Feature-Alumni

Jessica DiCarlo (PhD Geography, 2021): Spirited Collaboration, Epistemic Generosity

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 16:07:11 +0000

Jessica DiCarlo (PhD Geography, 2021): Spirited Collaboration, Epistemic Generosity Gabriela Rocha Sales Tue, 04/28/2026 - 10:07

The Geography Department at the �鶹��Ѱ�� cultivates an intellectual community that lasts well beyond graduation. For Jessica DiCarlo, now an assistant professor at the University of Utah, �鶹��Ѱ��geography continues to shape her work through ongoing collaborations with alumni who share commitments to critical thinking and engaged scholarship. Across her research and teaching, these relationships exemplify how �鶹��Ѱ��trains geographers as thinkers attuned to power, possibility, and a spirit of epistemic generosity (Chadwick 2024).

In Autumn 2025, Jessica delivered the keynote lecture for the National Council for Geographic Education and the American Association of Geographers, Great Plains/Rocky Mountain region division. In it, she reflected on the reciprocal relationship between research and teaching, and advocated for cultivating curiosity, critical thinking, and care as central pedagogical commitments. In the audience was fellow �鶹��Ѱ��alum Rebecca Theobald (PhD Geography, 2007), who is editing The Oxford Handbook of Geography for Educators. Their encounter sparked a shared commitment to student-centered pedagogy. Jessica is now adapting her keynote into the opening chapter of the human geography section of Dr. Theobald’s book. The chapter situates human geography as a tool for understanding global transformations and challenges through lived experience, kinesthetic methods, and a pedagogical practice of curiosity, attention, and ethical engagement. Aspects of this work build on Jessica’s CU-based doctoral research in “The World from a Bicycle: Cycling as Kinesthetic Methodology” (Progress in Human Geography), which theorizeskinesthetic methodologies.

�鶹��Ѱ��geography is especially evident in Jessica’s global China research. With longtime collaborator and �鶹��Ѱ��alum Meredith DeBoom (PhD Geography, 2018), she wrote an anchor article and Dialogues in Human Geography. “Six Paths of Global China: A Genealogy of a Contested Geographical Imaginary” traces how “Global China” has been constructed, mobilized, and debated across various scholarly and political contexts. The journal’s anchor-response format also generated intellectual exchange within the �鶹��Ѱ��community itself, including a formal response (read: a spirited provocation!) from faculty member and mentor Tim Oakes (this and other responses can be found here). Meredith and Jessica continue to scheme on questions of resource politics, “green” transitions, and Global China.

Jessica also put her head together with recent �鶹��Ѱ��graduate and railway aficionado David Fernando Bachrach (PhD Geography, 2026) to compare their research on railway corridors in Laos and Indonesia. In an Antipode article, they theorize the process of “corridorization” and how large-scale railway projects transform space into governable and investable corridors, producing new forms of enclosure and uneven development. Their work reflects a shared intellectual lineage grounded in CU’s training in political ecology and political geography, as well as their longstanding conversations that began during David’s very first year of his PhD.

Finally, as her research has expanded to focus on critical minerals and energy transitions, so have collaborations in these areas. In a commentary in Nature Energy co-authored with �鶹��Ѱ��alums Aaron Malone (PhD Geography, 2019) and Nicole Smith (PhD Anthropology, 2012), they advance the concept of just-shoring, arguing that emerging strategies such as onshoring, friendshoring, and reshoring, while aimed at securing supply chains, risk reproducing environmental harms and social inequalities associated with fossil fuel extraction. Instead, the authors call for frameworks that center community rights, accountability, and co-governance across the entire mineral life cycle (a longer article on the just-shoring frameworks is under review). By reframing supply chain security through questions of justice rather than geography, they ask who benefits, who bears the risks, and how much extraction is necessary.

From �鶹��Ѱ��to the present, an ethos of connection and collaboration has threaded together Jessica’s research and teaching. She endeavors to grow similar spirits of rigor, intellectual openness, and curiosity among her graduate and undergraduate students within her Political Ecology Lab at the University of Utah. Together, they engage questions that span agricultural labor, Global China, mining in Utah, and green infrastructure in Asia with an eye toward uneven power relations and how they are lived. Jessica’s commitments to students and research are reflected in her 2026 receipt of the Margaret FitzSimmons Early Career Award from the Cultural and Political Ecology group of the American Association of Geographers. Drawing inspiration from FitzSimmons’ legacy as a devoted mentor and inspiring educator, Jessica approaches teaching as central to scholarly life and hopes to bring these ideas and much of what her students teach her to life in Dr. Theobald’s book.

For more or to connect, visit jessicadicarlo.phd.

References

Bennett, Mia, Jessica DiCarlo, and Sarah Elwood. 2025. The world from a bicycle: Cycling as kinesthetic methodology. Progress in Human Geography.

Chadwick, Rachelle. 2024. The question of feminist critique. Feminist Theory, 25(3), 376-395.

DiCarlo, Jessica, Raphael Deberdt, Nicole Smith, Scott Odell, Aaron Malone, Lydia Jennings. A just energy transition requires just-shoring critical materials. Nature Energy.

DiCarlo, Jessica and Meredith DeBoom. 2025. Six paths of Global China: A genealogy of a contested geographical imaginary. Dialogues in Human Geography.

DiCarlo, Jessica and David Fernando Bachrach. 2025. The corridor as commodity: Enclosure, legibility, and uneven development in Southeast Asian railway projects. Antipode.

Oakes, Tim. (2025). The lingering exceptionalism of global China. Dialogues in Human Geography.

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Sophia Emmanouilides Linn (M.A. 1996): A Clear Path…Only in Retrospect

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 16:02:15 +0000

Sophia Emmanouilides Linn (M.A. 1996): A Clear Path…Only in Retrospect Gabriela Rocha Sales Tue, 04/28/2026 - 10:02

The career path was not necessarily well-lit when I graduated from the geography department at CU-Boulder in the mid-1990s. Yet in retrospect, it’s curious to notice that the journey seems remarkably coherent. As a geographer who maintained an interest in all the things, I leaned towards the sub-disciplines that maintained that wide breadth—cartography/GIS and geography education. My thesis focused on the effectiveness of interactive maps in the classroom and was the first to include a floppy disk as part of the submission! While in the department, I worked for both the Colorado Geographic Alliance (COGA) and the cartography lab. Remarkably, my current position as Head of the Geospatial Centroid at Colorado State University (CSU) bridges those same areas—with a healthy dose of project and program management included.

Despite the semblance of a relatively straight line, the path was in no way laid out in advance—in fact, it needed a fair bit of blazing. An ongoing effort to improve geography education at that time justified establishing a new role of Program Manager for COGA and tangentially, a Program Manager for the CO Geography Education Fund (COGEF), an endowed fund from National Geographic to support geography education in the state. Both positions were new, and I filled both. While raising three daughters, I also taught geography at the community college. (Note to young professionals: It wasn’t easy, nor recommended!) After a much-needed sanity pause to keep the family intact, I was approached by a former �鶹��Ѱ��colleague (Dave Theobald, Ph.D., 1995) to assist with some GIS work at CSU in Fort Collins (where we both live). That was 18 years ago.

In 2008, CSU did not have a GIS program per se, though many people on campus were using these technologies for research and teaching. A modest, grant-funded effort to establish a “geospatial data development center" morphed early on to become the Geospatial Centroid, a resource and service center that provides support for all things geospatial to the on- and off-campus community. Now well established within Morgan Library, the Centroid provides training, project support, internships, and a welcoming space for students and researchers alike.

Having been with the Centroid since its inception, I have been able to use my geography, cartography, GIS, education, and program/project management skills to establish and support this organization. I am grateful and, frankly, somewhat surprised that after 30 years my geography career path somehow has made sense.

Couldn’t have seen that coming, back when there were floppy disks…

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Geography Alumna Abby Hickcox (PhD 2012): Winner of the 2026 Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA) Award for Excellence in Teaching

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 14:00:01 +0000

Geography Alumna Abby Hickcox (PhD 2012): Winner of the 2026 Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA) Award for Excellence in Teaching Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 04/06/2026 - 08:00

Abby Hickcox (Geography PhD 2012 alumna), Associate Director of the Honors Program and Teaching Professor, has won the 2026 Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA) Award for Excellence in Teaching. This award recognizes the vital importance of teaching and mentoring students as significant components of faculty duties that are central to the university’s mission.

See here for a complete list of BFA's 2026 Excellence Awards Winners.

Abby Hickcox (Geography PhD 2012 alumna), Associate Director of the Honors Program and Teaching Professor, has won the 2026 Boulder Faculty Assembly (BFA) Award for Excellence in Teaching.

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Katie Writer (BA, 1991): Photojournalist turning aerial art into climate archive

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 18:42:29 +0000

Katie Writer (BA, 1991): Photojournalist turning aerial art into climate archive Gabriela Rocha Sales Fri, 12/12/2025 - 11:42

12/4/2025 • By Cody DeBos

Copied from the A&S Magazine for archival purposes.

/asmagazine/2025/12/04/photojournalist-turning-aerial-art-climate-archive

On a clear day high above south-central Alaska, you can find Katie Writer pulling open the window of her Super Cub airplane and leaning her camera out into the rushing wind. Below, the landscape doesn’t look like the same one she once hiked and skied. That’s exactly why she’s flying.

For Writer (Geog’91), flying offers a unique vantage point from which to witness the planet changing in real time.

“Climate change is something I saw coming all the way back in my �鶹��Ѱ��days studying geography, and I knew it would be a big part of my life’s calling. I have a sense of duty as a photojournalist pilot and an advocate for the environment. Whenever there’s a chance for me to tell the story of the landscape or point emphasis to an area that needs some protection, I jump on it,” she says.

From documenting glacier retreat to photographing generations of spruce trees withered by beetle kill, she’s built a career at the intersection of science, storytelling and adventure.

Skiing onto the page

Writer’s journey to the cockpit wasn’t traditional. At �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder, she majored in geography and raced on the ski team, balancing course loads with weekend races. After graduating, she worked as an interpreter for the United States Olympic Committee at the 1992 Winter Olympics in France, and that lit a fire in her for world-class racing.

“I quickly moved up the ranks and placed 17th at the U.S. National Championships in 1994,” Writer recalls.

But when an injury derailed her career, she pivoted her skiing passion from racing to the page, becoming an aptly named writer of outdoor adventure articles for the likes of Couloir and Powder magazines. One story led her to Denali National Park.

“On that trip, I was inspired to become a pilot,” she says. “I’d also been on another ski trip where a Cessna 185 flew us into the wilderness in a ski plane, and it made me realize that these little planes give you some great access to the wilderness.”

After earning her pilot’s license with support from aviation scholarships, Writer settled in Alaska, where she has since filled her appetite for adventure and storytelling through the lens of her camera. She didn't give up competitive skiing entirely, though, and races in three World Extreme Skiing competitions in Alaska

“Others were noticing my photography and really appreciating the bird’s eye view I was getting as an aerial photographer/pilot. It helped me realize that capturing these images was something I was really passionate about,” she says.

Seeing the story from above

When Writer takes her camera into the sky, the viewpoint of Alaska’s stunning landscapes brings awe, but also a sense of urgency. From her Super Cub, she observes patterns of change. Hillsides of dying spruce. Once thriving glaciers shrinking every year. Riverbanks collapsing after torrential storms. She has returned often to the same places, documenting changes that most people never get to see.

“There’s no doubt when you live in Alaska, you see the effects of the beetle kill. I realized this was an excellent way to present climate change with the visuals from an aerial perspective,” Writer says.

Warmer winters have allowed spruce beetles to survive year-round, leaving entire forests stained with rust-colored decay. Glaciers tell a parallel story of loss.

“We spent a lot of time going back to the toe of the Ruth glacier, photographing the specific area year after year and seeing how dramatically the receding lines were, as well as observing the collapsing walls,” she adds.

She also tracks what happens downstream. After record rainfall from an atmospheric river in August 2025, she flew over the swollen Talkeetna River and saw entire stretches of bank washed away.

“These weather events with high levels of moisture, in my opinion, are another visual acceleration of erosion.”

These scenes are part of a photographic timeline Writer has spent years assembling. With each flight, she adds a new layer to the growing visual archive that captures the rapid reshaping of Alaska’s wilderness. For those of us on the ground, it’s a rare glimpse at what our world looks like from above.

Exploring a new medium

In time, the stories Writer wanted to tell outgrew both print and pictures. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she launched the All Cooped Up Alaska Podcast, a show born from isolation and the desire to connect. It’s since evolved into the Alaska Climate and Aviation Podcast, where she explores stories of weather, flying and environmental change.

The benefit of producing your own podcast is that you get to be as creative as you want and can tell the stories you want to tell,” she says. “A lot of the stories I used to create for our local radio station would be edited down to three and a half minutes for airtime. I was always a little bit frustrated by that.”

Now, Writer brings on regular guests, including prominent Alaskan climatologists Rick Thoman and Brian Brettschneider, to discuss everything from wildfire smoke to Arctic feedback loops. She also covers major events like the Arctic Encounter Symposium in Anchorage.

“Arctic Encounter is attended by world leaders from all around Arctic countries, including Indigenous leaders, policymakers, scientists, villagers and Arctic dwellers,” she says. “It’s a very inspiring event with fascinating panels of people talking about the problems they’re having and solutions they envision.”

Writer has also added a sightseeing business to Visionary Adventures, taking people out on Super Cub Airplane Rides so they can experience the beauty themselves. And these days, her children are her most frequent fliers: "We—my son, Jasper, and daughter, Wren—have also enjoyed soaring above the wilds looking for wild game and fishing spots."

�鶹��Ѱ��at altitude

Looking back, Writer credits her time at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder with helping to shape her worldview.

“One of the primary things that made a major influence on choosing geography as a major was an upper-division course that was in the Arctic Circle, learning field research techniques,” she says.

She also recalls the atmosphere of both Boulder’s scientific community and cultural diversity.

“As a sophomore, our house was across the street from the Hari Krishnas, where we ate a meal a week and enjoyed philosophizing on life and world religions. It was just a really neat place to be,” Writer says. “All of the beautiful architecture and even the Guggenheim building for Geography really held a special place in my heart for a place of learning.”

Her advice for today’s students? Write often.

“Writing is a really important skill that I’m noticing more and more being lost with the use of AI. Getting the pen flowing onto a piece of paper lets you tap into a whole different type of creativity,” she says.

“Realize that you may not know what your whole career is going to be, but don’t be afraid to explore and take a risk in opportunities you might get. When I look back at the journals that I had at that time in my life, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m doing it,’” she adds.

Even now, after decades of flying and learning to balance the art with the business, Writer isn’t sure where her career will lead next.

“I always aspired to work for National Geographic as a photojournalist,” she says. “And I still haven’t met that goal—but who knows what could happen in the future.”

One thing is certain: Writer has no plans to stop flying over Alaska and documenting its changes.

“Being in the air and photographing the landscape feels like artistic movement and is a spiritual experience,” she says. “The natural world is just stunning.”

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder geography alumnus Katie Writer shares Alaska’s changing landscape from the skies

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Alumni Spotlight: Suzanne Till (PhD ’00)

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 20:36:16 +0000

Alumni Spotlight: Suzanne Till (PhD ’00) Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 12/08/2025 - 13:36

Intake pipe for Colorado River water. The Colorado River provides 70% of water supplies to most of the CA 48th District.

Suzanne Till (Michel), PhD ’00, has built a career at the intersection of geography, public service, and water governance—and is now breaking new ground in elected office in Southern California.

In 2020, Suzanne was elected to the Padre Dam Municipal Water District Board of Directors (Division 2), becoming both the first woman and the first water-resources geographer to serve on the board. She was re-elected in 2024. Padre Dam provides water and wastewater services to 125,000 residents in East San Diego County, and Suzanne’s leadership comes at a pivotal moment as the region advances major water infrastructure initiatives.

Her election in 2020 even sparked a debate about her professional identity: Suzanne’s opponent challenged her ballot designation as a water resources geographer, arguing that such a field did not exist. Working with her PhD advisor, Professor James Wescoat, she successfully defeated the challenge—affirming both the legitimacy and importance of geographic expertise in water management.

Today, Suzanne serves on the board as Padre Dam undertakes one of its most ambitious projects: the East County Advanced Water Purification Project, the first facility of its kind in San Diego County. The project will produce a new, local, drought-proof water supply for the region.

In addition to her elected role, Suzanne continues to teach college-level geography to high school students, bringing her �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder training in water resources geography and climate change directly into the classroom. “I use my geography and climate training every day as an elected official,” she says. “I’m so happy I completed my PhD at CU.”

Her career exemplifies a growing trend in which geographers play central roles in public governance, climate adaptation, and water-resource decision-making. Suzanne’s work is a powerful reminder that geographic expertise is not only academically rigorous—it’s essential to solving real-world environmental challenges.

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Alumni Spotlight: Roberto Garza (PhD ’80)

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 20:29:55 +0000

Alumni Spotlight: Roberto Garza (PhD ’80) Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 12/08/2025 - 13:29

Roberto Garza (PhD ’80) has built a remarkable career shaped by a lifelong passion for geography, geology, and the landscapes of the American Southwest. After earning his PhD from �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder, Roberto began a 28-year teaching career at San Antonio College, where he taught geography, geology, and earth science and later became the founding director of a regional STEM program based at the University of Houston. The program connected eight colleges and universities across the region, expanding opportunities for students in science and engineering.

Roberto continued teaching for many years, including eight years at the University of Houston–Downtown and two decades as a part-time instructor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. There, he developed a popular field course, Geography of the American Southwest, taught during the two-week May mini-term. His specialties—geology and the geography of the Southwest—became a foundation for generations of students across Texas and Houston-area community colleges.

After retiring from academia, Roberto’s love of place-based storytelling led him in new directions. He trained in Denver to become a certified tour guide and tour manager, eventually working for a travel company leading senior citizens on cruise trips to the Caribbean and the Southern Cone. He prepared travelers with detailed presentations about each destination and even accompanied groups on cruises between Chile and Brazil, including a memorable journey with a shipboard visit to Antarctica.

Back in Texas, Roberto became a certified tour guide in San Antonio and across the state, leading visitors through the region’s history, landscapes, and cultural geography. He also trained as a Texas Master Naturalist, volunteering in natural areas, helping run nature centers, leading field trips, and assisting in invasive-species removal.

Roberto’s commitment to public lands led him to service as both a volunteer and seasonal park ranger at San Antonio Missions National Historical Park—now a UNESCO World Heritage Site—as well as at Rocky Mountain National Park and Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

Today, he works as a realtor in the San Antonio area, where his deep knowledge of local geography and geology remains an invaluable asset. “As we all know,” he says, “Geography is about LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!”

Reflecting on a lifetime of global travel—including visits to all seven continents—Roberto credits his �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder training as the foundation for his many adventures. He leaves current students with the encouragement that guided him since his Air Force years in Tripoli, Libya:
“I will prepare myself and my chance will come.” — Abraham Lincoln

“School is demanding and time consuming,” he adds. “But don’t give up. A bright future lies ahead. Life is what you make it.”

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Geography in Action: Resilience, Restoration, and Energy Transition in NW Colorado (Michelle Stewart, Ph.D., 2014)

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 20:18:29 +0000

Geography in Action: Resilience, Restoration, and Energy Transition in NW Colorado (Michelle Stewart, Ph.D., 2014) Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 12/08/2025 - 13:18

Geothermal test bore cuttings mark clean energy futures: Michelle Stewart, Ph.D. 2014, Executive Director of Western Resilience Center, with Matt Cooper, Founder/Owner of High Altitude Geothermal, and Paul Bony, Energy and Transportation Director of Western Resilience Center, in front of Western Resilience Center’s downtown Steamboat Springs headquarters at the start of their geothermal test bore.

Our high elevation western slope Colorado geographies are on the front lines of impacts due to changing climate: year on year, increasing temperatures are forcing earlier spring snowmelt, reduced river flows, decreasing forest health and regeneration, and more. At the same time, the needed energy transition away from coal impacts regions like northwest Colorado -- home to three coal mines and two coal-fired power plants – in uneven ways, placing the burden of the “just transition” on local economies and livelihoods.

Geographers know the value of place, and the importance of place-based NGOs in addressing complex challenges. Michelle Stewart, Ph.D., 2014, joined Western Resilience Center as its Executive Director in 2020 and has since been growing the organization’s capacity to support regional climate mitigation and adaptation projects, planning and policies. Western Resilience Center programs span energy, transportation, waste diversion and resilient land and water.

Despite the reeling federal reductions in climate funding, force and policies of 2025, Western Resilience Center has continued to advance projects on the ground in partnership with volunteers and partners. This year, the organization:

Planted nearly 700 native cottonwood and alder trees along the Yampa River and its tributaries through our Yampa River Forest Restoration Project. Planting trees keeps the river cooler by increasing shade cover and greatly improves the riparian habitat.
Planted a total of 100,000 seedlings with the US Forest Service and volunteers in the Big Red Park burn scar in North Routt. Post-burn forests like these need help regenerating through replanting in order to rebuild their function and restore watershed health.
Restored nearly two miles of ephemeral streams to create wet meadow habitat in California Park by building 64 Zeedyk rock structures with volunteers and Rocky Mountain Youth Corps. These structures slow water runoff and trap sediment, preventing erosion and building habitat for animals like sandhill cranes, toads, and others.

Western Resilience Center engaged in Hayden Station discussions with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, urging that investments in geothermal energy be part of the power plant’s transition away from coal. Geothermal energy is a key plank in Colorado’s clean energy future, providing no-carbon energy solutions for both building heating and cooling and electricity generation.

To model the process and benefits of geothermal heating and cooling for buildings, Western Resilience Center is planning to install a geothermal heating and cooling system for its new headquarters in downtown Steamboat Springs at 602 Oak Street. Matt Cooper, of High Altitude Geothermal, just completed the test bore, a first step in designing the vertical loop system. Western Resilience Center’s project is the Cooper family’s first commercial project, marking the exciting start of a new chapter for the family and the region: the Coopers created High Altitude Geothermal to enable their transition away from their work at the retiring Craig coal mine, filling a critical workforce gap for clean energy projects in NW Colorado.

Yampa River Forest Restoration Program volunteers planting native narrowleaf cottonwoods and mountain alders showcase building resilience and climate mitigation in action. Yampa River stream temperatures continue to increase year on year and this multi-year project plants native trees along the Yampa River corridor to increase shade cover as a long-term benefit to keep the river cool and maintain river health.

Western Resilience Center staff and volunteers helped the US Forest Service plant 100,000 seedlings in a post-burn area in NW Colorado. Aridification and fire intensity is reducing forest regeneration, making replanting efforts like these key to building forest resilience.

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Shae Frydenlund: Exploring Colorado’s untapped geothermal energy potential

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 14:04:54 +0000

Shae Frydenlund: Exploring Colorado’s untapped geothermal energy potential Gabriela Rocha Sales Wed, 10/22/2025 - 08:04

Copied for archival purposes on 10/22/25

10/21/2025

• By Charles Ferrer

A major question looms over Colorado’s energy future: why does geothermal energy — a natural renewable resource — remain virtually untapped?

Professor Bri-Mathias Hodge, based in the Department of Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering, along with Assistant Teaching Professor Shae Frydenlund from the Center for Asian Studies, will examine the technological and social barriers that have held back geothermal development in Colorado.

Geothermal energy comes from the natural heat stored beneath the Earth’s surface. It’s harnessed by tapping underground reservoirs of steam or hot water to produce electricity or provide direct heating.

Colorado is home to significant geothermal areas including the areas of Mount Princeton Hot Springs, Waunita Hot Springs and the San Luis Valley — yet no geothermal power plants currently operate in the state. That could soon change, thanks to growing collaboration among researchers, energy companies and policymakers.

“We know there is an abundant amount of geothermal energy potential in our state,” said Hodge, who brings two decades of experience in renewable energy integration and power systems simulation. “What we need is a better understanding of the social, economic and regulatory factors that influence its development.”

Bridging technology and community

Frydenlund’s work with Indigenous communities in Indonesia, some of whom oppose geothermal projects due to environmental justice concerns, sparked an interdisciplinary collaboration with Hodge.

“I became very interested in bringing together physical science and social science perspectives,” Frydenlund said, “and to understand why a place as geothermal-rich as Colorado hasn’t tapped into this natural resource.”

Her research, together with Geography Professor Emily Yeh, revealed that struggles over geothermal projects emerge in and through the politics of indigeneity, land tenure and uneven development.

“There are concerns over land rights, sacred territories, livelihoods and environmental justice,” she said. “We need to bring those perspectives as we think about using geothermal here.”

To capture both the human and technical sides of geothermal development, the �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder team will combine tools, such as power systems modeling, spatial statistics and GIS mapping along with community forums, surveys and interviews. Gaining community input will be integral for this project.

One of their main goals is to create an interactive map tool of Colorado showing potential geothermal sites, layered with data on social and technological factors.

“Just because an area has strong potential doesn’t mean it’s a good place to develop geothermal energy,” Frydenlund said. “If it’s not culturally appropriate or desired by the community, resources can be wasted and projects can fail.”

The issue isn't unique to Colorado.

“We’ve seen this already in the U.S.," Hodge said. "Hawaii has been a leader in decarbonization goals and has great geothermal resources. Yet, there’s very little being developed there because you have to be mindful of the traditions in Hawaiian culture.”

The planning phase for the project includes three major steps: campus-wide town halls to connect with geothermal experts, identifying industry and community partners across the state and gathering preliminary data through stakeholder engagement. Between January and March 2026, Frydenlund will conduct fieldwork at six sites across Colorado, including Steamboat Springs, Buena Vista and Sterling Ranch in the South Metro area.

Building toward carbon neutrality

Geothermal exploration speaks directly to �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 and the Western Governors Association’s Heat Beneath Our Feet initiative, which announced $7.7 million in funding in May 2024 to advance geothermal technology in Colorado.

Geothermal technologies can operate at multiple scales from single buildings to community thermal networks to large-scale power generation.

“What’s really interesting from a power systems standpoint is that geothermal affects not only electricity supply, but also demand,” Hodge said. “If ground-source heat pumps became widespread, Colorado’s power grid could shift from a summer to a winter peak system.”

However, these technological advances alone can’t drive an increased transition to geothermal.

“Understanding the intimate relationships that people have with land and with energy and with each other will make for a much richer picture of what kind of future geothermal energy has in this state,” Frydenlund said.

The project is funded by a Research & Innovation Office New Frontiers Grant.

A major question looms over Colorado’s energy future: why does geothermal energy — a natural renewable resource — remain virtually untapped?

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Colin Flint, MA 1992 and PhD 1995: Charting the rise and fall of great sea powers

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Fri, 19 Sep 2025 21:24:14 +0000

Colin Flint, MA 1992 and PhD 1995: Charting the rise and fall of great sea powers Gabriela Rocha Sales Fri, 09/19/2025 - 15:24

Copied from Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine for archival purposes.

Charting the rise and fall of great sea powers

�鶹��Ѱ��alum’s book examines how the fate of the Netherlands, Great Britain and the United States as economic and political powers has been deeply intertwined with their ability to project power via the seas

Colin Flint, a �鶹��Ѱ�� PhD geography graduate and professor of political geography at Utah State University, researches the rise and fall of great world powers.

It’s a topic beyond simple academic interest to Flint, who was born in 1965 and raised in England during a period of seismic change in the country.

“At the time, Britain was still struggling to figure out that it wasn’t the world’s greatest power anymore, so my socialization and political coming of age was in a declined power,” he says. Additionally, Flint says being raised in the busy ferry port of Dover made a powerful impression on him by highlighting the country’s long history as a maritime nation.

Colin Flint, a �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder PhD geography graduate, researches the rise and fall of great world powers.

“Dover definitely has influenced me, being so close to the water,” he says. “My high school was on a hill overlooking the harbor, which at the time was the busiest ferry port in the world, with ships going back and forth to France and Belgium. So, the notion was very much rooted in me that Britain drew its power, historically, from the sea.”

At one point, Flint entertained the idea of joining the Royal Navy before setting his career sights on academia. He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Britain, then pursued his PhD in geography at the �鶹��Ѱ�� thanks to fortuitous connections between his undergrad mentor and �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Department of Geography Professor John O’Loughlin.

“I moved to United States of America in 1990 to attend university, and the literature at the time and discussions were all very declinist. It was very much, ‘America has gone down the tubes,’” he says. “Broadly speaking, I moved from a declined power into a declining power, or so I thought at the time.”

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Flint says the idea of America as a declining power was largely replaced with a triumphalist narrative that saw the U.S. as the world’s only remaining superpower.

Ideas about what makes a country an economic and political superpower—and how a country can lose its status as a hegemonic power—had been percolating in Flint’s brain for years when he recently published his book Near and Far Waters: The Geopolitics of Seapower. The book specifically looks at the Netherlands, Great Britain and the United States for context on how the countries used sea power to project their economic and political influence across the globe.

Flint spoke with Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine about his book, while also offering insights on how current events are shaping the outlook for the United States and the world. His answers have been edited for clarity and condensed.

Question: What is the context for your book’s title: Near and Far Waters?

Flint: There are legal terms about coasts and the exclusive economic zone around the country’s coastlines, but I’m not using it in that way. I’m thinking about an area of ocean in which a country has interest and influence over and off its coastline.

"Near and Far Waters" by �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder alumnus Colin Flint focuses on the Netherlands, Great Britain and the United States for context on how the countries used sea power to project their economic and political influence across the globe.

That is an important piece of ocean for a country because there’s resource exploitation, but it’s also a matter of security. If a country wants to protect itself from potential invasion, it needs to control those waters off its coastline—it’s near waters.

Some countries, once they’ve established control of their near waters, have the ability and desire to project beyond that, across the oceans into what would then become its far waters. If you think about Great Britain in the context of the British Empire, once it fought off European threats to its coastline—its near waters—it was then able to develop the sea power to establish its empire. It was in African far waters, it was in Indian far waters, in Middle East far waters and so on.

Another good example of this would be how the United States of America, over the course of history, pushed other countries out of its near waters. The Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico are good examples, where Spanish and British influence were ended over the 1800s and 1900s. And then by establishing control through annexation of Hawaii and the purchase of Alaska, America developed its Pacific near waters, too, which it expanded upon through the course of World War II, pushing the Japanese back and establishing bases in Okinawa, Japan; the Philippines; and Guam, etc.

Question: One of your chapters is titled ‘No Island is an Island.’ What do you mean by that?

Flint: I was talking about how the projection of sea power requires the control of islands. Often, the geopolitical goal and benefit of controlling an island is not the island itself—it’s how it enables projection of power further, or how it hinders other countries’ projection of power by being near sea lines of communication that you can have a base to try and disrupt. For example, when Hawaii became part of the United States, it allowed the U.S. to project power across the Pacific. Again, it’s not the island itself—it’s the projection of power across an ocean.

Projecting sea power is about more than just having a strong navy.

Question: If one country’s far waters extend into the near waters of another country, that would seem to be a recipe for conflict, would it not?

Flint: That is the kicker, of course, that a sea power’s far waters are another country’s near waters. And it has historically led to conflicts and even wars. It’s always involved violence—and not just between great powers and lesser powers, but also violence against the people living on islands or in coastal lands where sea powers are looking to establish dominance and exploit resources.

Question: China has been rapidly expanding its navy in recent years. Is it simply beefing up its sea forces to protect its near waters, or is it looking to supplant the U.S. as the dominant sea power? Or are there other motives at play?

Flint: You often see in newspaper articles written in the United States and maybe other Western countries that China has the biggest navy in the world. This always makes me laugh because, yes, it’s got hundreds and hundreds of tiny little coastal defense vessels, but even now that it has two aircraft carriers, it does not have the ability to project power like the United States of America, which has 11 carrier groups. So, I think that should always be recognized.

The other sort of trope that’s often wielded out there, which I think we need to question, is: The West is worried about China developing a navy, because it will allow China to disrupt trade networks. Well, wait a minute. China is very dependent on imports, especially of fuel or energy. Additionally, it is the world’s largest trading economy, and it’s worried about the robustness of its domestic economy. They cannot maintain their economic growth based purely on their domestic market, so they need to have a global economic presence for markets and for securing inputs into their economy.

Putting those two things together, it makes no sense why China would want to disrupt global trade. In fact, the country’s reaction to President Trump’s sanctions tells us that the last thing China wants is global trade disrupted. They’re very worried about the fragility of their own economy and whether that leads to social unrest, etc. The flip side of that is how the West could really hurt China by blocking those trade routes to prevent energy imports into China and exports.

China is definitely trying to grow its navy. I think what makes it so interesting is its simultaneous attempt to have a navy that can defend its near waters while perhaps preventing the operation of the United States in its far waters. To what extent China is attempting to establish a presence in its far waters is less clear.

"A sea power’s far waters are another country’s near waters. And it has historically led to conflicts and even wars," notes scholar Colin Flint. ("Naval Battle of 1812," Painting, Oil on Canvas; By Rodolfo Claudus; 1962/U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command)

Question: From your book, it seems like you have some serious concerns about the potential for a serious conflict arising from disputes over near and far waters?

Flint: In fact, I’ve never been so concerned or worried in my career, to be honest with you. When I started teaching my class on political geography many moons ago, let’s say in the mid-1990s, I used to start off with some structural model of global political change, which essentially says, we have cycles of war and peace, for the want of a better term.

And I asked my students to try and get them engaged: ‘Picture yourself in 2025. What are you going to be doing?’ It was staggering to me how many of them believed that they would be millionaires and already retired (laughs).

The point of that was that the model I was using predicted another period of global war, starting in 2025. I don’t do that exercise anymore, because it isn’t funny; it’s really quite serious. So yes, the risk of war is high, and I think it could emerge in a number of different places. One focus is on the South China Sea, the near waters of China, as that is clearly a potential flashpoint. Taiwan is the obvious focal point of what that conflict would look like.

I also wonder about potential flashpoints of conflict in Chinese far waters—and that could include the Arctic and the Northern Atlantic, because another factor that has to be considered is global climate change and the increasing possibility of a trade route through the North Pole, which would cut trade times from China into European markets considerably. Those waters represent U.S. near waters, so …

Question: Do you envision any sort of viable alternatives to a conflict between world powers over near and far waters, especially in today’s environment?

Flint: My motivation with the book was with an eye to waving some sort of flag about how to think about peace rather than war. Most of our lenses are national lenses. If we keep on this pattern of a national lens, then I see a strong likelihood to repeat these cycles of near and far water sea powers, which have always involved a period of global war.

We need to change that lens. We need to have a global view as to why countries are always seeking far waters, entering other people’s near waters and why that can lead to conflict.

Today, we’re facing a humanity-scale problem, which is global climate change. Is that the thing that will tell us we need to work together, rather than compete? I’m not saying it is; I’m saying, if I see a glimmer of optimism to your question, that’s it.

Question: Based upon your research, if a country loses its status as a hegemonic power, can it later recover that status? And, in the context of today’s world, what might things look like if the U.S. lost its hegemonic status?

Flint: The short answer is no, based upon past history, a country that loses its hegemonic status has not been able to reclaim it once it’s gone.

But to your second question, it goes back to the question about what China’s intentions are. In American popular culture, where every sports team has to be No. 1, even if they are eighth in some Mickey Mouse conference, there is this obsession that there has to be a singular winner or champion.

What I’m saying is that we shouldn’t just assume that if the United States declines there will be another emergent dominant power in the world. It’s quite possible that if the United States declines, what might emerge would be a multipolar world, although I don’t know what that might look like.

Geography alum’s book examines how the fate of the Netherlands, Great Britain and the United States as economic and political powers has been deeply intertwined with their ability to project power via the seas

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A Place-based History of Yellowstone National Park: New Book from Randall Wilson, MA 1993, Featured in Various News Outlets

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 19:25:41 +0000

A Place-based History of Yellowstone National Park: New Book from Randall Wilson, MA 1993, Featured in Various News Outlets Gabriela Rocha Sales Tue, 04/29/2025 - 13:25

A Place Called Yellowstone: The Epic History of the World's First National Park

I just published a place-based history of Yellowstone National Park (A Place Called Yellowstone) with Counterpoint Press. It has received positive reviews from Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and the LA Times. It has also been featured in articles in USA Today (Sunday Dec. 15), the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, and other outlets. The book is intended for general audiences and uses a historical geographic approach to articulate the profound legacies of Yellowstone on the way nature is valued and perceived in American society.

The program at �鶹��Ѱ��led me to a PhD program at the University of Iowa, and then to a decades-long career as an educator and researcher. I have been a professor of environmental studies at Gettysburg College since 2000. My research has focused on public lands and resource management issues in Colorado and across the western United States (and beyond).

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