Fall 2022 Newsletter - School of Global Integrative Studies

Fall 2022 Newsletter

Sophia Perdikaris, Director School of Global Integrative Studies

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It has been a tremendously busy year and I thank all our students, faculty, staff and partners for making it such a success! I am delighted to welcome our new faculty member, Dr. Elizabeth Clausing, our new SGIS advisor, Kristin Plath and our new office assistant, Ethan Jensen. Congratulations to all the faculty and students for their success in publications, grants and awards. With the pandemic entering a new phase, travel has started again as has fieldwork! Beyond the duties and responsibilities as Director of the School of Global Integrative Studies, I have been working hard in my 189H course, welcoming the publication of my book and the new IRES NSF Grant.

From my work in both the Arctic and for the last two decades in the Caribbean, on the island of Barbuda (Antigua and Barbuda) I have always embraced the values of public education, and the belief that interactive, immersive experiential learning – such as what we do at SGIS- should be available to all students and not just the ones that can afford - both in terms of money and time -to participate. With the pandemic, many of our courses went online but our students did not have the opportunity to participate in many of our field-based activities. The “discovery” of Reller Prairie was very fortuitous and allowed me to use some of my startup funds to bring Reller back to life but also to ma ke it available to the faculty and students. This is a fantastic property with great potential for transdisciplinary work and in particular training of aspiring field scientists, as it is only 20 minutes away from our City Campus. All the work was done by student, staff and faculty volunteers and our families. A big thank you to all that helped in making Reller a reality. I had the pleasure of seeing these efforts that brought us together in socially distanced interaction during the pandemic come to completion with the ribbon cutting ceremony in October 21, 2022. The ceremony was attended by more than 110 people and officiated by our Chancellor, Executive Vice Chancellor and the Dean of the College of Arts and Scie nces. The most important moment for me was the blessing of the research station at Reller Prairie by Dwight Howe, an Omaha/Ponca elder. It marks the beginning of working together, developing trust, and creating relevant programming that will be valuable to both of our communities. At Reller Prairie we are embracing “research of relevance” and that is something that grows through listening and working with all the stakeholders in our community to better understand the past but making it relevant to current day concerns. We are very excited for the next semester to begin and for what next summer has in store! Faculty led trips include Barbuda, Iceland and Germany!

In the following pages you will see many of the accomplishments by our faculty and students over the past few months -- We hope you enjoy!

Have a healthy, happy and fulfilling winter break!

Sophia

Faculty Accomplishments

Dr. Bill Belcher

Associate Professor, Anthropology

Dr. Belcher was interviewed for a Live Science article on the Indus Valley Civilization, one of the oldest civilizations in human history.

https://www.livescience.com/what-was-the-indus-valley-civilization

Dr. Carrie Heitman

Associate Professor, Anthropology

Awarded Mellon Foundation Grant. The funding will support documenting the reconnection of Zuni and Hopi peoples with artifacts described in archeological databases and housed in national museums.

https://sgis.unl.edu/school-global-integrative-studies-receives-mellongrant-zuni-hopi-project

Dr. Patrick Bitterman

Assistant Professor, Geography

Dr. Bitterman was recently named a Faculty Fellow with the UNL Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute.

Drs. Sophia Perdikaris and Bill Belcher

Director, SGIS / Associate Professor, Anthropology

Sophia Perdikaris and William Belcher will lead the new IRES project taking place in Barbuda, in which program participants will get to research and develop cultural heritage preservation strategies.

https://sgis.unl.edu/perdikaris-belcher-earn-funding-student-fieldproject-barbuda

Dr. Julia Reilly

Assistant Professor of Practice Professor, Global Studies

Dr. Sophia Perdikaris

Director and Professor, School of Global Integrative Studies

Co-edited new book titled "Barbuda: Changing Times, Changing Tides" , releasing in December 2022.

https://www.routledge.com/Barbuda-Changing-Times-ChangingTides/Perdikaris-Boger/p/book/9781032326399

Selected as a UNL/CAS Teaching Academy Fellow. The initiative engages faculty in local, national, & international conversations about essential issues in higher education; develops teaching expertise across the disciplines and at all levels of learning; and recognizes and rewards exceptional teachers.

https://cas.unl.edu/teaching-academy-fellows-selected-2022-23

Faculty Accomplishments

Dr. Becky Buller

Associate Professor of Practice, Geography

Dr. Buller has published environmental essays in the new book "Field Guide to a Hybrid Landscape"

https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/bison-books/9781496227775/

She will also co-lead along with Dr. Rebcca Young, the first ever study abroad course to Iceland in the summer of 2023.

Dr. Elizabeth Clausing

Assistant Professor, Anthropology

Dr. Clausing has a new article out, “Changes in sociocultural stressors, protective factors, and mental health for US Latina mothers in a shifting political climate”

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.02 73548

Dr. Andrew Husa Lecturer, Geography

Dr. Husa was elected to be the chair of the Rural Geography Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers.

Dr. Effie Athanassopoulos and Dr. Carrie Heitman are collaborating with PI Dr. Liz Lorang and colleagues on a project that received a Grand Challenges Planning Grant award from UNL Research.

https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/edwards-helikar-uiterwaal-earn-firstgrand-challenges-grants/

Drs. Effie Athanassopoulos and Carrie Heitman Associate Professors, Anthropology

Faculty Accomplishments

Dr. Heather Richards-Rissetto Associate Professor, Anthropology

In August, Dr. Richards-Rissetto received a National Science Foundation Senior Archaeology Award for “Collaborative Research: Applying 3D Deep Learning to Lidar for Automated Detection of Archaeological Sites in Tropical Regions”. She is the lead PI collaborating with researchers from the UNL College of Architecture, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of New Mexico. In July, she published a chapter on “Technological Challenges to Practicing 3D Ethics in Archaeology in an edited volume on Digital Heritage and Archaeology in Practice. She co-authored a chapter in on “Accessing 3D Data” in the Open Access Book 3D Data Creation to Curation: Community Standards for 3D Data Preservation published by the Association of College and Research Libraries.

In November, Dr. Richards-Rissetto co-authored a publication on “Ancient Lowland Maya Neighborhoods: Average Nearest Neighbor Analysis and Kernel Density Models, Environments, and Urban Scale” in PLOS ONE. She co-chaired, with Dr. David Wishart, the doctoral research of Dr. Christy Hyman who graduated with a PhD in Geography in May 2022 Dr. Hyman is currently an Assistant Professor at Mississippi State University. She advised Trent Carney who received his MA in Anthropology with a specialization in Professional Archaeology in May 2022 Trent is now a Highway Archaeologist at History Nebraska. Dr. RichardsRissetto has expanded her research with colleagues Richard Wood and Christine Wittich, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, UNL to acquire additional 3D laser scanning data for the archaeological excavation tunnels at Copan, Honduras in collaboration with the University of Texas at Austin and the University of New Mexico.

Dr. Phil Geib Associate Professor of Practice, Anthropology

In May, Phil Geib received an email alerting him that he had been awarded the Byron Cummings Award from the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society for recognition of his contributions to Southwestern archaeology. This was quite the unexpected but happy surprise--recognition for simply doing something that is personally meaningful and that adds to accumulated knowledge about poorly documented past societies. The award was handed to him at the Pecos Conference in early August, which was held this year on Rowe Mesa in central New Mexico. In attendance, to his great delight, were Carrie Heitman and daughters Sienna and Millie.

Other accomplishments included submission of a finalized version of a book about Barrier Canyon Style rock art to University of Utah Press, a journal publication about a specialized wooden artifact recovered from a site in Utah, and presentation of a paper about the 2021 Reller Prairie archaeology field school. The latter was coauthored with UNL undergraduate student Samuel Thomas, who did an independent study to analyze the lithic artifacts from the site. Sam is currently a graduate student at George Mason University." https://sgis.unl.edu/geib-earns-byron-cummings-award

Faculty Accomplishments

Dr. LuAnn Wandsnider Professor and Associate Director, SGIS

In August, Dr. WAndsnider returned to Turkey to plan for intensive survey of the site of Antiochia ad Cragum, currently being excavated by an international team directed by UNL’s Professor Michael Hoff. The site features magnificent architecture from the Roman period but so far, no evidence for a pre-Roman presence. Was this city established at this location by Antiochus (a client king to Rome) because of its Hellenistic reputation or because it lacked such a history?

This question speaks to the role of history and memory in drawing subsequent occupants, which undergirds much of Dr. Wandsnider's research. In 2023, the team will work to unpack this mystery.

She has continued her research on understanding the construction and reformation of the historic landscape of Custer County, which will be presented in a symposium at the Society for American Archaeology in 2023. Native Americans had been removed from Custer County by 1880, when settlement by stock-raisers and then farmers ensued. How did the new residents “learn the land” and are there lessons we can extend from this to our world today as global warming creates a new, foreign landscape?

Dr. Effie Athanassopoulos Associate Professor, Anthropology

Effie Athanassopoulos co-organized a panel titled “The Medieval Household: A Multi-disciplinary Approach” in the 24th International Congress of Byzantine Studies, which took place in Venice and Padua, Italy, August 22-27, 2022. Seven speakers from Italy, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Israel, and the US participated in the panel. The papers will be part of an edited volume, which is currently in progress.

Dr. Athanassopoulos received a CAS Research Impact and Engagement Grant for international travel.

She has also published two papers, co-authored with students, on the ongoing work with the UNL Campus Archaeology collections. The first paper appeared in the latest issue of Central Plains Archaeology, the journal of the Nebraska Association of Professional Archaeologists. The second paper appeared in the fall issue of Nebraska History Magazine, which is published by History Nebraska.

She is also a member of the team of eight faculty and staff from the Libraries, SGIS, Mathematics and the School of Computing, who received a Grand Challenges Planning Award for the interdisciplinary project “Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Cultural Heritage for Science and Technology Literacy and to Advance Antiracist Information Systems”.

Faculty Hires Staff Hires

NEW SGIS Faculty & Staff

Elizabeth Clausing Assistant Professor, Anthropology Xiaomeng Li Lecturer, Geography

Kristin Plath SGIS Academic Advisor Ethan Jensen Office Assistant Kruger Collection Intern

Courtesy Appointments

Zhenghong Tang Professor and Director, Community and Regional Planning Program

Abigail Cochran Assistant Professor Community and Regional Planning Yunwoo Nam Associate Professor Community and Regional Planning

SGIS Courtesy Appointments

Summer 2022 Graduations

Anthropology, MA

Gabrielle Mace (Supervisor: William Belcher)

Thesis: Implications of Ancestry Estimation: an Analysis of Identification rates in Unidentified Person Cases

Mason McKinney (Supervisor: William Belcher)

Thesis: Tracking and Estimating the Commingling of Missing US Service Personnel: A GIS and Forensic Anthropological Approach

Andrea Sbei (Supervisor: William Belcher)

Thesis: Odontometric Sex Estimation Using a Modern Forensic Skeletal Collection

Geography, MA

Cari Dowden (Supervisor: Becky Buller)

Thesis: Commemorating the Past: Nebraska Museum Practices in Interpreting, Memorializing and Mythologizing History

Will Helmer (Supervisor: David Wishart)

Thesis: Film and the Making of a Modern Nebraska (1895-1920): A Historical Geography

Undergraduate

Brett Hofferber-ANTH

Ashna Anikumar Gehlot-GLST

Batool Ibrahim-GLST

Ethan McDermott-GLST

Summer 2022 Graduation

SGIS Student Awards

Flavia Waters and John L. Champe Fellowship Award in Anthropology is awarded to Jon Garcia in the amount of $1,500.

Don Burgess Award in Anthropology (undergraduate) is awarded to Jessie Reed in the amount of $200.

Don Burgess Award in Anthropology (graduate) is awarded to Jon Garcia in the amount of $300.

Ward Frederick Weakly Memorial Fellowship in Anthropology is awarded to Patrick Barchett in the amount of $1,500.

The Excellence Award in SGIS is awarded to Will Helmer in the amount of $500.

Robert N. Reece Geography Fellowship is awarded to Jason Yoo in the amount of $400.

Student Awards

Student Accomplishments

Digital Humanities fellowships foster transformation Digital Humanities Fellow Recipients (from left) Olufunke Ogundimu, Kevin Pflager, Patrick Hoehne and Ethan Jensen pose for a photo with program director, Dr. Carrie Heitman. https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/digital-humanitiesfellowships-foster-transformation/

Alex Mohr, PhD student in geography, completed a book review that was accepted by the 2022 AAG Review of Books: Feminist Geography Unbound: Discomfort, Bodies, and Prefigured Futures, The AAG Review of Books: 10.1080/2325548X.2022.2072591

Alex was offered an Adjunct Faculty position in Geography at the University of Nebraska at Omaha in the spring, and has received his local Substitute Teaching Certificate and will work for the Omaha Public School System.

Student News

Student Accomplishments

Jim Benes, PhD student in geography, organized and planned the screening of Utica, the Last Refuge. It was a film highlighting the plight and overwhelming successes of refugees coming to the USA for resettlement. Participating members of SGIS include, Dr. Emira Ibrahimpašić, Dr. Chris Heselton, and Dr. Julia Reilly. They all had the director and his wife (also a director) visit their classes to speak about the refugee experience.

Jim is co-leading a Faculty-led UNL study abroad program focused on outdoor early childhood education to New Zealand over this coming Winter Break. They plan to take the students to several different nature-based child education centers on the North Island of the country for two weeks.

On November 17th, Jim presented his current research to the Nebraska Geological Society. The title of the talk was, “Using Geochemicals to Bolster Fire Records in the Nebraska Sand Hills”. On November 21-22, Jim and Dr. Paul Hanson went into the field to do some site surveys for future core extraction in the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge.

Benes' research is lit!

Jim Benes, Ph.D. student in geography analyzes fire history by taking cores from lakes or wetlands and then processing and sieving the charcoal particles within the core, centimeter by centimeter.

https://sgis.unl.edu/benes-research-lit

Student News

Student Accomplishments

Jon Garcia, MA student in anthropology presented his collaborative research "A Missing Link: Comparative Osteometrics of a Possible Transitional Bison Species found in Eastern Nebraska to the Modern American Bison (Bison bison) and the Ancient Bison (Bison antiquus)" at the 79th Plains Anthropological Society Conference in Oklahoma City.

Jessica Long, Will Helmer, Kevin Pflager and Heather Bloom, all graduate students in geography, presented at the AAG GPRM Regional Conference in Denver, CO. Will came in second place and Kevin came in third place for their research papers. Will also competed in quiz bowl and is on a team for nationals.

Student News

Fall 2022 Colloquium

The School of Global Integrative Studies hosted Dr. Xiaomeng Li for the Fall 2022 Colloquium Series. Dr. Li presented on her research studying disparities in access and daily travel to leisure and personal service destinations across the Detroit region.

Fall 2022 Colloquium

Big Red Welcome

Events

SGIS Open House

Harvest Moon Festival

Events

Chat with a Professor Twice a Month at Union Career Fair day October 12

Global Experience Fair

20 CAS Advisor Day at Reller Prairie

Negotiating Peace: From Conflict to Coexistence

Dr. Emira Ibrahimpasic and Katelyn Kunzman

Northern Ireland

Summer 2022 Study Abroad

Emira Ibrahimpasic, Associate Professor of Practice in Global Studies along with Ed Abroad Katelyn Kunzman co-developed this course.

Forensic Archaeology

Dr. William Belcher

Munster, Germany

https://www.bild.de/adblockwall.html

Summer 2022 Field School

https://www.klkntv.com/unl-group-joins-excavation-project-of-wwii-bomber-in-europe/

Underwater Forensic Investigation Field School

Cedar Point Biological Station

Dr. William Belcher

Summer 2022 Field School

Reller Prairie Ribbon Cutting

https://sgis.unl.edu/opening-reller-prairie https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/reller-prairie-improvements-open-wealth-of-experiential-learning/

Reller Prairie

College of Arts and Science Dean Mark Button, Chancellor

Ronnie Green, and Executive Vice Chancellor Kathy Ankerson

Reller Prairie

Kruger Collection

Kruger Collection

End of Semester