Letter from the Provost

Letter from the Provos

Petro-Power and Progressive Permutations: Conservation Offsets, Oil Sands, and the Politics of Neoliberal Conservation

Recent years have witnessed a growing international discourse and related rise of conservation paradigms that suggest the only way to make conservation work is to fully incorporate it into economic circuits. The development of a suite of market friendly conservation techniques have been at the forefront of this neoliberal turn in conservation practice, leading to the need for a deeper theorization and understanding of the role that non-extractive uses of nature are playing in relation to contemporary capitalism, and the political implications of these new approaches to conservation. The dissertation explores this global phenomenon through a case study of terrestrial conservation offsets in response to the ecological consequences of oil sands development in Alberta, Canada. The chapters that follow query the social, political and economic processes leading to the development of this particular conservation tool, and the political implications of project implementation in the province, particularly in regard to shifting accesses to land and resources. The findings complicate a number of dominant narratives to be found in the existing literature on market-based conservation practices, particularly in regard to the privatization of governance and their ability to facilitate recursive rounds of enclosure and accumulation. The case study draws attention to a series of contradictions and hybridizations that suggest that market-oriented conservation tools are associated with a more fractured and partial political project than often presented in the critical literature. The implications of the study suggest a need to shift focus from concerns about the use of market-friendly instruments in and of themselves, to the broader social and political context in which any given market is embedded. Doing so may serve to strip the neoliberal project of its assumed power, and open opportunities for novel and unanticipated re-imaginings of human-environment relations

A fragment of Christology: Feminism as a moment of Chalcedonian humanism

This theological fragment is concerned with the "humanist" (generally speaking) and "feminist" (particularly speaking) implications of classical Christology. Based on the exigencies of Christology, it proposes that the theological renewal of feminism ought to occur by integration into the broader horizon of the specific humanism proffered by classical Christology, rightly understood. It makes a first step, therefore, towards framing the conditions, nothing more, for a rapprochement between a "horizontal" liberation theology and a classical "vertical" soteriology. Developing a constructive debate between the perspectives on Chalcedonian Christology by two contemporary theologians, Sarah Coakley and Aaron Riches, it proposes that their seemingly contradictory Christologies - beginning, for the former, from the duality of natures, and for the latter, from the unity of person - possess similar intentions (the articulation of a theological humanism) but opposing intuitions about how to realize such a project. It is Riches' interpretation of the human in Christ that must form the appropriate, Christological conditions for the realization of Coakley's aspiration towards an authentic religious feminism

Biblical Leadership Principles and Practices Used By University Leaders

This study was conducted to ascertain the leadership principles and practices of those persons in leadership positions at a private, Christian university. The purpose, therefore, was to determine to what degree the leaders at the Christian university under study did practice biblical principles and practices in their leadership. The research design was an explanatory sequential mixed methods study. The same private, Christian university was used for both the quantitative and the qualitative study. The quantitative method employed the Leadership Practices Inventory which asked 30 questions using a Likert scale to determine to what degree 50 leaders at the university practiced the five exemplary leadership practices of modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, encouraging others to act, and encouraging the heart. The qualitative method contained nine questions asking 13 leaders at the same university their observation and practice of the five exemplary leadership practices along with any other leadership practices, biblical or otherwise, that guided them in their leadership practice. The results discovered from the explanatory sequential mixed method approach for this dissertation were encouraging and supportive that the leaders who were surveyed and interviewed were active in applying biblical principles in their leadership

Changing Land Use, Climate, and Hydrology in the Winooski

This study analyzes temporal trends and periodicity in seventy years of publicly available stream discharge and climate data for the Winooski River Basin of northern Vermont as well as lake level data for adjacent Lake Champlain. We also use random sampling and manual, point-based classification of recent and historical aerial imagery to quantify land use change over the past seventy years in the 2,704 km2 Winooski River Basin of northern Vermont. We find a general increase in annual precipitation, discharge, and mean lake level with time in the basin; discharge increases 18% over the period of record while precipitation increases by 14%. Over the last 70 years, mean annual temperature has increased at the Burlington Vermont station by 0.78 degrees Celsius (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit). Four sets of aerial photographs, taken at intervals of 12 to 29 years between 1937 and 2003 at thirty randomly selected sites, demonstrate that actively cleared land area has decreased by 14%, while forested land and impervious surfaces increased by 10% and 5%, respectively. Spectral analysis of precipitation, discharge and lake level data show a ~7.6 year periodicity, which is in phase with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO); higher than average precipitation and discharge are most likely when the NAO is in a positive mode. The NAO relationship demonstrates that discharge is largely controlled by precipitation; anthropogenic changing climate and changing land use over the past 70 years appear to have subtly changed the seasonality of discharge and caused an increase in base flow

Chiral Transition of SU(4) Gauge Theory with Fermions in Multiple Representations

We report preliminary results on the finite temperature behavior of SU(4) gauge theory with dynamical quarks in both the fundamental and two-index antisymmetric representations. This system is a candidate to present scale separation behavior, where fermions in different representations condense at different temperature or coupling scales. Our simulations, however, reveal a single finite-temperature phase transition at which both representations deconfine and exhibit chiral restoration. It appears to be strongly first order. We compare our results to previous single-representation simulations. We also describe a Pisarski-Wilczek stability analysis, which suggests that the transition should be first order.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Presented at at Lattice 2017, the 35th International Symposium on Lattice Field Theory, Granada, Spain, 18-24 June 201

Geology and Petrology of Ruapehu Volcano and Related Vents

Ruapehu Volcano is an active, multiple-vent, andesite composite volcano at the southern terminus of the Taupo Volcanic Zone, central North Island, New Zealand. The present-day volume of Ruapehu is estimated at 110 km3, and construction of the massif probably occurred during the past 0.5 m.y. Geologic mapping and stratigraphic studies have led to the recognition of four periods of cone construction, each occurring over 104-105 year time intervals. On the basis of lithologic/petrographic differences, and conspicuous unconformities which separate the deposits of each cone-building period, four new formations are defined, comprises the Ruapehu Group. Te Herenga formation (new formation name) comprises the oldest deposits of Ruapehu (upper lavas ca. 0.23 Ma) and is exposed as planeze surfaces and aretes on N and NW Ruapehu. The formation includes lava flows, tuff breccias, and small intrusive bodies surrounded by zones of hydrothermal alteration. There is little petrographic and compositional diversity; most lavas are porphyritic titanomagnetite- augite- hypersthene- plagioclase basic andesites. Wahiance Formation (new formation name) is younger than Te Herenga Fm,. but of unknown age. It is well exposed on SE Ruapehu, and comprises mostly lava flows and tuff breccias. The lavas comprise acid and basic andesites. Mangewhero Formation (new formation name) is well exposed everywhere except SE Ruapehu, and the upper lavas and pyroclastics (ca. 0.02 Ma) form the present high peeks and main cone of Ruapehu. The lavas are petrographically and geochemically diverse, ranging from basalt to decite in bulk composition. Some of the lower lavas are olivine-beering andesites of hybrid orgin. Whakapapa Formation (new formation name; ca 15,000 years to present) comprises conspicuously young lava flows, tuff breccias, airfall pyroclastics and minor pyroclastic flows of acid- and basic andesite. The deposits of these post-glacial summit and flank eruptions are subdivided into the lwikau, Rangataua, Tama and Crater Lake Members. 'Related vents' produced Heuhungatahi Andesite Fm. (> 0.5 Ma?), and Holocene deposits of basalt and basic andesite at isolated, monogenetic centres comprising Ohakune Andesite Fm., Pukeonake Andesite Fm., and Waimarino Basalt Fm. (new formation name). Most Ruapehu lavas are medium-K acid and basic andesites (mean of 144 bulk rock analyses is 57.8 wt % SiO2), but rare basalt and minor decite are present. Nearly all lavas are porphyritic in plagioclase, augite and hypersthene [plus or minus] olivine, with titanomagnetite micro- phenocrysts, and contain abundant metamorphic and igneous rock inclusions. Petrography, mineral chemistry and bulk rock chemistry indicate fractional crystallization series from parental basalts (52-53 % SiO2, Q-normative, low-alumina) to medium-K basic- and acid andesites (58-59 % SiO2). Early fractionating minerals are olivine and clinopyroxene with minor chrome spinel and plagioclase, followed by plagioclase, orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene and minor titanomagnetite in later stages of differentiation. Thus, basalt differentiation to produce andesites involves 'POAM-type' (Gill, 1981) fractional crystallization. Three second-order differentiation processes operate concurrently with frational crystallization: (1) Crystal accumulation involves addition of co-genetic plutonic rock fragments and crystals derived from them. These inclusions are common and few rocks represent liquid compositions. (2) Magma mixing involves mingling of magmas in repeatedly-occupied conduits. End members are as diverse as basalt and decite, yielding petrogaphically and chemically distinctive high-Mg andesites of the upper cone complex and parasitic centres. (3) Selective crustal assimilation is suggested by partially fused metamorphic inclusions, positive correlation of 87Sr/86Sr with SiO2, and failure of simple 'POAM' fractionation to explain decites (63-65 % SiO2). Petrogenesis of Ruapehu andesites takes place under open-system condition, involving production of parental Q-normative basalts in the mantle wedge, concurrent fractional crystallization and crustal contamination, entrainment of co-genetic plutonic rocks, and mixing of magmas in common conduits