The Academic Minute for 2024.06.24-2024.06.28

The Academic Minute from 6.24 – 6.28

Monday
Dan Jaffee – Portland State University
Dependence on Bottled Water Worsens Social Inequality
Daniel Jaffee is an environmental and rural sociologist and Associate Professor of Sociology at Portland State University.

His research examines conflicts over water privatization and commodification; the social, environmental, and economic impacts of bottled and packaged water; and social movements around bottled water and water justice in both the global North and South.

His first book, Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival, received the C. Wright Mills Book Award.

He received his Ph.D. in 2006 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Tuesday
Francis Galan – Texas A&M University
A Better Understanding of the Interactions Between and Kinship Among Early Texas Settler Groups
Francis Galán is an Associate Professor of History at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, where he teaches in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Professor Galán teaches classes on Latin America, Mexico, Texas, and Caribbean. His primary research uses Spanish archival records to examine military, political, economic, and social relations in Texas under Spain and Mexico.

His book, Los Adaes: The First Capital of Spanish Texas, was published in 2020 by Texas A&M University Press, College Station, through the Summerfield G. Roberts Texas History Series.

Wednesday
David Spence – University of Texas at Austin
The Misunderstood Politics of the Energy Transition
David Spence is a professor of energy law and regulation at the University of Texas at Austin. Professor Spence’s research and teaching focuses on government regulation of the energy industry. He is author of Climate of Contempt: Rescuing the Energy Transition from Voter Partisanship (Columbia Univ. Press, 2024), and co-author of the energy law textbook Energy, Economics and the Environment (Foundation Press, 6th Ed., 2023). Professor Spence earned his Ph.D in political science from Duke University, his J.D. from the University of North Carolina, and his B.A. from Gettysburg College.

Thursday
Wendy Keyser – Fitchburg State University
Patterns and Gaps in Award-Winning LGBTQ Children’s Books
Wendy Keyser taught high school English for 21 years, primarily in Massachusetts public schools. She is a professor of English Studies in the 5-12 teaching licensure program at Fitchburg State University and teaches a Children’s Literature course for elementary licensure candidates.

Friday
Sara Harmouch – American University
Sudan’s Civil War: A New Haven for Al-Qaida
Sara Harmouch is the founder and CEO of H9 Defense and a doctoral candidate at American University’s School of Public Affairs. Growing up in Lebanon, she witnessed firsthand the impact of extremism. These personal experiences have given her deep insights into how militant groups think, act, and operate, insights that now guide her work at H9 Defense and her doctoral research on militant groups’ resolve and its impact on their decisions to conduct domestic or international attacks. Harmouch has also conducted extensive fieldwork across the Middle East and North Africa region. She consults for the U.S. government and the private sector and has recently briefed NATO on religious militant groups. Her research focuses on asymmetric warfare, militant groups, political violence, and threats to democracies.