DIGEST 1/31/22- the illusion of levity/brevity one
Hello ENST and E&C folks
Well, there we have it, we're Cal Poly Humboldt! As I have mentioned before, ENST faculty and students feel both excited and trepidatious about this-- there are a lot of pros and cons, as with any significant change. Let's hope our panel with Robin Wall Kimmerer in December makes some key interventions!
A couple ENST - related announcements:
1. We are hiring next year's Peer Mentors! Please consider applying- https://docs.google.com/forms/
2. ENST CLUB is about to happen-- Thanks to Sophia Ruiz for kicking it off, and Marci for serving as treasurer. Keep your eyes peeled for club stuff, and reach out to them if you want to get involved-- sr377@humboldt.edu.
3. GEOG 301: International Environmental Issues and Globalization in Costa Rica!- Application Deadline Feb. 11
If you're interested in taking this course as part of the major requirement (it's an option in the Social Sciences bucket) this summer, you can complete this requirement in a 12-day course with Alison O'Dowd and an amazing colleague of ours there, Miguel Karian. Both Dr. O'Dowd and Miguel are awesome. It's a unique experience-- I did it before COVID as the HSU faculty, and loved it. It took a COVID hiatus but is on again for this summer. You do have to apply, however, so don't miss this chance!! Deadline is Feb. 11. Check it out here.
4. ENST Professional Development workshops coming up! As we did last semester, the Peer Mentors and our new professional advisor, Meridith Orum, will be curating a series of professional development workshops specifically for Dr. Adams' capstone students, but they'll be open to all ENST students. Keep your eyes open for them.
And on to a surprising thin list of announcements from this week:
1. IDEAFEST!!
The Office of Research, HSU Library, and Marketing & Communications would like to invite you to participate in the 9th Annual HSU ideaFest! More than 400 Students, Faculty, & Staff from HSU will showcase research, performances, creative projects, and more!
HSU's 2022 ideaFest will be held on Friday, May 6th. This year's symposium is planned as a hybrid event with both in-person and virtual presentations (dependent on current covid safety protocols). If you or your students are interested in presenting, registration for ideaFest 2022 is now open!
Click Here for more information or to sign up.
This will be a great venue for students to display previously presented professional posters or multimedia presentations at this campus-wide research & creative activities symposium.
The deadline to register for ideaFest is Tuesday, April 5, 2022. Please note that MarCom will be available to print your poster should you need to prior to the event. If you have any questions please contact the Office of Research & Sponsored Programs at (707) 826-4189 or email Erika Andrews at erika.andrews@humboldt.edu
https://pmc.humboldt.edu/
2. Student fellowships - Rachel Carson Council
Please help the Rachel Carson Council (RCC) find and support outstanding candidates for the next generation of environmental leaders. Applications are now open for the RCC Fellowship Program. RCC will select 25 extraordinary environmental leaders from colleges and universities across the nation. Fellowships are for the academic year 2022-2023 and provide $2,000 for current undergraduates (or master's students) to carry out climate and environmental justice projects and campaigns with the RCC from their respective campuses.
RCC Fellowship Application, 2022-2023
3. Free webinars: Sustainability Seminar Series
Stevens Institute of Technology's MS program in Sustainability Management is pleased to announce the Spring 2022 Hugo Neu Sustainability Seminar Series. There will be 11 seminars and 1 panel discussion in Spring 2022 (Tuesdays between 5 and 6 pm EST). They will be live webcast via Zoom and then archived in our YouTube channel. Please join us in the inaugural Spring 2022 seminar on January 25 at 5 pm where a retired astronaut, Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger will talk about Sustainability Lessons from Space. This seminar is sponsored by Geosyntec Consultants.
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I'm sure there is a lot more stuff happening, but for now, I'm sort of enjoying the brevity of this email and the illusion of not much going on. In that spirit, humor me as I invoke my favorite theorist of doing nothing, the Nap Bishop, Tricia Hersey, whose words from the first days of the pandemic are worth revisiting from the perspective of nearly two years on. Consider her invitation to slow down as a form of resistance to capitalism:
As grind culture slows down, will you?
I don’t have any profound new wisdom that hasn’t already been in our culture. There is always ancient knowledge that we have forgotten. So much digital programming is being created right now. The crisis of this peculiar virus is sending us into a dizzying tailspin of grinding in the digital realm. It has been almost a full week that America has realized it is not immune to what happens globally. We are indeed interconnected and intertwined.
During this week, we have buckled in and created enough digital content to last us another decade. I have noticed this tendency in our culture to skip steps during trauma. We jump right to getting over it immediately, leaving no space for the precious ritual of grief, rest and lament. In our minds, there is no time for stopping to process, even in a global pandemic that has killed thousands. I have heard very little about the lives of the people who are now gone and instead been overwhelmed with 10,000 streaming videos to work out, sing, build a treehouse, bake bread, teach math to kids, play an instrument, go to church and everything else under the sun. We want to remain in the way it always was – super productive and focused on doing, even while the systems around us are failing and slowing down.
The truth is we will never go back to “normal” or “regular” after this crisis is contained, and for that, I am grateful and inspired. Our normal and regular pace was never meant for humans, but instead, a machine-level pace fueled by capitalism’s call to create wealth by any means necessary. I am curious now and always by what can be imagined during a true pause. Now that we are being forced to slow down, will we answer the call to collectively stop to dream, daydream, cultivate silence and rest? I believe we have a magical opportunity to stop. There is power in our rest and in our ability to slow down for the sake of collective healing and mourning. It’s time to rest.
In Rest and Power – Your Faithful Nap Bishop, Tricia Hersey
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