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Chairman O'Kelly's News Brief

September 30, 2016

Chairman O'Kelly's News Brief

Morton

First this week, a big thanks to all who participated in the Picnic at Blendon Woods last Saturday. It was a nice event for grads, faculty, and staff. Diane Carducci and Suzanne Mikos were there and special thanks to Emelie Bailey and all the grads for filling in for Caitlin Naber who made all the plans but who unfortunately had to miss the great food from City Barbeque. The weather was also very nice and the park itself is a gem inside the city. Within a few miles of a major interstate you can be in a forested area and almost completely isolated from the rest of the urban hubbub. Thanks again to all who could make it, and for the future, please consider putting this on your must do list!

The department was delighted to have a visit from Howard Biel this week, and he had a chance to meet for dinner with Ed Malecki, Mat Coleman, and Max Woodworth. He also joined Morton O'Kelly for a breakfast meeting. As always, Dr. Biel has many salient anecdotes and keen observations on urban locational dynamics.

Stavros Constantinou attended the Race, Ethnicity, and Place Conference (REP) VIII at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, September 21-23, 2016. He presented a paper and chaired a session. This is a conference attended by several OSU grads including Rickie Sanders, Mike Webb, Madhuri Sharma, and Richard Jones. OSU Geography is a proud co-sponsor of this event and it was always a popular favorite of Larry Brown.

Somewhat related: a subject studied by our former student Peter Chen (food deserts) is in the news with an unexpected twist. Whole Foods is opening a new store in Englewood Chicago, an area that has been deprived of access to fresh produce. The city encouraged the developer to fill in this blank on the map. Peter wrote a dissertation entitled "Bringing time into measures of food access: place vs. people" and completed his PhD in 2014 with Morton O'Kelly as adviser. See a related story combining retailing, politics, and demographic profiles here:

Upcoming Events

Here is a list of upcoming talks, in some cases co-sponsored by Geography, but in any case likely to be of interest. We think of these talks are an integral opportunity as part of the graduate student experience. Thanks to Becky Mansfield for this suggestion, and feel free to send me further suggestions if I have missed any; the full ads are generally available if you have trouble finding the event:

Aimi Hamraie’s upcoming visit (October 4-6):“Access-Knowledge: Disability, Universal Design, and the Politics of Knowing and Making” Wednesday, October 5th | 311 Denney Hall | 4:00-6:00 pm

GRADUATE STUDENT WORKSHOP: “Crip Technoscience”Thursday, October 6th | 311 Denney Hall | 12:30-2:00 pm RSVP’s are required for the graduate workshop by Tuesday, October 4th to Rebecca Hudgins.18@osu.edu

The Environmental Humanities series will be hosting Dipesh Chakrabarty on October 6. Dr. Chakrabarty will be giving a talk entitled 'Climate Change and the Anthropocene'. More details are available at

Libby Wentz from ASU will be here and speaking in Geography. Dean Wentz is a geographer and an influential academic leader and is here to consult with high level OSU Administrators. Take advantage of the opportunity, October 21.

Bruce Braun, Professor of Geography at the University of Minnesota, will be giving a talk (title TBD) on Thursday Nov 10 in the Research Commons in the 18th Street Library. This talk is part of the Environmental Humanities series organized by Thomas Davis (English) and Mary Thomas (WGSS), and is co-sponsored by the Research Commons.

Kathryn Yusoff, Senior Lecturer in Geography at Queen Mary, will give a talk on Monday Nov 14 at 3:30pm (title TBD) in the Barbie Tuttle Room at the Student Union. Dr. Yusoff is visiting as part of the 'Cultures of the Anthropocene' Humanities Institute Working Group. The working group is led by Mat Coleman, Thomas Davis (English), Mary Thomas (WGSS), and Max Woodworth. The talk is also sponsored by English, Geography and WGSS.

Stay tuned also for more exciting talks through the 'Cultures of the Anthropocene' Working Group, including J.K. Gibson-Graham.

Ellen Mosley-Thompson (Director BPCRC) offers the following excellent resource. All are welcome to sign onto BPCRC for a distribution list that highlights events, talks and workshops.  Follow this link to subscribe to the public announcements

The upcoming GIS for the rest of us Workshop (CURA is a sponsor of course) is prominently featured on their list.  The Center provides links to other upcoming events here

Here are CURA's events: