Please join the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, the Program on the Environment, EarthLab, and the Simpson Center for the Humanities on Thursday, February 6 from 4:00-5:30 pm in Communications 120 as we welcome Jessica Weir, PhD from the Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University.
Dr. Weir will be giving a talk titled “Natures, Peoples, and Justice: Collaborative land management and cultural burns in the Australian Capital Territory.”
Dr. 

SMEA is proud to announce that faculty member Dr. Cleo Woelfle-Erskine has been recognized with the 2019 Annette Kolodny Prize for the best environmentally-themed paper presented at the American Studies Association national conference held this past year in Honolulu, HI.
Woelfle-Erskine’s paper “With and for the Multitude: Ecology as Queer Acts” was described as “a poetic, rigorous, and inventive reconceptualization of post-industrial waterfronts as transgressive spaces, or queer ecologies. 

SMEA Director and Professor Nives Dolsak was interviewed by a team in the College of the Environment about why she chooses to write about the social side of all things environment. In the interview she talks about why she feels timely, public-interest pieces in the popular press are essential to environmental issues, and how she weighs in on sensitive topics without being an advocate for particular outcomes. 

 
SMEA Director and Stan and Alta Barer Professor in Sustainability Science, Nives Dolsak co-authored a piece for Forbes alongside Aseem Prakash, the Walker Family Professor and the Director of the Center for Environmental Politics here at the University of Washington. According to Dolsak and Prakash, Microsoft has set ambitious targets, which if reached, would mean the company might become “Carbon Negative”. 

Why did you decide to pursue a Master of Marine Affairs?
I actually came across the program by chance. I was looking at the University of Washington’s degree programs and saw “Marine Affairs”. I wasn’t totally sure what it was, but it piqued my interest. I ended up spending hours on the website and realized that this was the right program for me. 

SMEA faculty member Dr. Patrick Christie participated, as one of two social scientists, in a diverse working group organized by the Palaua International Coral Reef Center and Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions. His role was to provide guidance, drawing from his extensive work in other contexts, on the human dimensions of marine protected area (MPA) planning, program monitoring and evaluation, and public engagement—all elements that determine the success of any MPA. 

 
SMEA Professor and Director Nives Dolšak and UW Director of the Center for Environmental Politics Aseem Prakash recently wrote an article for Forbes encouraging consumers to rethink their usual gift giving this holiday season and consider giving back to nature. Rampant consumerism contributes to overconsumption which shows up in groundwater depletion, deforestation, and river and ocean pollution. People should buy less, but buying less is not enough, according to Dolšak and Prakash “We should also buy right, especially when buying is geared towards gift giving. 

Why did you decide to pursue a Master of Marine Affairs?
Honestly? I didn’t. I pursued SMEA, and that pursuit will result in an MMA!
Why did you decide to come to UW’s SMEA for graduate school?

I was working a corporate job and in many ways, really enjoyed it. But at the end of each day I felt unfulfilled, and knew I ultimately wanted my job to be more mission/impact driven. 

Why did you decide to pursue a Master of Marine Affairs?
My future goal is to promote the sustainable use of fisheries resources. After majoring in fish population dynamics at the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute of the University, I worked in the Fisheries Agency of Japan (FAJ) as a fisheries management officer both domestically and internationally. I participated in many bilateral and multilateral fisheries negotiations as a member of the Japanese delegation. 

On Tuesday, October 22 the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs and the Quaternary Research Center welcomed Dr. Jake Rice, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, who gave a talk titled “Sustainable Use, Biodiversity and Climate Change – What is Success When the Goalposts Keep Moving?”
Keeping uses of natural resources sustainable has not been simple, especially in the ocean where governance has always been more complex than on land.