The Social-Ecological Systems (SES) working group brings together students and faculty from anthropology and other departments interested in social-ecological systems (broadly defined). Our working group offers a vibrant and supportive intellectual community that revolves around weekly meetings in which students, postdocs, and faculty share ideas, seek feedback from across disciplines, and push each other intellectually.
We meet every Wednesday from 1 to 2 PM (online and in person). Here is schedule for the current semester. If you are interested in joining us, please contact Mark Moritz at moritz.42@osu.edu.
The common theme across the research of participating students and faculty is the study of human-environment dynamics in past and present to understand the implications for the future. The program integrates the fields of ecological anthropology, environmental archaeology, environmental sciences, political ecology, ethnobotany, environmental anthropology, policy studies, behavioral ecology, and medical anthropology.
Faculty collaborate with each other as well as colleagues from a variety of other disciplines – geography, ecology, earth sciences, public health, veterinary medicine – which provides students with opportunities to participate in impactful interdisciplinary social-ecological systems research projects. Currently, we are hosting several such projects funded by the National Science Foundation.
What brings us together in the working group is the recognition that the integration of our respective theoretical and methodological approaches advances our understanding of human-environment dynamics.