Hattie Houser听(advised by Joe Bryan)
Documenting Femicide In Mexico: Connecting the Disappeared to a Larger Body Politic
Abstract:听Femicide, the disappearance and death of women due to their gender, is occurring throughout Latin America and increasingly within Mexico. In Mexico, this issue has been connected to a myriad of structural causes including neoliberalism, state corruption, violence, and the War on Drugs. High levels of impunity work in coordination with the normalization of violence and the delegation of women's affairs to the private sphere, resulting in femicide becoming nearly invisible. Thus,听the act of visibilizing and drawing attention to the issue of femicide as an unnatural and public phenomenon becomes even more important and radical.听This project focuses on documenting methods that NGOs in Oaxaca and Mexico City are currently using to visibilize and combat the issue of femicide in Mexico and analyzing the effectiveness of these techniques within context of the literature that has been produced around the topic of femicide. At the same time, this project opens up space for us to consider how the rise of neoliberalism and the militarization of Mexico in the context of the War on Drugs has created a mechanism in which women's bodies are used as a means of warfare.
Tai Koester听(advised by Joe Bryan)
Who is the Public in Public Land?听The Cartographic Erasure of Bears Ears as Indigenous Space and its Consequences听for Contemporary Public Lands Issues
础产蝉迟谤补肠迟:听Throughout听the Bears Ears controversy, maps have played a pivotal role in codifying land听management tenure,听land use, and boundaries. The Tribal proposal was finalized听as a map; both Presidential proclamations were supported by听maps. Maps shape听how we understand space, telling us to see it in a certain way and privileging听certain spatial听perspectives over others.
The听perspective of Indigenous peoples has never been afforded recognition. Over the听past two centuries,听Indigenous land use has been made invisible. The Tribal听proposal for a Bears Ears National Monument attempted to听make this use visible听for the first time in southern Utah.
To听understand why the construction of Bears Ears as a national monument is so听significant and even necessary,听we first have to understand cartographic听destruction of Bears Ears. I intend to demonstrate how mapping initiatives听beginning in the 19th听century systematically erased Indigenous听presence and use of the Bears Ears region. I argue that this occurred听simultaneously with the construction of 鈥榩ublic land鈥�, a concept that excludes听Indigenous people from the actual public in听question. With this framework in听mind, the recent initiative to map and designate Bears Ears as a national听monument, and听President Trump鈥檚 decision to slash the monument and deemphasize听an Indigenous presence can be read as part of a听broader debate over defining who听gets to speak for public lands in the United States.
John Scherer听(advised by John Adler)
Using听Advanced Remote Sensing Methods to Decrease Uncertainty in Interferograms:听Investigating听Drone Stereophotogrammetry for InSAR Calibration
础产蝉迟谤补肠迟:听The aim of the project is to use Digital Elevation听Models (DEM) from Drone Stereophotogrammetry to calibrate surface听flux听detection of interferograms generated from Inferometric Synthetic Aperture听Radar (InSAR). Images are collected听from the European Space Agency鈥檚 Sentinel听program and processed to create interferograms. The interferograms are听then听compared to multiple DEM鈥檚 generated from stereophotogrammetry to determine听whether the phase shift measured听in interferograms is in the positive or听negative direction, relative to a datum. This research is highly valuable as it听seeks听to develop a method to reduce uncertainty when working with听interferograms, especially when large surface elevation听changes are expected.听The study area chosen for this project is the Climax Molybdenum Mine & Mill听near Leadville,听CO. The location was chosen due to its dynamic topography (innate听to an active mining site) as well as proximity in听Boulder, CO for drone听flights.