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2023 Panelists

Katie Brown received her degree in Geography with a minor in Biology from the University of Kentucky in May of 2020. During her time in Lexington, she had developed an interest in the interplay of health and space, which continues to guide her work today. Currently, Katie is a Ph.D. Student in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences at Michigan State University. Since joining the program in the Fall of 2021, Katie has contributed to multiple research projects, attended major conferences, and had the chance to work in the field collecting various forms of data. While still in the formative stages, Katie’s intended dissertation involves assessing how urban transformations impact residents’ mental health. She plans to look at the case of Detroit, MI, where many legacy residents may be affected by the rapid physical and social neighborhood-change occurring. Upon completing her degree, Katie hopes to stay in a university setting and contribute to research surrounding health equity.

Sean Conway is an Orthoimagery Technical Expert with NV5 Geospatial, graduating from UK Geography in 2014. Using the tools and techniques he learned during his time at UK, he advanced to his current position overseeing large scale imagery projects. On Twitter and Instagram: @geo_spatialist. 

Amanda Curry works as a Compliance & Operations Staff member in the ​Director's Office of the Energy and Environment Cabinet of Kentucky. She grew up in Kentucky in Woodford County on a family farm where her curiosity and love for the environment began. Curry originally attended UK from 2000-2002, but left to begin a family and worked in a variety of administrative capacities. In 2018, she had the opportunity to return to UK to finish her degree. She was the 2020 ENS Outstanding Senior and graduated with honors (magna cum laude) with bachelor’s degrees in both ENS and Geography, with minors in Appalachian Studies and GIS/Mapping. She currently works as an Environmental Scientist II in the Division of Enforcement with the Department for Environmental Protection at the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet and she is excited about the work I am currently doing, mostly in relation to wastewater compliance monitoring, and the projects that I will be working on soon including dam safety, environmental justice, and a variety of GIS projects.

Sam Harmon graduated UK in December 2019 with a Bachelor’s in Environmental and Sustainability Studies as well as a Bachelor’s in Political Science. In the Fall of 2020, he began law school at the J. David Rosenberg College of Law here at UK. He has also accepted a post-grad associate attorney position at Porter, Banks, Baldwin & Shaw, PLLC, right here in Lexington where he plans to continue his legal career in civil litigation with a focus on insurance defense.

Rachelanne Knoll serves as Eastern Kentucky University’s Sustainability Manager where she works to enforce their Climate Action and Resiliency Plan. She strives to engage the EKU community in a variety of her own passions including sustainable food systems, equity and environmental justice.

Ryan Lark is a sustainability professional and advocate currently serving as the University of Kentucky’s senior level Recycling/Waste Reduction Specialist. He has previously worked for the Kentucky Division of Waste Management, U.S. Geological Survey, and UK’s Center for Applied Energy Research. Ryan holds a BS in Environmental & Sustainability Studies, Biology, and Animal Sciences as well as a Graduate Certificate in Digital Mapping from UK.

Sandra Martinez (she/her) is part of the Accounts Management team at Grid Principles. She is dedicated to bringing a creative approach to problem solving. For the last 5 years, she has worked to implement systems and processes at nonprofits and startup initiatives to aid in scaling efforts. Her curiosity for learning has kept her research mind ablaze. It’s this passion that drives her to dive deep into clients’ needs and holistically understand the 'Why' behind a project’s goal helping to deliver exceptional web products. Outside the office, she stays busy exploring the trails in Kentucky. As a DACAmented individual, she strives to always advocate for her community and stays involved in community-oriented work.

Cassie Odum received her Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Environmental & Sustainability Studies from the University of Kentucky in 2018. After working in Lexington for a few years as an environmental educator with EELCorps (an Americorps State program) and as a laboratory technician at a water quality lab, she returned to her hometown of Indianapolis in 2021 in pursuit of a career in community development. She currently works with the City of Indianapolis as a Project Development Analyst, where she enforces residential building code and local zoning ordinances for commercial and residential development projects, and hopes to begin a graduate program for sustainable development/environmental planning this coming fall. 

Dr. Lisa Bhungalia is a political geographer specializing in race, violence, and empire with a regional focus on the Southwest Asian and North African region. Her research explores the relationship between US empire, late modern warfare, and transnational linkages and encounters between the US and North Africa/Middle East region. 

Ruth Wilson Gilmore is professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences, and American Studies, and the director of the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics. She also serves on the Executive Committee of the Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas and the Caribbean.

Judah Schept, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the School of Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University. He holds a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Indiana University and a BA in Sociology from Vassar College. Judah’s work examines the political economy, historical geography, and cultural politics of the prison industrial complex.

"Guides for Queer Folks: Travel Guides, Maps, and Materiality"

Borrowing from scholarship in map studies, critical cartography, queer media studies. and critical bibliography, this talk examines the utility of queer geographic information as expressed through its materiality. Through an examination of queer spatial information from the 1930s to the mid-2000s—primarily travel guides and maps but also magazines, postcards, and advertising—this talk explores two main arguments. Firstly, that the physical arrangement of queer spatial media and the work individuals undertook to collect, circulate, protect, and keep up to date this information in the pre-digital era reveals this information's politics and perils. Secondly, the presentation argues that to understand these social currents there is a need for renewed attention to physical media and physical interaction during the archival research process. The talk concludes by examining the presenters’ efforts in developing an archival collection of queer spatial information.

“Seeds help me keep my proximity to all the things I don’t want to forget, through stories, flavors and recipes”

Turkish seed keeper Mehmet Öztan will discuss how seeds connect him to his memories of people, places and time; and how they helped him build relations with people of other cultural backgrounds while he is far away from his homeland and living in rural West Virginia. Öztan will also share his thoughts about racism in seed industry as an immigrant seed professional with a decade of experience in the field.

"Communal data governance: digital access and protection in indigenous territories of Oaxaca, Mexico"

With expanding internet coverage,  the issues of access to information in native languages and data protection have become increasingly important in indigenous communities in Mexico, long subject to discrimination and extractivist economic practices. This talk examines the issue of communal data governance in Oaxaca, exploring how indigenous rights and traditions of self governance are being extended into the realm of Information and Communication Technologies.  

All Geography and ENS students are invited to our Fall Celebration in the Niles Gallery on Wed., Dec. 14th, 3pm. The faculty will recognize the achievements of our students, including our graduating students, while describing the events and activities of the Spring semester.

Come for hot chocolate and cookies!

America’s Renaming Moment: On Realizing Its Reparative Possibilities

America is in the midst of place renaming moment. Names affixed to spaces across a variety of scales-- from city streets and university campuses to national parks and military bases—are being challenged and changed because they valorize historical figures associated with racism, settler colonialism, and patriarchy. In addition to this de-commemoration, communities are using place names as tools of reparative memory-work, to recover and do justice to erased indigenous ties to the land and the neglected contributions of people of color, women, and queer communities. While this renaming moment has been criticized (and rightly so to some degree) for being a performative distraction from “real issues,” such a perspective can too easily dismiss the nation’s history of place name activism along with how some members of historically marginalized groups view commemoratively named places as important to their lived experiences, identity struggles, and political-emotional wellbeing. Dr. Alderman explores the narrative, material, and affective capacities of place naming and along with what is required—intellectually and practically—to realize the full reparative possibilities of the nation’s renaming moment. Such possibilities depend upon communities responding to the violent racialized and gendered histories behind named places, recasting place naming as a public participatory and regenerative process, and recognizing how commemorative renaming works with wider place-making discourses, practices, and locations to reproduce (or resist) social inequality.

More information for this event can be found here.

About the Presenter: 

Derek H. Alderman (Ph.D., University of Georgia) is a Professor of Geography and the Betty Lynn Hendrickson Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Tennessee, where he has also served as Head of the Department of Geography & Sustainability. His teaching, research, and public outreach focus on cultural and historical geography, with a major emphasis on the African American Freedom Struggle in the Southeast. Dr. Alderman is a past President of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) and a Fellow of the AAG. He is the (co)author of over 150 articles, essays, and book chapters—many of which have helped develop the growing interdisciplinary field of critical toponymic or place naming studies. His scholarship advances understanding of the role of named places in struggles over social justice, memory, and public space in America. Dr. Alderman is a nationally recognized authority on the topic of street naming, especially for civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. In August of 2022, he was appointed by Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland to serve on a National Advisory Committee on Reconciliation in Place Names, which is charged with identifying and recommending changes to offensive terms still in use for places throughout the U.S. as well as improving existing federal naming/renaming processes. The National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities have fund Dr. Alderman’s research and pedagogical work. Committed to publically engaged scholarship, Dr. Alderman regularly assists municipal officials, community organizations, journalists, documentarians, and DEI advocates. Print, radio and television media outlets have interviewed or quoted him numerous times, including CNN, MSNBC, New York Times, CityLab, Washington Post, USA Today, and National Public Radio.