Staff Newsletter 5 January 2024
- Chloe Mitchell (Deactivated)
Happy New Year everyone! 🥳 The recording is now available for the second of our Professorial Inaugural Lectures given by Ioan and Nic. Scroll down to "Department Events" for the link.
Don't forget to add any news you have to the Research, Teaching, Outreach and Good News Spreadsheet. Equally, if you spot an upcoming conference or activity which you think may be of interest to others in the department, drop an email over to us: environment-pa@york.ac.uk
Wishing you an excellent start to 2024 😎
Chloe Mitchell - PA to HoD
Deadline for swapping POVD/Open Day slots - 24 Jan
As you know we are switching to a fairer system for the staffing of Post-Offer Visit and Open days. The rota for 2023/24 is now complete and was emailed out to all staff on 20 Dec. Please click on the link to plan ahead and make a note of your allocated slots in your diary/calendar.
The slots have been allocated by programme leaders based on preferences/constraints and the new open day rota policy. If you are happy with your slots you don't need to do anything else. If you are assigned a slot for which you are not available it is your responsibility (not the PL's) to swap it with someone else in your teaching group. You'll have until 24 January to arrange this as the rota will be fixed from that date.
Well-run POV and Open Days days are critical for successful recruitment of our future students, especially in the current financial climate. Many thanks for your help and support!
Prof. Roland Gehrels, Head of Department
Semester Dates and Teaching Weeks
If you need a reminder of the teaching weeks for Semester 2, you can find the dates on this UOY Semesters Guide Poster. Teaching week 1 will be on the week beginning Monday 12th February.
Coffee Mornings now on Wednesdays 10:30
Our weekly coffee mornings have moved to Wednesdays from now until the end of the academic year. By switching the day of the week each semester, it is hoped this will make it possible for part-time members of staff to come along should they wish.
If one of your new year's resolutions is to spread kindness and joy, then do sign up to the Coffee Morning rota and you will be blessed with eternal glory..... Or at least first access to the leftover biscuits 🍪 😏
Seminars restarting Teaching Week 1 - 13 Feb onwards
Our departmental seminars run during teaching weeks and so are currently paused until Teaching Week 1. The first round of seminars will be on the following dates:
- DEG Seminars: Tuesday 13th February, 12:05-13:00
- Sustainability Seminars: Wednesday 14th February, 12:05-13:00
- Sustainability Education Conversations: Wednesday 21st February, 12:05-13:00
Keep an eye on our upcoming newsletters for more details.
| 🧵 Crafty lunch is returning!! 🧵From Wednesday 17th January 2024, the crafty lunch will be returning! Come along to the Heartspace (first floor) in the Environment Building between 1 - 2pm. Bring your current projects or get started with a new one. Supplies will be provided but donations of crafty bits are welcome. For more info email Jenny Pollard via jenny.pollard@york.ac.uk We hope to see you there |
Professorial Inaugural Lecture No.2 - Recording now available
If you missed the excellent lecture given by Prof. Nic Carslaw and Prof. Ioan Fazey just before Christmas, you can catch up by clicking on this link: Prof. Inaug. Lecture No. 2 - Recording.
We will have 3 more pairings before the end of the academic year so keep an eye out for dates and details.
Conference (Southampton, UK): Going green: Debating the socio-economic impacts of achieving Net Zero - 24 Jan
We would like to invite you to the SDSN UK ‘Going green: Debating the socio-economic impacts of achieving Net Zero’ conference taking place on Wed 24th January in Southampton. The conference is hosted by the Sustainability and Resilience Institute at the University of Southampton in partnership with University of Strathclyde Centre for Sustainable Development and the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP), host institution of SDSN UK. I have attached here the abstract for the event and the link to the Eventbrite page for signing up to the SDSN event is here.
The conference will bring together researchers – both established and early career - policy makers and industry professionals with the aim to mobilise collective knowledge and experience to identify the most pressing, cross-sector research questions surrounding a Net Zero future. The conference will include a plenary session, small group discussions as well as a poster event where early career researchers will have the opportunity to showcase their work. Small travel grants will be made available, particularly aimed at early career researchers.
We would be delighted to have you join us. If you have colleagues whose work focusses on decarbonisation in the UK and who would be interested to attend, do pass on the invite. We are also very keen to have PhD students and ECRs attending so feel free to share this with those who would find this of interest.
Sustainable Development Solution Network (SDSN UK)
International Conference (Kraków, Poland): EARTH AS A HUMAN-ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEM: CHALLENGES AND DYNAMICS, 6-8 May
For the Institute of Geography and Spatial Management, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland, 2024 will be a special year as we shall celebrate 175th anniversary of the institute's establishment. We wish to celebrate the jubilee with various activities organized all year long. We cordially invite you to participate in the international conference titled:
The conference will be divided into five thematic sessions:
- Session 1: Urban ecosystem: Services and conflicts - Keynote speaker: Prof. Dagmar Haase, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig, Germany
- Session 2: Soils in the Anthropocene: Hazards, challenges and opportunities - Keynote speaker: Dr. Estela Nadal-Romero, El Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología, IPE-CSIC, Zaragoza, Spain
- Session 3: Dynamic land use changes: opportunity for rewilding? - Keynote speaker: Prof. Jens-Christian Svenning, Aarhus University, Denmark
- Session 4: Climate change: Detection and impacts - Keynote speaker: Prof. Stefan Brönnimann, University of Bern, Switzerland
- Session 5: Tourism (Re)configured: Geographical Thinking in Tourism Studies - Keynote speaker: Prof. Chiara Rabbiosi, University of Padova, Italy
Come to Kraków in May 2024 and bring your ideas for future geographical research and collaboration!
Anita Bokwa - Director of the Institute of Geography and Spatial Management, Faculty of Geography and Geology, Jagiellonian University
Bobby Farnan and Jon Ensor have had a journal article published: New in Political Geography. Struggles for equality and rights are bound up in urban participatory planning. This complicates dynamics of co-production and political subjectivisation for marginalised communities.
Jonathan Green and Katie Noble contributed to a UNEP report on the potential environmental, health, social, and animal welfare implications of the uptake of novel meat and dairy alternatives.
Kevin Hicks, Chris Malley, Johan Kuylenstierna, Eleni Michalopoulou and Connie O'Neill all contributed to the CCAC's Integrated assessment of air pollution and climate change for sustainable development in Africa. Thirty-seven actions in five key sectors could be the key to tackling climate change and air pollution simultaneously in Africa.
Sam Buckton has recently:
- been invited to contribute to writing a new 5-year management plan for St Nicholas Fields Local Nature Reserve in York.
- been invited to review drafts of IPBES' current transformative change assessment.
Steve Cinderby, Gary Haq and Howard Cambridge have had a journal article published: New in Cities: Expanding accessible mobility solutions and improving the climate resilience of transport can help address issues of inclusion and equity in African cities.
Well done everyone on your fantastic achievements 👏
Great! Please add it to the Research, Teaching, Outreach and Good News Spreadsheet. Please use the most relevant tab for the activity/news and ensure that the description details are written out in full as you would like it to be presented. If your item does not fit the spreadsheet, please email it to environment-pa@york.ac.uk by 12:00 on Thursday 12th January.
Thank you for your help in making the newsletter a great way to catch up on all of the Department's latest news and activities 🙂