Maxwell School News and Commentary

“When you can’t adapt to climate change at all and face interconnected issues surrounding loss and damage, the unbearable heaviness of climate coloniality is worsened,” says Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment. “This means destruction, devastation and loss are so profound that one can’t finance one’s way out of it.”

“In coming decades, winter—as most people understand it—will get shorter and warmer, with less snow and more rain,” says Robert Wilson, associate professor of geography and the environment. “This poses a serious threat to winter recreation: snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, and downhill skiing.”

Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment, argues that state lawmakers need to update the state’s 43 year old water law and create more active management areas to regulate water use across Arizona. “There needs to be some way of monitoring and regulating who is drawing what from the aquifers,” says Koch.

"The Lifeworld of Elizabeth Symons: Family Biography and Atlantic Geographies in the Eighteenth Century," authored by Karl Offen, professor of geography and the environment, was published in the Journal of Historical Geography.

In her recently published book, “Arid Empire: The Entangled Fates of Arizona and Arabia” (Verso, 2023), Maxwell School faculty member Natalie Koch explores the exchange of colonial technologies between the Arabian Peninsula and the United States over the last two centuries. 

Monmonier, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geography and the Environment, was recognized for ‘outstanding contributions.’

Eleven Maxwell School students have been awarded grants from the Syracuse Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement (SOURCE) and the Renée Crown University Honors Program. The awards provide up to $7,500 in support for original undergraduate research projects.

“Pumping groundwater in Arizona remains largely unregulated,” writes Natalie Koch, professor of geography. “It’s this legal failing that, in part, allows the Saudi company to draw unlimited amounts of water to grow an alfalfa crop that feeds dairy cows 8,000 miles away.”

The Center for Migration Studies presented Winders, professor of geography and the environment and associate provost for faculty affairs, with the award at its annual gala.

Anne Mosher, associate professor of geography and the environment department, says it’s not uncommon for localities to cast about for a new identity. “American communities have been reinventing themselves since the 19th century and this is generally how they attracted business and tourists.”