CLIMATE

Relating Attitudes On Democracy To Attitudes On Race And Ethnicity

Building on his earlier work with the UMD Critical Issues Poll, Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development Shibley

Telhami (GVPT) will use an Individual Project Award to produce additional polls focused on two critical issues of the day. The first is attitudes about threats to American democracy and their impact on American foreign policy. The second is shifting attitudes on racial/ethnic/religious relations in America. The polls will occur over a three-year period of study that spans the 2024 national elections, and there will be at least one annual publication analyzing the results.

CLIMATE CHANGE & POLITICAL CONFLICT: IMPACT OF RISING SEA TEMPERATURE ON THE SECURITY OF 109 COASTAL NATIONS

Building on prior research, which found that sea surface temperature (SST) is a significant predictor of maritime piracy, Distinguished University Professor Gary LaFree of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice will use a new Individual Project Award to study SST as a measure of climate change. He will examine its impact on various types of political violence in 109 countries with coastlines. His findings may enable projections of the nature of future threats connected to climate-change induced shifts in food production.

ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHALLENGES, PURSUING SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS

Distinguished University Professor Ellen Williams of the College of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences (CMNS) was awarded an Institutional Grant for a multi-person project—of which Professor and Chair Tatiana Loboda of the Department of Geographical Sciences (GEOG) is a part. This project focuses on translating climate science to practice, and on offering experiential research opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students interested in pursuing multidisciplinary solutions to climate change. The project will heavily rely on the strength of existing campus research, which includes work concerning the monitoring and forecasting of extreme events, climateadaptations for agriculture, and the monitoring of air and water pollution globally, and in the state of Maryland.

CLIMATE MITIGATION AND LAND-USE: DETECTION AND MONITORING OF SECOND-GENERATION BIOFUEL CROPS IN THE UNITED STATES

To meet climate change mitigation goals, researchers are exploring second-generation biofuel crops such as switchgrass, which is able to grow on marginal lands without displacing food crops. However, the current spatial extent and usage of switchgrass is not well-quantified, and the unprecedented areas of future land-use change projected for these crops has the potential to impact biodiversity, water cycles, and food security.

Via an Individual Project Award, Associate Research Professor Louise Chini (GEOG) will use remote sensing data to develop detection and monitoring technologies for switchgrass and its conversions from previous land-use/cover, to help inform future climate mitigation decision-making.

ANTI-BLACK RACISM INITIATIVE

Assistant Research Professor Jeanette Snider and Professor Rashawn Ray of the Department of Sociology will work with Lecturer Ashley Newby and Professor John Drabinski of the Department of African American Studies on a Team Project Award that will position UMD as a leading anti-Black racism institution. They will do so by developing faculty-student, cross-departmental, anti-Black racism-focused research projects; developing and executing anti-Black racism teach-in workshops for faculty, staff, students, and community members; and presenting research findings to the wider campus and local community through an annual symposia and networking event.

These efforts will also amplify the Minor in Anti-Black Racism—a collaboration between BSOS, the College of Arts and Humanities, the College of Education, the School of Public Health, and the School of Public Policy—that is set to launch in Fall 2023.