20 Dr. Rebecca Sheehan: Over the past year, she presented research concerning public space and memorialization at SEDAAG in Atlanta (November 2022) and at the AAG in Denver (2023). In these papers, she examined the politics of regenerative memorialization associated with different government entities, NGOs, and citizens, particularly concerning contestation over meaning and working through different scales. She also explored ideas of artifact and art regarding memorial installations. This summer, she will be interviewing those at the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama about its role(s) in facilitating The Community Remembrance Project in local communities (EJI). This past year, she went to the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks! As, they say, a picture is worth a thousand words: Dr. Hongbo Yu continued to serve as the GIS Certificate Coordinator in the department. After resolving early issues with the Graduate College, the recently approved Graduate Certificate in GIS is finally running smoothly. This program has seen more graduate students successfully complete the application process and be admitted to the program. Hongbo has also been busy with several grant projects recently. He and his collaborators completed the USDA National Animal Health Laboratory Network Enhancement Grant project last December, in which they developed a web-based GIS platform that allows users to visualize the distribution of several livestock animals in the US and estimate animal populations within the proximity of a selected point of interest. This platform now is live and embedded as the “Animal Census Map” tab on the home page of Oklahoma Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at (https://oaddl.okstate.edu/). Stephanie Grace, a recently graduated master’s student from geography, worked as a GRA on the project and helped develop the web GIS platform. Early last year, Hongbo and his collaborators also started a new project supported by the Joint Funding Opportunity from the National Animal Health Laboratory Network and National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program. In this project, the team will develop a point of care (POC) foot and mouth disease (FMD) diagnostic assay and integrate its geolocation-enabled records to an interactive mapping system. The mapping system will have the capability to support wise animal movements decisions during a disease outbreak. Hongbo is supervising Ehsan Foroutan, a geography PhD student working as a GRA on the project, to complete the related tasks. In addition, Hongbo worked with Dr. Allen Finchum and Michael Larson on the Oklahoma Historical Society/ State Historical Preservation Office project in the new fiscal year. He also joined the team lead by Dr. Tao Hu on a two-year project supported by the Rural Research Initiative, in which they intended to evaluate the usage of mobile wellness units and investigate the accessibility issues related to the rural healthcare services in Oklahoma. Left: Mammoth Springs, Yellowstone NP. Right: Brink of the Upper Falls, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone NP
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