The Ohio State University at Mansfield
ER-16: Faculty Engaged in Sustainability Research

Steve Abedon/Microbiology
Terri Bucci/Ed T&L
Rachel Bowen/Political Science
Amy Brunell/Psychology
Mollie Cavender/History
Ozeas Costa/Earth Sciences
Joe Fahey/Theatre
Dawn Kitchen/Anthropology
Carol Landry/EEOB
Del Lindsey/Psychology
Christian Winterbottom/Ed T&L

(1) Rachel Bowen, Assistant Professor of Political Science-- A major aspect of my book project of the past few years entitled The Achilles’ Heel of Democracy: Judicial Autonomy and the Rule of Law involves arguing for the importance of judicial autonomy from societal actors (as distinct from other governmental actors, the usual focus of literature on judicial independence) for the creation and maintenance of democracy. In it, I argue that a democracy founded in equal justice cannot be sustained without equal recourse to impartial courts. A portion of this research has been published at Political Research Quarterly (“Judicial Autonomy in Central America: A Typological Argument”).

(2) Ozeas Costa, Associate Professor of Earth Sciences --Nutrient geochemistry of lakes in north-central Ohio: Physical and anthropogenic controls. Student: Corinne Aebersold (OSU-Mansfield). Project Description: Aquatic ecosystems are particularly vulnerable to environmental change and many are currently under pressure. This study was designed to evaluate the trophic state of 8 lakes/reservoirs in 5 counties surrounding the Mansfield Campus of the Ohio State University, including the influence of land and water use, geology, vegetation, snowmelt, precipitation and atmospheric deposition on the nutrient dynamics of these systems. Corinne presented her work at the Denman (AEBERSOLD C., COSTA O.S. Jr. (2011). Nutrient geochemistry of lakes in north-central Ohio: Physical and anthropogenic controls. Abstracts, 16th Annual Denman Undergraduate Research Forum, Columbus, Ohio, USA, May 11, 2011. The Ohio State University) and at the GSA meeting in Pittsburgh (AEBERSOLD C., COSTA O.S. Jr. (2011). Nutrient geochemistry of lakes in north-central Ohio: Physical and anthropogenic controls. Abstracts, Annual Meeting of the North-Central Section of the Geological Society of America, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, March 20-22, 2011. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs).

(3) Joe Fahey, Associate Professor of Theatre—Ohio Theatre Alliance Design Elements ReUse Initiative. I was working with the Ohio Theatre Alliance to develop a web-based re-use forum for theatre sets and other design and technical elements (properties, costumes, etc). The project included two presentations to the annual meeting of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, and the website templates had been created b y a private design company before work was suspended. I hope to return to that work within the next 12 months, and am considering applying for some funding support to complete it and make the site operational and self-sustaining.

(4) Dawn Kitchen, Associate Professor of Anthropology--Risk perception and anti-predator strategies in an Amazonian primate, with Dara Adams (OSU grad student).
Although neither bald-faced saki monkeys or ocelots (the subjects of study) are considered endangered, the site (Centro de Investigación y Capacitación Rio Los Amigos), is located in the Los Amigos Conservation Concession in Peru, which was founded as the world’s first private conservation concession in 2001. Our continued presence in this area provides economic and intellectual incentive for locals and the government to protect such primary rainforest (and the endangered species within) for the future. In addition, we contribute to human resoucrse sustainability by hiring and training the fertile minds of local Peruvian field assistants. Our work will also inform policy makers on predator-prey dynamics and Dara has promised in the NSF proposal to work with local schools on education. We have generated (Kitchen is PI) $33,286 in total grants, most external including a prestigious National Science Foundation grant. We presented a poster at a national meeting, we have a manuscript in prep, and we will publish multiple papers when we are finished collecting data.

Eleven (11) tenure-track faculty members self-identified as engaging in sustainability research. We have 34 tenure-track faculty who are actively engaged in research.