Who are you online? – Writing an effective digital story
Time: 12:30pm to 1:30pm
Location: Michael Smith Labs Theatre (Room 102, 2185 East Mall)
Email communications@ires.ubc.ca for video.
Talk summary:
What is your current digital story? Does your digital footprint contain a cohesive story? How might it be rewritten to reflect your professional goals as a graduate student and beyond? This professional development seminar explores these questions by affording participants the time and space to reflect on their current online “digital story” and analyze their presence and behaviour on the internet as a process of professionalization. The focus will be to discuss how graduate students can craft and curate an effective digital narrative that reflects the stories they would like to tell online. Participants will also learn how to develop tools and enhance their digital story through images, titles, taglines, websites, streaming, and social media. The ultimate aim is to gain practical knowledge and acquire tools to create a digital story to enhance one’s professional identity online.
Dr. Derek Gladwin, Assistant Professor in the Department of Language & Literacy Education, Faculty of Education
Bio:
Derek Gladwinis Assistant Professor of Language and Literacy Education in the Faculty of Education and a Wall Fellow (2022-23) at UBC. His interdisciplinary research and teaching aim to promote social understanding and relational action on environmental, health and well-being, and arts-based approaches through public forms of education and literacy. He is the author and editor of several books, including Ecological exile (2018) and Rewriting our stories (2021), while also serving as Senior Editor for Environmental & Sustainability Education in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education and as a member of the Clean Energy Research Centre at UBC.
Lekha was an MA student at IRES, under the supervision of Dr. David Boyd. Her thesis research focused on the intersection of climate change and migration in Southern Africa, looking specifically at the experiences of cross-border migrants in South Africa. She is interested in climate justice and investigating the ways in which the people least responsible for climate change are often most affected by its consequences. She is eager to contribute towards efforts in the realms of climate/migrant justice and human rights using community engagement, legal and historical analysis, and interviews. Lekha graduated from Yale University with a double major in Environmental Studies and History, where her research centered on land reform and labour tenant rights in uMgungundlovu, South Africa. In her spare time, she enjoys watching movies, reading books and playing tennis.
Human Elephant Conflict (HEC) is the high impact component of human-wildlife conflict in India. It involves large scale crop and property damage, and is tragically associated with approximately 500 human and 150 elephant fatalities every year. It has been theorized that the frequency, intensity, and the outcome of interactions between humans and elephants in India is influenced by anthropogenic degradation, fragmentation and destruction of elephant habitat. However, an empirical relationship has not been formally established. We estimate a causal relationship between forest clearing for infrastructure development, and media reports of fatal HEC. We also demonstrate the potential of using media reports to analyze spatial and temporal trends in human-wildlife conflict, especially in the face of severely difficult to obtain official data on HEC. Preliminary results indicate that if the Government of India approves 43 squared kilometres of linear deforestation in an elephant district over the previous five years, there is an additional human fatality in the current year. The effect of nonlinear infrastructure development on fatalities due to HEC is weaker, where the approval of 122 squared kilometres of nonlinear deforestation over the previous five years leads to an additional human fatality. These results are robust to a broad degree of variation across specifications. Our estimate contributes to an accurate quantification of the cost of infrastructure-driven deforestation in countries like India. While it has been demonstrated that human casualties are the most significant component of the cost of human-wildlife conflict in India, these costs are not typically included in cost-benefit analyses of infrastructure projects in India. Rather, as per 2017 Government of India guidelines, such calculations focus on the costs that arise from a loss of ecosystem services, resettlements, infrastructure diversion and habitat fragmentation. These costs are calculated based on the Net Present Value (NPV) of forests, a measure which was last calculated in 2008 and has not been meaningfully revised since. Understanding the cost of forest clearing is also important given the policy context of a stated Government of India decision to fast track environmental approvals for forest clearance since 2014. Our estimates will help quantify the impact of this policy change.
Dr. Sumeet Gulati, Professor in Food and Resource Economics, Faculty of Land and Food Systems
Bio:
Sumeet Gulati is Professor in Food and Resource Economics, in the faculty of Land and Food Systems, at the University of British Columbia. His research spans two main themes: 1) the economics of wildlife conservation, and 2) the economics of urban transportation. Currently, he is most interested in the economics of conservation. Sumeet is focusing on human wildlife conflict in India and Canada. All his projects in conservation economics are listed at the Wildlife and Conservation Economics Laboratory.
