Women Shall Lead Them: Islamic Reform 21st Century

This lecture, delivered by one of the most Internationally recognized Islamic Feminists in the past few decades, will trace the Muslim Women's Movement from an inside personal-spiritual course to its global conditions and challenges and on towards a new paradigm changing the future.  Muslim women are creating more viable, necessary and creative reforms than any other sector of Islamic post-modernism.  The path has been rough, the challenges have been deep and yet, the rewards are unprecedented.  

 
This lecture will cover the rise of Islamic feminism and its direct relationship with both secular Muslim feminism and Political Islam.  It will feature analysis and experiences spanning 4 decades of scholarship and activism in more than 60 countries.  Islamic feminism is born out of this time and travel but it is still growing and its impact will continue the course towards an inevitable future of equality and justice for all.
Date:
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Location:
WT Young Auditorium

METANARRATIVES, EXTREMAL PRINCIPLES, & ANOTHER REJECTION

The attached paper (In Defense of Metanarratives:Extremal Principles, Optimality and Selection in Earth Surface Systems) was originally written in early 2015 and revised in April 2015, as an invited paper for a special issue of a geography journal. By mutual agreement with the guest editors, I withdrew the paper after deciding that I was unwilling/unable to satisfy some of the major recommendations of reviewers. The major, but by no means only, issues were that referees and guest editors felt I should more fully address history and philosophy of science issues and parse the definitions of principles, theories, narratives, etc. I felt that I could say what I was trying to say without getting into that stuff, which would have taken a lot of work on my part that would have seriously inhibited my studies on the (to me) far more interesting and important topics of how Earth surface systems actually work. After sitting on it for two years, and publishing bits and pieces of the ideas on optimality and selection in other contexts (but not the metanarratives part) I concluded that I am unlikely to ever resubmit it anywhere. But I did put a lot of work into writing the damn thing, so I am posting it online, for what it is worth.

BIOGEOMORPHOLOGICAL SELECTION

Biogeomorphology considers the impacts of organisms on surface processes and landforms (e.g., biological weathering, effects of burrowing animals), and vice-versa (e.g., the role of landforms as habitat, effects of erosion on biota). We are particularly concerned these days, however, with reciprocal interactions, such as sediment trapping by vegetation, and the feedback effects of this deposition on plants and their habitat. We are also learning a lot about biogeomorphic ecosystem engineering (BEE), whereby biota modify the abiotic environment in ways that influence habitat or resources (positively or negatively) for themselves or other species, and biogeomorphic niche construction, where BEE effects influence selection pressures and biological evolution.

REGOLITH MOBILITY

Some recent theoretical and modeling work on regolith and the so-called critical zone draws a distinction between the entire thickness of weathered material H and the mobile thickness h that is potentially (re)movable by erosion and mass wasting. As H > h this implies that in many cases there exists a subsurface immobile layer.

This distinction between a potentially laterally mobile and a fixed layer of weathered material is no doubt useful as a model assumption. It is also probably true, or close enough, for some very thick weathered mantles. And of course, the mobile:immobile distinction is self-evidently true during periods when a portion, but not all, of the regolith thickness is being transported.

Regolith in the flysch Carpathians, Czech Republic. Lighter upper layer is a landslide deposit. Lower material (the black layer is charcoal, apparently from a fire at some point) is weathered in place. It is all potentially mobile.

WE DON'T HAVE TO SHOW YOU ANY STINKIN' FACTS (1)

We are currently mired, at least here in the US, in a political and cultural milieu where truth, facts, and logic are not only ignored by many citizens and alleged leaders, but are actively resisted. (2)   This drives scientists especially crazy, as we are trained and wired to argue and act based on hard evidence and logic. Our efforts in this regard are wildly imperfect, but it is a universally agree upon ideal, and in our world, while facts can be modified and tested, they cannot be ignored or denied.

Alfonso Bedoya in the famous "no stinkin' badges" scene from the Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

 

For years there has been a great deal of (justified) hand-wringing over how scientists can and should communicate with the general public--how to translate complex and specialized concepts into understandable terms, without oversimplifying or trivializing them. These concerns have accelerated lately with respect to the deliberate obfuscation and politicization of issues such as climate change, sea-level rise, and environmental protection.

Immigration and Higher Education: Faculty Migration Stories at UK

The "Civic Life" panel series, developed by the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, is a new weekly forum exploring a wide range of issues confronting society today. Open to the entire UK campus, these lunchtime panel discussions will take place each Wednesday for the remainder of the semester, and the series kicks off Wednesday, March 22, with a discussion of immigration — a topic making headlines worldwide.

“At the core of the mission of the College of Arts and Sciences is the commitment to prepare students to be engaged citizens in our Commonwealth, in an increasingly diverse nation, and in an ever-more interconnected world," said Mark Kornbluh, dean of the college. "Faculty members across all of the disciplines of our college take this commitment seriously and are seeking to provide additional opportunities to engage students over a broad range of issues that are essential to contemporary civic life."

Wednesday's forum, "Immigration and Higher Education: Faculty Migration Stories at UK," is noon to 1 p.m. in the UK Athletics Auditorium of the William T. Young Library.  It features five faculty members, all immigrants to the United States.  From the College of Arts and Sciences are Beth Guiton, Department of Chemistry; Liang Luo, Department of Modern and Classical Languages; Jacqueline Couti, Department of Modern and Classical Languages; and Cristina Alcalde, Department of Gender and Women's Studies; and Keiko Tanaka, Department of Community and Leadership Development in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.

"Immigration is a popular topic today yet little understood. In higher education, immigration is both a topic of study and informs the lives of faculty, staff and students," said Alcalde, who organized the first in the Civic Life series. "In this panel, UK faculty draw on their own experiences to discuss intersections between migration and higher education. The goal is to foster dialogue about the role of immigration in higher education — including faculty, staff, and students’ experiences of migration."

 The Civic Life panel discussion series will continue with various topics each Wednesday in March and April, setting the stage for a more in-depth focus on civic education during the 2017-2018 academic year.

"A&S will be reaching out to all colleges on the campus to co-sponsor events and join us in extending discussions on contemporary civic life beyond the walls of our classrooms,” Kornbluh said. “The issues that are being sharply contested in American civic life today go to the essence of American democracy and the future of this nation and the world.  A university education is designed to help students hone their critical thinking and analytical skills.  I firmly believe that it is possible, indeed that it is essential, that we address the critical issues of today and that we can do so in a way that is welcoming to different points of view and respectful to all."

Date:
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Location:
UK Athletics Auditorium, W.T. Young Library

A&S Kicks Off New 'Civic Life' Panel Series March 22 With Discussion of Immigration

By Kathy Johnson

The "Civic Life" panel series, developed by the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, is a new weekly forum exploring a wide range of issues confronting society today. Open to the entire UK campus, these lunchtime panel discussions will take place each Wednesday for the remainder of the semester, and the series kicks off Wednesday, March 22, with a discussion of immigration — a topic making headlines worldwide.

Geography Colloquium

Mapping the Relational Geographies of Lexington’s Housing Landscape



Across the United States, there is growing awareness of the crucial role played by housing in reproducing structures of racial and class inequality. From gentrification to racial segregation to exploitative rental markets, the data demonstrate the ways that contemporary housing processes concentrate poverty and other social problems within certain neighborhoods. This presentation will document the changes in Lexington’s housing landscape over the past half century, with a particular eye towards demonstrating the fundamental connections and co-production of racially concentrated poverty and extreme affluence. Ultimately, this presentation will attempt to shed light on the limitations of using data and mapping in housing advocacy, and point towards alternative understandings of how these methods might be used to challenge the status quo.



Dr. Taylor Shelton is a visiting scholar in the Department of Geography and New Mappings Collaboratory at the University of Kentucky. Taylor earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in geography from UK before continuing on to earn a PhD from the Graduate School of Geography at Clark University in 2015. Prior to returning to Lexington this year, Taylor worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Urban Innovation at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research is situated at the intersection of critical GIS, digital and urban geographies, using the tools of GIS and big data to understand and rethink urban social and spatial inequalities.

Date:
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Location:
Room 114 Whitehall Classroom Building
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