GSS Faculty Candidates

Jia Coco Liu, postdoctoral fellow, Johns Hopkins University, Department of Biostatistics

Jan 18th, 1 - 2 pm, Steger Hall (Biocomplexiity Insitute): 

Jan 18th, 2 -2:45 pm, Steger Hall Rm 118, GSS meeting with candidate

Seminar title:  Innovations in Assessing the Health Impact of Air Pollution

Short abstract:  Air pollution from natural disasters, such as wildfires and dust storms, has been an increasing threat to the health of affected populations. The assessment of human health risks of such air pollution is challenging because of the unique characteristics of the pollutants and insufficient pollutant data. Dr. Liu will demonstrate a few new approaches to address the challenges in estimating the health impact of wildfire smoke and pollutant mixtures.

Alasdair Cohan, postdoctoral fellow, UC-Berkeley Water Center

Jan. 29th, 1 - 2 pm, Fralin Auditorium 

Jan. 29th, 2 - 3 pm, 206 Seitz Hall, GSS meeting with candidate

Seminar title:  Safe Drinking Water and Environmental Health in Rural China and Beyond

Short abstract:  I will discuss my collaboration with the China CDC on the first household water treatment study in rural China. My analyses showed that electric kettle use was associated with the safest water (while bottled water was often contaminated), and identified socioeconomic predictors of water treatment preferences and indoor air pollution exposures. I will conclude with an overview of the China CDC intervention created in response to these findings, and the randomized controlled trial I am leading to evaluate its impact on water quality, air pollution, and health.

Julia Heck, Assistant Professor, UCLA Department of Epidemiology

Feb. 14th, 2 - 3 pm, Fralin Auditorium, Seminar

Feb. 14th, 3 - 4 pm, Engel Hall 113-E, GSS meeting with candidate 

Seminar title: Environmental Health Tracking of Childhood Cancers

Short abstract:  Dr. Heck will show her work applying air pollution models  including Land-Use Regression, California LINE Source Dispersion (CALINE) modeling, and other approaches to a case-control study of childhood cancer. She will also present her group's work on tracking and modeling pesticide use in California and applying it to epidemiologic studies.

January 19, 2:00-2:45 PM, Meeting with GSS Faculty, 429 Major Williams

January 19, 4:30-6:00 PM (w/ brief reception to follow), Research Seminar: “‘We Cleared the Land with Our Own Hands': Space, Place, and Black Freedom Struggles in the Missouri Delta,” 1040 Torgersen Hall

Candidate summary: Heidi Dodson, who earned her Ph.D. in History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2016, does research at the intersection of African American labor, civil rights, landscape, and environmental history, exploring African American community building in the context of rural migration, landscape change, physical and economic displacement, and white supremacy.  Her dissertation, a spatial and environmental history of black freedom struggles in the Missouri Delta, won a prize, as did one of the papers she delivered at a graduate student conference.  She has an article in print and online teaching experience offering the American history survey course. She also has extensive experience with oral and digital history, and is prepared to teach courses in those areas, public history, and several other areas related to her expertise.  Prior to earning her Ph.D., she served as a life sciences librarian at the University of Virginia.  

January 23, 10:00-10:45 AM, Meeting with GSS Faculty, 429 Major Williams

January 22, 4:00-5:30 PM (w/ brief reception to follow), Research Seminar: “‘Certaine Boundes’: Fluidity and Borders in the Chesapeake,” Newman Library Multipurpose Room

Candidate summary: Jessica Taylor earned her Ph.D. in History from the University of Florida in 2017, where she also received a certificate in Historic Preservation.  She is an expert in early American, native American, and oral history, and her dissertation on Indian peoples, nations, and violence in the 17th-century Chesapeake explores the relationship between people and their environments.  She has also developed a major oral history project on the effects of climate change and tourism on eastern Virginia's rural populations (the Tidewater Mainstreet Project, which currently includes more than 180 interviews), and she has 3 published articles.  She has taught courses on Oral History, US history, and thematically oriented oral history courses on addiction, World War II veterans, and the history of the University of Florida.  While in graduate school, she directed UF’s oral history internship program, and she has experience advocating for Virginia’s Native American tribes.

January 26, 2:45-3:30 PM, Meeting with GSS Faculty, 429 Major Williams

January 26, 4:00-5:30 PM (w/brief reception to follow), Research Seminar: “The Shifting Nature of Agriculture, Water, and Public Health on the Hopi Reservation,” 1040 Torgersen Hall

Candidate summary: Tai Johnson earned her Ph.D. in History and M.S. in GIS from the University of Arizona in 2016, and she has a graduate certificate in Women’s and Gender History.  She is an expert in environmental history, agricultural history, public history, digital history, and GIS.  Her dissertation, which was supported with an EPA Star Fellowship, is a community-driven public history project that explores transformation of energy systems, agriculture, and water on the Hopi Indian Reservation.  Her next research project, which she has already begun, explores energy, agriculture, and environment in the Appalachian coalfields.  She has extensive teaching experience in environmental history, the US history survey, Native American history, and the History of Western America, and is prepared to teach additional courses in Public and Oral History and agricultural history.  She also has training and experience in archives and museum management.

Chris Patrick, Assistant Professor, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, January 24-25

Wed, Jan 24:      10-11am seminar, Fralin Auditorium

                              11am-noon   reception GSS Faculty meeting with candidate, Fralin Atrium

Sally Entrekin, Associate Professor, University of Central Arkansas, January 30-31

Tues, Jan 30:      11am-noon seminar, Fralin Auditorium

                              Noon-1pm   reception and GSS Faculty meeting with candidate, Fralin Atrium

Scott Longing, Assistant Professor, Texas Tech University, February 5-6

Mon, Feb 5:        10-11am seminar, Fralin Auditorium

                              11am-noon   reception and GSS Faculty meeting with candidate, Fralin Atrium