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Environmental Studies:
Faculty
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Renee Godard, (homepage) professor of biology and environmental studies; director of environmental studies
B.S., Guilford College; Ph.D., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
I was trained as a biologist with a focus on ecological and behavioral studies. This background has given me the opportunity to understand and explore what I believe to critical environmental issues facing our world today. I teach two of the core courses for the environmental studies major, environmental studies and ecology as well as co-teach the capstone seminar in environmental studies. It is my goal to help ground environmental studies majors in science. This grounding is of obvious need if a major wants to pursue environmental science as a focus and career, but is of equal importance to a major that wants to pursue environmental advocacy or law as the science allows for informed decisions and action.
Majors in my courses will learn how to analyze water quality in nearby streams by examining macroinvertebrate communities, will explore the impacts of acid rain on forest communities, examine green building design, will come to understand and connect to the Appalachian environment and will gain the necessary skills to carry out their own research project to name a few. Though many of the most pressing environmental issues are of global proportion, many of the solutions will be initiated at the local level. As such, I am also interested in working with students to study, evaluate, and offer suggestions to improve sustainability of campus practices at Hollins as part of ongoing environmental audit. Work with students in 2004 resulted in significant improvements in our recycling program and initial work towards establishing an Environmental Advisory Board.
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Jon Donald Bohland, assistant professor of international and environmental studies
B.A., James Madison University; M.A., Syracus University
My training is in geography and international studies. Many of the courses that I teach at Hollins are crosslisted in both international and environmental studies. Students who are interested in global environmental issues will find these courses of particular value.
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Pablo Hernandez, assistant professor of economics
B.A. Universidad de las Americas; M.A., Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
Pablo Hernandez teaches in the business and economics department. His primary interests concern environmental and natural resource economics and development economics. Prior to his arrival at Hollins in the fall semester of 2007, Pablo served as CWIL fellow and visiting professor in the Department of Business Administration and Economics at Saint Mary's College. He earned his doctorate in economics from the University of Notre Dame. His doctoral research dealt with the interaction between international trade and environmental quality by assessing the economic aspects behind the recent transfers of hazardous waste between Mexico and the United States. Pablo is also interested in topics of financing for development in Latin America, and in community-based conservation strategies from a developing country perspective.
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Bansi Kalra, Paula Pimlott Brownlee Professor of Chemistry; B.Sc., M.Sc., Panjab University; Ph.D., University of Saskatchewan
Impacts of acid rain, global warming, pesticide pollution and biomagnification all result from the introduction of chemicals from human and natural sources. As such, environmental studies majors should have an understanding of basic chemical processes as it is these processes that are at the root of many of our most pressing environmental problems. I teach a basic course in Environmental Analysis to environmental studies majors who are more interested in environmental advocacy, literature or law. My department also offers elective courses in chemistry that will provide an important foundation for those environmental studies majors interested in environmental science.
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Erika Latty, assistant professor of biology and environmental studies
A.B., Harvard-Radcliffe College; Ph.D., Cornell University
My fundamental interests are in the ecological underpinnings of plant biology. Most broadly, my research program focuses on how human accelerated enviromental changes influence plant communities and ecosystem processes. These human-induced changes include invasive plant and insect species, acid rain, and land-use. Related to these interests, I also explore how knowledge of historical and old-growth forest communities may be used to develop sustainable forest management techniques and conservation practices.
One of my research goals is to integrate information from both the natural and social sciences to better understand the driving forces of broad-scale landscape changes. Current projects in my lab include studying the effects of experimental manipulations of coarse woody debris and gap openings on plant communities and nitrogen cycling, establishing restoration goals for Great Lakes Forests, and understanding the controls on the spread of beech bark disease in eastern forests. I encourage undergraduate students to become involved in any of these studies or in related projects of their own devising. I teach conservation biology, one of the core required courses in the major, as well as several other elective courses in ethnobotany, plant biology and biogeochemistry. I am also involved in co-teaching the capstone environmental studies seminar.
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Thorpe Moeckel, assistant professor of English; B.A., Bowdoin College-Brunswick; M.F.A., University of Virginia.
His first full-length collection of poems, Odd Botany, won the 2000 Gerald Cable Award and was published in 2002 by Silverfish Review Press. Chapbooks include Meltlines, The Guessing Land, and Making a Map of the River. He earned his M.F.A. in 2002 at the University of Virginia, where he was a Jacob K. Javits and Henry Hoyns Fellow. |
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William P. Nye, (homepage) professor of sociology; B.S., Tufts University; M.A., Ph.D., New School University
As a sociologist I have come to recognize the significant role that environmental change plays in society and culture. As a specialist in race and minority relations, I am particularly aware of the detrimental impacts of environmental change and pollution on minorities and impoverished communities. I teach one of the core courses, Environment and Society, as well as other elective courses in the environmental studies major.
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Affilicated faculty: Rebecca Beach (biology), Sandy Boatman (chemistry), Julie M. Clark (mathematics and statistics), LeeRay Costa (anthropology and women’s studies), Casimir Dadak (business), Juergen Fleck (economics), Lori J. Joseph (communication studies), Edward A. Lynch (political science), Jong Oh Ra (political science), Annette Sampon-Nicolas (French and international studies), Darla Schumm (religious studies), Susan L. Thomas (political science), C. Morgan Wilson (biology)
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