UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. — The Department of Geography Coffee Hour lecture series has resumed on Friday afternoons for the fall 2021 semester on Penn State's University Park campus.
Coffee Hour is a twice-per-month lecture series hosted by the Department of Geography celebrating interdisciplinary scholarship and collegiality. Topics range from climate change and water systems to infrastructure and geospatial analytics, among others. Anyone with an interest in the topic is invited to attend.
The lectures begin at 4 p.m. in the John J. Cahir Auditorium, located in112 Walker Building. The lecture also is webcast and recorded for later viewing online.
Louisa Holmes and Luke Trusel, both assistant professors of geography, are the speakers committee co-chairs for 2021-22.
“Our goals for this year include inviting speakers who represent all of our department’s subfields, speakers who are diverse, both in their identities and in their research interests, and those who together will offer our students the broadest range of exposure to geography’s potential,” Holmes said.
Recorded lectures can be viewed on the Coffee Hour Kaltura channel.
Confirmed fall speakers are:
Sept. 10: Heather Randell, assistant professor of rural sociology and demography, Penn State, “Climatic conditions and child nutrition in Ethiopia.”
Sept. 24: Rajashree (Tri) Datta, research associate in the Ice Sheets and Climate Group in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, “Extreme events on the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets.”
Oct. 8: Junjun Yin, assistant research professor in the Social Science Research Institute, Penn State.
Oct. 22: Christopher Scott, Maurice K. Goddard Chair of Forestry and Environmental Conservation, Penn State, “Transboundary water governance: Possibilities and pitfalls at the nexus with energy and food security.”
Nov. 5: Andrew Curley, assistant professor in the School of Geography, Development and Environment, University of Arizona. This talk is co-sponsored by the Department of History.
Nov. 19: Sarah Damaske, associate director of the Population Research Institute, Penn State.
Dec. 3: Undergraduate Research Opportunities Connection (UROC) student presentations.
More details, including Zoom links for each talk, can be found on the department Calendar of Events webpage.
Coffee Hour was established by Ronald Abler and John Adams, professors emeritus of geography, in the fall of 1968. It is supported through the Coffee Hour to Go fund.