Karen Lupo with an Aka elephant hunter and his
grandson in Ndele, Central African Republic.
grandson in Ndele, Central African Republic.
The environment, global collaboration and undergraduate education all stand to benefit from two separate projects headed by WSU researchers and recently funded by the National Science Foundation.
Archaeologist and evolutionary anthropologist Karen Lupo will gather information to study the impact of human activity on rainforest habitat and human populations.
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Sociologist Erik Johnson will create a series of databases to track overseas environmental organizations.
Lupo’s team will reconstruct the past 4,500 years of ecosystem history for north-central Africa’s rainforest. Researchers will build a longitudinal record, from fossil and subfossil evidence, that maps how the rainforest environment has evolved over time. They will use information gathered to study the transition of native inhabitants to a horticultural society 2,300-2,500 years ago and its impact.
“This work has significant implications for understanding the relationship between rainforests and human activity, an issue that remains critically important today as we face continuing threats to these vital ecosystems,” said Paul Whitney, senior associate dean in the College of Liberal Arts.
Johnson’s team will compile information about environmental organizations in Great Britain, Ireland, Canada and Australia to facilitate cross-national examination of environmental movements and groups engaged in sustainability efforts, natural resource and wildlife protection, and environmental health and justice advocacy.
“I am increasingly interested in cross-national comparative research on environment movements, interest groups and environmental public policy,” he said.
“NSF funding for Erik Johnson’s research on environmental organizations and national policies will allow an outstanding WSU social scientist to make fundamental contributions to solving natural resource problems,” Whitney said.
Global reach
Researchers, public policy makers, businesses and nonprofit groups interested in studying relationships between local environmental organizations and movements and the development of national public policy and global organizational infrastructures will have access to Johnson’s searchable databases.
Researchers, public policy makers, businesses and nonprofit groups interested in studying relationships between local environmental organizations and movements and the development of national public policy and global organizational infrastructures will have access to Johnson’s searchable databases.
Lupo’s project will include archaeologists, anthropologists, ethnoarchaeologists and palynologists from WSU, the University of Bangui, the Boganda Museum in the Central African Republic, and CURDHACA (Centre Universitaire de Recherche et de Documentation en Histoire et Archéologie Centrafricaines).
The project will include outreach activities with local central African communities to promote stewardship and protection of heritage and environmental resources.
Whitney touted “the multi-institutional and multi-national partnerships” of the project. He also commended the cross-national data sharing and cooperation of Johnson’s project.
Undergraduate learning
“What makes it even better,” Whitney continued about Johnson’s work, “is that WSU students will have an opportunity to play a role in collecting and analyzing the data from this cutting-edge project. That’s how you train the next generation of leaders to think broadly and deeply about the great problems of our time.”
“What makes it even better,” Whitney continued about Johnson’s work, “is that WSU students will have an opportunity to play a role in collecting and analyzing the data from this cutting-edge project. That’s how you train the next generation of leaders to think broadly and deeply about the great problems of our time.”
WSU undergraduate students will be involved with Lupo’s project, as well, helping to develop new curriculum for use in introductory anthropology courses.
“Our plan is to have undergraduates create a Web-based learning module that demonstrates the value of multi-disciplinary studies and especially highlights how prehistory can shed light on current practical issues,” Lupo said.
Lupo earned a doctoral degree from the University of Utah and specializes in the use of zooarchaeological analysis to explore questions about human-animal interactions. She is the author of numerous refereed publications. Her previous awards include a Fulbright Senior Specialist Grant and grants from the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation, the NSF and the NSF’s IGERT program.
Her recent NSF grant is for approximately $181,701.
Johnson, who joined the WSU faculty in January, holds a doctoral degree in sociology from Pennsylvania State University, University Park. His areas of research specialization include environmental sociology, social movements, political sociology and organizations.
He received a $150,000 NSF grant.
