"Geoheritage and Cultural Heritage" is the fifth webinar of the America's Geoheritage Workshop II Fall Distinguished Speakers Program. To watch the recorded video of this webinar, please visit https://vimeo.com/470639004
Speaker: Steven Semken
Title: Sense of Place: Connecting People to Geoheritage and Cultural Heritage
Description: Sense of place makes human connections to natural and cultural landscapes—geoheritage and cultural heritage—tangible and teachable. Place-based education and interpretation in, leveraging the sense of place, can motivate diverse stakeholders to better explore, learn about, care for, and protect geoheritage places, while also increasing their Earth-system literacy.
Bio Sketch: Steven Semken is professor of geology and education in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. He is an ethnogeologist and geoscience education researcher whose work integrates geology, geography, ethnography, education, and technology. He investigates the influences of sense of place, of culture, and of affect on modes of teaching, learning, and doing research in the Earth sciences in the real and virtual realms. Before joining ASU, he taught at the Tribal College of the Diné (Navajo) Nation. Semken and his students work in the geologically and culturally diverse places of the American Southwest, Latin America, and the Caribbean, focusing on Indigenous and Hispanic/Latinx communities. Their goal is to apply place-based geoscience teaching for equity in the geoscience community, environmental and cultural sustainability in underserved regions, and greater public Earth-science literacy. Semken is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and a Past-President of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers. He has a Ph.D. (1989) and S.B. (1980) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.S. (1984) from the University of California, Los Angeles, and has received several awards for excellence in teaching.
Speaker: Ken Ridgway
Title: Geoheritage Connections to Indigenous Communities and Landscapes
Description: There has traditionally been a disconnect between geoscience and indigenous communities. This disconnect has been part of the reason for geoscience being the least diverse of the STEM fields (e.g., Bernard and Cooperdock, 2018). I will discuss how at Purdue University we are building connections between geoscience and indigenous communities. The strongest connections are developed when indigenous students do geo-research on issues that are directly relevant to their tribal lands and communities. A geoscience understanding of landscapes that respects indigenous cultures will be critical for preservation of both geoheritage sites, and all cultures that have deep connections to these landscapes.
Bio Sketch: Ken Ridgway has been a faculty member in the Deptartment of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University since 1992. Much of his research is related to understanding the tectonic and sedimentary processes that occur along convergent plate boundaries. Ridgway is the co-leader of the Sloan Indigenous Program at Purdue University. He was awarded the 2012 GSA Bromery Award. This award is given to those "who have made significant contributions to research in the geological sciences, or those who have been instrumental in opening the geoscience field to other minorities." Ridgway was also the recipient of the 2012 Purdue Dreamer Award. This award is given annually to an individual or organization within the Purdue community whose contributions embody Dr. Martin Luther King's vision of service to others and furthers the university's commitment to diversity.
Speaker: Carol J. Pride
Title: Connecting HBCU Students and Coastal Communities to Georgia’s Barrier Islands
Description: Carol Pride’s presentation will describe a 2004-05 initiative to train HBCU students to run a marine science camp for children of the Hog Hammock Gullah Geechee community of Sapelo Island, GA and subsequent efforts at Savannah State University to engage K-12 and college students in study of the Georgia coast.
Bio Sketch: Carol Pride joined the faculty of Savannah State University in 2002 and now serves as chair of SSU’s Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences. Her background is in paleoceanography including doctoral research in the Gulf of California with Bob Thunell and postdoctoral research on the Southern Ocean with Mark Brzezinski and Mic Deniro. She currently mentors undergraduate and graduate students in research on temporal variability of our estuarine and barrier island ecosystems, with focus on the imprint of climatic and anthropogenic pressures on these systems. In her teaching, she engages students in collaborative research at local sites and in community outreach. Her engagement of HBCU students in K-12 geoscience outreach sprouted from a Sapelo Island Sea Camp and Natural History Interpretation Training Program, which was the brain child of the late Margaret Olsen. Subsequent NSF and NOAA funded programs at SSU have inspired many to broaden their geoscience education, to become science educators, and to serve as stewards of our coastal environment.
Speaker: Joshua Villalobos
Title: Moving The Needle Forward: Observations and Experiences in Mentoring Minorities in the Geosciences
Description: This talk will discuss the efforts, successes, and challenges in engaging minority students within a community college setting. The presentation will also highlight the programs that have been implemented to ensure students make the successful transistion to the university to complete their higher degree(s).
Bio Sketch: Joshua Villalobos is an Instructional Campus Dean supervising multiple instructional programs included Geological Sciences and other STEM disciplines at the Mission del Paso campus at El Paso Community College (EPCC). During his time as a faculty member at EPCC he helped initiate several NSF funded programs targeting minority students at EPCC to get engaged within the geological sciences. His focus has also encompassed innovative pedagogy in the classroom and has co-authored a SERC InTeGraTe Module introducing the concept of Environmental Justice into introductory geoscience classes. He is also currently serving as a SERC Traveling Workshop Facilitator and has given several workshops at several institutions on engaging minorities in the geosciences. In 2016 he was awarded Geological Society of America’s Geoscience Education Division's Biggs Award for Excellence in Earth Science Teaching. Joshua also received the 2018 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Math and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) from the National Science Foundation and the White House for engaging minority students in the geosciences at the community college level.
We encourage all participants to complete our survey following the webinar here: https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/5958421/Geoheritage-and-Cultural-Heritage-October-20