Call for Applications (deadline May 11, 2022)

Summer 2022

Ice and Environmental Justice Undergraduate Research Awards

Overview

Thanks to generous support from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, Professor Mark Carey (Environmental Studies Program/Geography Department) is able to offer two $4,000 Summer Research Awards for undergraduate students at any level to design and conduct full-time Summer 2022 humanities-oriented research on topics related to ice, climate, and environmental justice in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Alaska, British Columbia).

Glaciers are of course icons of climate change. But they also play a role in farming and irrigation, environmental hazards like outburst floods and avalanches, salmon and fisheries, hydropower, alpine recreation, conservation, coastal and marine ecosystems, water supplies, public lands management, livelihoods, identities, and food security. Proposed research could focus on any of these topics, and many others, as long as it is connected to ice, the humanities, and environmental justice.

The goal of these Research Awards is to help students develop, conduct, and finish a research project. Ideally, the research proposal will be created with guidance from a faculty mentor. However, if you have a project idea, but not a faculty mentor, then contact Professor Carey who runs the UO Glacier Lab to help.

An exciting component of this Research Award is completion of a final product by the end of Summer 2022. There is flexibility in these final products. Most students will choose to write a research paper. But others may decide to develop a museum exhibit, or an art installation, or a studio project, or to publish a journalism article. Options are endless but must be agreed upon with your faculty mentor at the outset, so expectations and goals are transparent.

Eligibility Criteria

• Projects may come from any discipline but should be connected to the humanities, environmental justice, and ice/climate
• Applicants must be returning to the UO as an enrolled student for Fall 2022
• Applicants must obtain a commitment from a faculty member to supervise their summer research project (contact Professor Carey if you have a project but not a faculty mentor)
• Applicants may not be paid to conduct research through other internal UO research support programs during Summer 2022, though they may have academic-year support
• Applicants must secure research approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) if the research involves work with human subjects

Award Expectations

• Commit full-time effort to conducting research during Summer 2022
• Maintain regular interactions with the faculty mentor during Summer 2022
• Complete a research paper or agreed-upon final product (exhibit, studio, art, etc.) by the end of Summer 2022
• Meet with the other award winner and Professor Carey at least 3 times during the summer
• Share the results of the research project at the May 2023 UO Undergraduate Symposium
• Acknowledge the Andrew Mellon Foundation in all work resulting from the Summer 2022 research
• Notify Professor Carey of any publications, public exhibits, or conference presentations resulting from the research project

Award Details

This Research Award provides $4,000 during the Summer of 2022. The award will be paid out in two equal installments, one at the end of Week 5 and the other at the end of the Summer once the final research paper/product has been approved by the faculty mentor and Professor Carey.

Please Note: If you are receiving federal financial aid, this award may affect your financial aid eligibility because the Summer Research Award counts as aid rather than compensation for employment. Students who receive federal aid have a responsibility to understand these federal and UO rules and to report all awards earned to the UO Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships.

Application Procedures

Submit an application with the following components:

• a cover letter with all your contact information, student ID number, major, GPA, and your faculty mentor name, department, and email address. This cover letter must also include a statement affirming that you meet eligibility requirements and agree to fulfill all award expectations
• a project description in an approximately one-page single spaced proposal that explains: (a) the justification for the project; (b) the proposed research questions; (c) the expected results; (d) the relationship of the project to ice, humanities, and environmental justice; and (e) your qualifications for this research
• research plan and timeline, which should also name the type of final product (paper, art installation, etc.) you’ll produce and your plan for completing it during summer
• a resume
• a letter of recommendation from your faculty mentor, which should include their commitment to mentor your project during Summer 2022

Application Deadline: May 11, 2022

Application Submission

Submit applications to Professor Mark Carey at carey@uoregon.edu

Faculty mentors should also send their letters of support directly to Mark Carey.

Questions

Contact Professor Mark Carey at carey@uoregon.edu

Call for Applications

Course Development Grants for New Courses Related to Ice and Environmental Justice in the Pacific Northwest

If you’re thinking about developing a new course related to environmental justice—and particularly if it connects to the Pacific Northwest and to snow, ice, glaciers, or glacier-fed waterways—then consider applying for a new course development grant ($4,500 stipend plus OPE). Three of these grants are available thanks to generous support from the Andrew Mellon Foundation.

The goal of this larger Mellon “Pacific Northwest Just Futures” grant is to advance research and education on social and environmental justice issues in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Alaska, British Columbia). There are many ways to bring these issues into new courses, and instructors from all disciplines, in all units, and all UO colleges are eligible to apply. Environmental justice courses related to ice could go in many different directions. Arctic residents including in Alaska rely on thinning sea ice for their homelands, hunting, fishing, transportation, cultural identity, and everything. Permafrost thawing is forcing some coastal communities to relocate and affecting vital infrastructure. Shrinking glaciers in Oregon and Washington play a role in farming and irrigation, environmental hazards like outburst floods and avalanches, salmon and fisheries, Tribal rights and treaties, hydropower, alpine recreation, coastal and marine ecosystems, public lands management, livelihoods and economies, identities, and food security.

Proposed new courses could focus on any of these topics and ice types (sea ice, glaciers, ice sheets, icebergs, permafrost, snow), and many others, as long as courses are connected to ice, environmental justice, and the Pacific Northwest. A new course in environmental ethics could include substantive new content on the Pacific Northwest and/or the cryosphere, while a new Earth Sciences course on hazards could add an environmental justice component, or a Law School course on water in the Northwest could bring in glaciers that feed those waterways, or an Indigenous environmental studies course could increase new content on environmental hazards and justice in Oregon.

There are three $4,500 course development grants available during the next two years, so depending on the number of funded courses in this round, there may be another call for applications next year.

Eligibility and Priorities

These course development grants are designed to help instructors create new courses. All UO instructors and faculty are eligible—from any unit, discipline, department, or college. Anyone who teaches their own courses can apply. Priority will be given to courses that will likely be taught at the UO more than once, rather than one-time course offerings. Courses that have strong environmental justice, ice, and Pacific Northwest content will also be prioritized over courses with only minimal attention to these topics. Priority will also be given to courses that offer innovative pedagogy and interdisciplinary approaches. Proposed courses must be taught within the next two academic years.

Award Details

The course development grant provides a $4,500 stipend to the instructor and covers the associated OPE. The award will be paid in two equal installments: first, at the outset of course development (for this round, in summer 2021); and, second, at the beginning of the term when the course is first offered.

Application Deadline: May 19, 2021

Application Instructions

To apply, email the following materials to Mark Carey (carey@uoregon.edu):

• Cover Letter that provides (1) your contact information, (2) course specifics including proposed course number, title, and expected enrollment; (3) timing of when you will first teach the course (term/year) and frequency of course offering thereafter; (4) course approval status, or steps required for approval, to assure the course can be taught as proposed
• Course Overview explaining: (1) the course rationale, objectives, and topics; (2) any pedagogical innovations; (3) course plans including potential readings, assignments, topics to cover, etc.; and (4) ways the course addresses ice, environmental justice, and the Pacific Northwest
• Department/Unit Head Approval: finalists will be asked to have their unit head confirm that the course offering and plan for continued teaching align with unit-level approvals and planning

Questions: For questions about the award and process, contact Mark Carey (carey@uoregon.edu), who runs the Glacier Lab for the Study of Ice and Society and is based in the Clark Honors College and Environmental Studies Program. Funding for these three course development grants comes from his “Ice, Society, and Climate Justice” dimension of the Mellon “Just Futures” grant.

Call for Applications

Summer 2021

Ice and Environmental Justice Undergraduate Research Awards

Overview

Thanks to generous support from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, Professor Mark Carey (Honors College/Environmental Studies Program) is able to offer two $4,000 Summer Research Awards for University of Oregon undergraduate students at any level to design and conduct full-time Summer 2021 humanities-oriented research on topics related to ice, climate, and environmental justice in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington, Alaska, British Columbia).

Environmental justice research on ice could go in many different directions. Arctic residents including in Alaska rely on thinning sea ice for their homelands, hunting, fishing, transportation, cultural identity, and everything. Permafrost thawing is forcing some coastal communities to relocate and affecting vital infrastructure. Shrinking glaciers play a role in farming and irrigation, environmental hazards like outburst floods and avalanches, salmon and fisheries, hydropower, alpine recreation, conservation, coastal and marine ecosystems, water supplies, public lands management, livelihoods, identities, and food security. Proposed research could focus on any of these topics and ice types (sea ice, glaciers, ice sheets, icebergs, permafrost, snow), and many others, as long as it is connected to ice, the humanities, and environmental justice.

The goal of these Research Awards is to help students develop, conduct, and finish a research project. Ideally, the research proposal will be created with guidance from a faculty mentor. However, if you have a project idea, but not a faculty mentor, then contact Professor Carey to help. An exciting component of this Research Award is completion of a final product by the end of Summer 2021. There is flexibility in these final products. Most students will choose to write a research paper. But others may decide to develop a museum exhibit, or an art installation, or a studio project. Options are endless but must be agreed upon with your faculty mentor at the outset, so expectations and goals are transparent.

Eligibility Criteria

• Projects may come from any discipline but should be connected to the humanities, environmental justice, and ice/climate
• Applicants must be returning to the UO as an enrolled student for Fall 2021
• Applicants must obtain a commitment from a faculty member to supervise their summer research project (contact Professor Carey if you have a project but not a faculty mentor)
• Applicants may not be paid to conduct research through other internal UO research support programs during Summer 2021, though they may have academic-year support
• Applicants must secure research approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) if the research involves work with human subjects

Award Expectations

• Commit full-time effort to conducting research during Summer 2021
• Maintain regular interactions with the faculty mentor during Summer 2021
• Complete a research paper or agreed-upon final product (exhibit, studio, art, etc.) by the end of Summer 2021
• Meet with the other award winner and Professor Carey at least 3 times during the summer
• Share the results of the research project at the May 2022 UO Undergraduate Symposium
• Acknowledge the Andrew Mellon Foundation in all work resulting from the Summer 2021 research
• Notify Professor Carey of any publications, public exhibits, or conference presentations resulting from the research project

Award Details

This Research Award provides $4,000 during the Summer of 2021. The award will be paid out in two equal installments, one at the end of Week 5 and the other at the end of the Summer once the final research paper/product has been approved by the faculty mentor and Professor Carey.

Please Note: If you are receiving federal financial aid, this award may affect your financial aid eligibility because the Summer Research Award counts as aid rather than compensation for employment. Students who receive federal aid have a responsibility to understand these federal and UO rules and to report all awards earned to the UO Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships.

Application Procedures

Submit an application with the following components:

• a cover letter with all your contact information, student ID number, major, GPA, and your faculty mentor name, department, and email address. This cover letter should also include a statement affirming that you meet eligibility requirements and agree to fulfill all award expectations
• a project description in an approximately one-page single spaced proposal that explains: (a) the justification for the project; (b) the proposed research questions; (c) the expected results; (d) the relationship of the project to ice, humanities, and environmental justice; and (e) your qualifications for this research
• research plan and timeline, which should also name the type of final product (paper, art installation, etc.) you’ll produce and your plan for completing it during summer
• a resume
• a letter of recommendation from your faculty mentor, which should include their commitment to mentor your project during Summer 2021

Application Deadline: May 7, 2021

Application Submission

Submit applications to Professor Mark Carey at carey@uoregon.edu

Faculty mentors should also send their letters of support directly to Mark Carey.

Questions

Contact Professor Mark Carey at carey@uoregon.edu

Ilulissat Icefjord, Aug. 2019. Photo by Mark Carey.

Thanks to a new $156,226 grant from the University of Oregon that Dave Sutherland (Earth Sciences, Environmental Studies) and Mark Carey (Environmental Studies, Honors College) have received from the Resilience Initiative Seed Funding Program, Office of the Vice President of Research and Innovation, they are able to fund a new postdoctoral fellowship as part of their collaborative, interdisciplinary research project on “Resilience, ice and society: Probing the timescales of human interactions with cryospheric change.”

Postdoc Description. This University of Oregon funded project aims to explore glacier fluctuations from both a physical science perspective and societal lens. What is the impact of cryospheric change and ice loss on local communities in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska region? How do we reconcile the long-term trends in glacier change with observed short-term variations, and how do the short-term changes affect various social groups differently? To make progress on these questions, this project will develop a more nuanced, time-focused approach to glacier change, examining the impacts of ice change on various marine and land-based ecosystems, as well as analyze how different human communities and individuals are affected by the timing of specific changes in socio-cryospheric systems across the greater Northwest region. The project is jointly led by a physical scientist (Dave Sutherland) and social scientist (Mark Carey), who will both co-mentor the postdoctoral fellow for this integrated, interdisciplinary research.

Position details. This is a two-year position to begin as early as Summer 2020. The salary is $50,004 per year (plus benefits, such as health insurance), with an additional $2,000 per year in research funds provided.

Review of applications will begin on February 17, 2020.

Click here for application instructions and the full position advertisement.