Paper Topics

 

2015 NEW JERSEY SCHOLARS PROGRAM TOPICS — CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE

 

HISTORY/ POLITICS/ ETHICS

      David Figueroa-Ortiz

J.D. Columbia University, School of Law

Will McDonald           The Underlying Ethics of the Keystone XL Pipeline

Robert Bailey              The Reflection of Relative Uncertainty: Coping with Climate Change in Modern  Politics

 

 

LITERATUREFILM

Huma Ibrahim

Ph.D. Indiana University

 

I think of teaching as a step in the formation of a thinking adult who can negotiate ambiguity and contradictions, and because of that, I not only take it very very seriously but that is also the reason why I insist on taking the specific cultures that I inhabit as foreground for a process of examination and contemplation.  I think there is no better way to do this except through and engagement with literature.

In the literature segment of climate change I tried to introduce the students to a creative and artistic way of examining global warming.   We read (insert books and movies) and examined various scenarios of climate change.  These authors wanted to warn their readers, make fictional projections about the future and examine possibilities for the world they inhabit as it is being affected by climate change.

Dominique Dazilme             All That Glitters Isn’t Gold: Climate Change Fiction and Its Influence on Today’s Young Minds

Ida Behreini               Is Sustainability Possible Through Capitalism?

Felix Blanco              Industrial Hemp and Climate Change.

Jack Malague             Who Runs this Place?

Nikita Patolla                 Humanities in Climate Change:  A Waste of Time, or a Valuable Asset?

Anthony Phillips           Climate Change:  Psychology and Health.

Tejveer Singh                Climate Change and its Economic Impact on India.

Catherine Tsang            Desertification in the Sahel:  What is it? Where is it now? Where is it going?

Angela Wu                       Art Imitates Life:  A Study of Women in Climate Fiction And Climate Reality.

 

SCIENCE/ ENGINEERING

Daniel M. Westervelt

Ph.D. Carnegie Mellon University

Daniel Goldman                      The Effect of Ocean Acidification on the Bahamas.

Ian Harvey                              American Consumerism Just Won’t Quit: The Continuation Of American Material Overconsumption in the Face of Ecological Concern.

Alexa Mangual                        Potential Economic Consequences of Kyoto Protocol Ratification by the U.S. in 1997.

Du’aa Moharram                     The Solution to Climate Change: Tomatoes and a Breath of  Fresh Air.

Chidinma Nwachukwu           The Harmful Effects of Global Warming on West African Health.

Diana Paneque                        Correlation Between Rise in Temperatures From Global Warming and Occurrence of Cholera in Bangladesh.

Rachel Pester                          Follow the Carbon: Climategate’s Effect on Public Opinion and Policy.

Bilal Shaikh                             Head in the Sand: The Impact of Cognitive Biases in Preserving Outdated Worldviews.

 Keshav Sota                            Analyzing the Effects of Black Carbon on Climate Change.

Evan White                             Social and Economic Impacts of Flooding in Bangladesh.

 

 

 

 

SOCIOLOGY/ ANTHROPOLOGY 

William Westerman ’78

Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania

The NJSP 2015 Program’s focus was on Climate Change and the Human Experience, with lectures and seminars emphasizing four main areas: Science/Engineering, Literature/Film, History/Politics/Ethics, and Anthropology/Sociology.  The Anthropology and Sociology seminar investigated the impact of climate change on human culture.  From native peoples in the Arctic to remote islands of the South Pacific, we looked at the threats to culture and survival posed by warming temperatures, melting ice, and rising seas.  Then we considered the catastrophic impacts of drought, floods, heat, and famine in highly populated areas like Bangladesh, China, and the American West, with a focus on refugees, women, and public health.  Finally, we examined sustainability and our survival as a species, looking at whether we can consciously change our patterns of consumption and agriculture and, in doing so, how we can discover a meaningful life.

Mary Akdemir                 The Syrian Civil War as a Climatic Conflict: How Drought Played a Role in Instigating the Syrian Civil War.

Johann Arceo                          Citizens and Climate: An Investigation of Climate Change’s Role in Intranational Relations in the Philippines.

Aaron Bennett                  Relating to the Status of Environmental Refugees.

Edwin Cruz-Garcia                  Zapotecs and Climate Change.

Mateo Gilsilvetti                      Climate Change’s Effect on Cultural Stability and Food Security of Small-Scale Fishing Communities in Latin America.

Grace Lee                                Millennium Park: Chicago’s Green Space Mitigation to the Urban Heat Island Effect.

Ayush Parikh                           The Socioeconomic Impacts of Flooding in Bangladesh: A Catastrophe Washing Away a Nation.

Paul Park                                 North Korea’s Agricultural Insecurity Due to Its Lack of Trade Related Security and Climate/Environmental Security.

Kelsey Shelofsky                     The Call for a Change in ‘Refugee’ Policy: How a Local Change Can Make a Global Impact.

Rita Wang                                Polyester Universe:  Apocalyptic Hymnals from the Bible of Consumer Capitalism.