Author: averslui

For those interested in Mexican history: Prof. Sujay Rao’s Colonial Latin America class is watching the Mexican film La Otra Conquista/The Other Conquest tonight (Thursday, October 4) at 8pm in Beck 215. The film focuses on the religious and cultural transformations occurring in Mexico after the military conquest of the Aztec. All interested students are…

Please join me this evening for popcorn and a screening of the documentary The Wilderness Idea. This 1989 film is an “exploration of the first national controversy about America’s wilderness: Should Hetch Hetchy, a valley within Yosemite National Park, be dammed and flooded to form a reservoir for San Francisco? On one side, utilitarians argued…

Matthew Claypool (class of 2012) writes that his internship as a GIS coordinator with Midcontinent Communications in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has been extended until the end of October: “It’s all really interesting and I am so glad I ended up here!” Matt says of his work. Midcontinent is a “leading provider of data, video,…

Congratulations to Emery Ellingson (Gustavus class of 2012) who has just began a new adventure working at La Obra, a community center in Montevideo, Uruguay. Emery is working through the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Young Adults in Global Mission program. You can read more about Emery’s work and see photos at his blog, It’s…

Dr. Mark Seeley to speak at Minnesota State University next month The Environmental Committee at Minnesota State University, Mankato, is pleased to announce that Dr. Mark Seeley, University of Minnesota climatologist and weekly commentator on Minnesota Public Radio’s “Morning Edition,” will speak at MSU on Thursday, October 4, in Ostrander Auditorium from 5:00 to 6:30…

Meles Zenawi, the prime minister who ran Ethiopia’s dictatorship for nearly two decades, died this week at the age of 57. Gustavus Geography Professor Lencho Bati says that Meles was “a tyrant who ruled Ethiopia with an iron fist and engaged the international community through deceit and cunning. His departure will create a chance for political…

Land use change, especially deforestation, is a global concern that directly impacts biodiversity, climate change, and human livelihoods and communities. Gustavus junior geography major Meg Wika (right, in photo) worked with Prof. Anna Versluis this summer on a study that involved digitizing and georeferencing historic maps of land use change in Haiti. These maps were…

Geographer Chris Williams, Professor at Clark University, and two other guests discussed the possibility of future mega-droughts this morning with journalist Tom Ashbrook on his radio show On Point. You can read about it and download the podcast here.

Macalester College Geography Professor William Moseley recently published an opinion piece in the New York Times on corn and drought in the Midwest. Read it here.

To serve in a country’s Congress or Parliament, does one need to reside in that country? Increasingly, some countries are saying no and allowing those in the diaspora–those living abroad–to run for election. On August 16, when the new President of the Dominican Republic,  Danilo Medila, begins his term, there will also be seven new…