Faculty Accomplishments

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Stacy-ann Robinson was quoted in the Atmos article "IPCC Report: The Climate Crisis Requires Solutions That Do It All." Robinson spoke to the global nature of the climate problem, but she emphasized the unequal impacts, especially for small island developing states. Atmos is a nonprofit biannual magazine and digital platform curated by a global ecosystem of artists, activists, and writers devoted to ecological and social justice, creative storytelling, and re-enchantment with the natural world. The article can be accessed here.

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Stacy-ann Robinson, whose research focuses on climate change adaptation in small island developing states and on climate justice, was cited across nine chapters and one cross-chapter paper in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report that was released Feb. 28. 2022. The report covers climate impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. Of special note is that an article Robinson coauthored with Caroline Wren '20 on human system adaptation in the Caribbean was cited in Chapter 8 (Poverty, livelihoods and sustainable development) and Chapter 17 (Decision-making options for managing risk). And another article Robinson coauthored with D'Arcy Carlson '21 on climate compatible development in practice was cited in Chapter 18 (Climate-resilient development pathways). The full report may be downloaded here.

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Stacy-ann Robinson is one of the contributing authors to Chapter 15 (Small Islands) in Working Group II's contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report that was released Feb. 28, 2022. The report focuses on climate impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. Robinson synthesized the academic literature on adaptation limits, risk transfer mechanisms, and adaptation finance flows to small islands, particularly those in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and the Caribbean. The chapter, which can be accessed here, expressed high confidence in the reduced habitability of small islands, their vulnerability, and loss and damage resulting from tropical cyclones and sea-level rise.

Photographs by Associate Professor of Art Gary Green are included in the show Faculty Photography II currently on view at Cove Street Arts in Portland, Maine. Fourteen black and white prints by Green are part of the exhibition that showcases faculty teaching photography at some of Maine's colleges and universities. "To see what’s next in fine art photography, look to those teaching the next generation of photographers," the gallery exhorts.

Paleobotanist Ian Glasspool, a research associate in the Department of Geology, was cited in the article "Artists join paleobotanists to bring ancient plants to life—and pique viewer interest" published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The article discusses the collaborative process between paleoartist Marlene Hill Donnelly and Glasspool. “Scientists and artists go backwards and forwards constantly, to try and work out what that final image is going to look like,” Glasspool said of the process.

A paper by Assistant Professor of Government Nicholas Jacobs was published in the journal The Forum. "Get Out of the Way: Joe Biden, the U.S. Congress, and Executive-Centered Partisanship During the President’s First Year in Office" discusses Biden's unmet campaign goal of unity.  "Far from transcending partisanship as promised," the authors write, "Biden has embraced the levers of presidential discretion and power inherent within the modern executive office to advance partisan objectives."

Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie is a coauthor on a new paper in the journal Ecology, "Plant and bird phenology and plant occurrence from 1851 to 2020 (non-continuous) in Thoreau's Concord, Massachusetts." Henry David Thoreau's 19th-century natural-history observations inspired generations of amateur and professional ecologists to record seasonal events (aka "phenology"): leaf out, flowering, migratory bird arrivals. Over the past two decades, Richard Primack's lab at Boston University has led this work, adding contemporary observations and modeling the impacts of climate change on plant and animal communities in Concord since Thoreau's time. The Primack lab's research with Thoreau datasets has led to groundbreaking ecological work, including McDonough MacKenzie's 2019 paper "Phenological mismatch with trees reduces wildflower carbon budgets," which received the 2020 Mercer Award from the Ecological Society of America (McDonough MacKenzie completed her Ph.D. with the Primack lab in 2017). Now, Primack and a group of lab alumni, including McDonough MacKenzie, present the complete Concord datasets, context on their historical ecological work, and interpretations of 19th-century methods. They hope this Ecology paper will encourage creative applications of these data by other scientists and provide tangible, memorable examples of the impacts of climate change in the Northeastern United States.

A new book by Alicia Ellis, Figuring the Female: Language and Identity in Franz Grillparzer’s Classical Dramas, was released by Lexington Books. In this innovative book, Ellis, associate professor of German, offers a compelling re-reading of three of Grillparzer’s plays through the lens of contemporary feminist theory.