidi Igarashi , a research assistant at Oregon State University, most are still in their parents’ nest and will be for several more years.
“Parents used to expect that their kids should be financially independent by 22,” she says, “but now the majority of them say 25. There is a longer run up to adulthood.”
Igarashi, a doctoral student who works with Carolyn Aldwin, professor of human development and family sciences, recently published a study looking at parents who support both adult children (ages 18 to 30) and their own elderly parents. She found that while parental support may benefit maturing adults, things get more difficult when they care for the older generation.
“The idea of the empty nest is based on this probably antiquated idea of the life cycle where you get married, have children, your children grow up, ‘leave the nest,’ and the parents are there to ride out those last periods of time. ‘Empty nest,’” she adds, “applies to some people but not many.”
It is simply taking longer for young adults to take flight. That trend shows up in a variety of ways, from education to insurance. For example, Igarashi points to an increased interest and a need for further education in graduate school. Health insurance has also changed. Prior to 2010, states had varying rules on dependency for health insurance purposes. Now federal law says a child can remain on a parent’s insurance until age 26. Igarashi attributes these cultural changes to the nest being full longer.
Igarashi found that most parents were happy to support their children for longer periods of time. Parents, she suggests, are simply continuing what they had been doing. However, she also looked at them as caregivers for their own parents. This type of caring is increasingly common. The average couple has more parents than children. But that doesn’t mean it is always received with ease. Igarashi calls this type of support “caring up.” On the generational ladder, the older you get, the higher on the ladder you are.
Caring Up Is Hard to Do
“Caring up is hard on everyone. The midlife folks were very happy to provide care up, but it came with this burden, feelings of angst, anxiety, uncertainty. Not only for themselves, but for their parents too.” Some elderly parents had Alzheimer’s, and some were bed ridden. In these circumstances, feelings of anxiety are natural, she adds.
Igarashi did her study during the economic recession of 2008-2009. Shortly after she published her results, the PEW Research Center released a similar but separate study that added more detail. PEW found that in 2012, 47% of midlife adults (ages 40-59) were supporting a child, while they were also taking care of a parent older than 65-years-old. Pew Researchers referred to these individuals as part of a “sandwich generation,” meaning they provide both care up and care down the generational ladder.
Despite any feelings of potential burdens, Igarashi’s study found that during these changing economic times, being a “sandwich generation” may not be a bad thing. Young adults get the support they need to take flight from the nest when they are truly ready, whether for educational, financial or other reasons.
“In our society we tend to really value autonomy and independence, and hold it almost paramount to almost anything else,” says Igarashi. “What our study indicates is that it’s really interdependence that may become really important, especially in this changing socioeconomic world where you really need other people around you to really work together.”
Most college students fit into the category of nestlings learning to fly. While the job market will continue to create challenges, Igarashi provides encouragement that parents are willing to assist their children during these changing times even while assisting parents of their own.
Co-authors on Igarashi’s study include Oregon State professor Karen Hooker, Deborah P. Coehlo (OSU-Cascades) and Margaret M. Manoogian (Western Oregon University).
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See Igarashi’s report, “My Nest Is Full”: Intergenerational relationships at midlife, in the Oregon State University Scholar’s Archive.
See the PEW Research Center study on mid-life adults: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/01/30/the-sandwich-generation/
Unique Journeys: Collaborating Beyond Borders
Join Allison Davis-White Eyes, Dr. Brent Steel , Dr. Philipp Kneis, and some of their students as they discuss the result of their recent collaborative efforts: an experiential learning program offered in partnership between Humboldt University Berlin, Germany, Oregon State University and Warsaw University, Poland. Dr. Kneis is currently an instructor in Political Science and Master of Public Policy Programs, of which Dr. Steel is the director, while Allison Davis-White Eyes is the Director of Intercultural Student Services and American Indian Initiatives. This event will take place Thursday, May 2nd from noon-1pm in MU 213. Light refreshments will be served.
