Momentum: REES Department Newsletter June 2022

June 2022 Newsletter
Department of Resource Economics and
Environmental Sociology

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The Oxford Word of the Year for 2020 was ‘unprecedented’, although another contender might have been the word ‘pivot’. These words reflect the world around us and reflect some of the realities in our department over the last few years. From the loss of a close colleague, James Rude, to the reduction in support staff across the university campus, these have been very challenging times for many of us. Yet, we are a resourceful and resilient community with many achievements and successes that range from new projects to new academic staff.

After a two-year hiatus, we are excited to be bringing back Momentum! This issue offers a quick glance at this unprecedented year in REES with a summary of many areas of work. Please take a few minutes for these announcements and updates, and click on the links to explore more details. We are looking forward to the year ahead and connecting with many of you as we seek to advance the mission of our university through teaching, research, and service.

Dr. James Rude, Associate Professor in the Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology passed away on May 6, 2022.

James completed his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics at the University of Guelph in 1993 (BA 1979, MA 1982 University of Saskatchewan). Following his time at Guelph, he worked at Agriculture and Agrifood Canada from 1992 to 2001. He was located in the Department of Ag Econ at the University of Saskatchewan for the last two of those years and spent a year, 1996-1997, as a visiting researcher at Iowa State University. In 2002, he accepted a faculty position at the University of Manitoba. He joined REES in 2007.

James’ research was stellar and he made major contributions to the areas of trade and Canadian agricultural policy. His recent work focused on the impacts of COVID-19 on the agri-food system, as well as the economics of the livestock sector. His teaching was also exceptional, and his courses on price analysis and agricultural policy were foundational in the training of graduate students in agricultural economics. Most of our University undergraduates in agriculture took James’ course in agricultural policy, many of whom took the course as an elective. His reputation led to national and international recognition where he provided advice to the Canadian Senate, as well as to the OECD, the Farm Foundation in the US, and the Canadian Agri-Policy Institute. He also served on the executive committees of the Canadian Trade Policy Network, and the North American Agrifood Market Integration Consortium. He was a long-standing active participant in the International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium.

Number of Peer-Reviewed Publications: 115 (May 2020 - May 2022)

Number of Graduate Students as of June 2022: 93

Number of Graduate Students admitted in Fall 2021: 17

Congratulations to Christie Nohos on receiving a well-deserved university support staff recognition award - well done, Christie!

Sarah Gooding is the Academic Department Manager (ADM) for the Department of REES. As many of you know, her previous roles were focused on research (2003 RENR Research Coordinator, 2014 RENR Assistant Chair (Research and Academic Initiatives), 2020 ALES Director of Research). In the role of ADM, Sarah is focused on supporting and improving the administrative systems within the department. She works with the Chair to manage the Department’s budget and finances, which includes the hiring of GTAs, sessional teaching staff and new academic staff. Sarah looks forward to being involved in departmental strategic and academic program planning as well as external communications. In addition to these roles, with the help of Christie, Sarah works the Chair to oversee safety, space and facilities management and is the ADM for the Departments of Renewable Resources and Human Ecology with similar duties. Sarah is your go-to person for questions as the University continues to settle into the new Shared Services model, helping to connect you to the appropriate College Service Partner as needed.

Christie Nohos is the Executive Assistant to the Chairs of REES, RENR and Human Ecology. She started with the University in 2006 in RENR and joined REES in 2020, and Human Ecology in 2022. She is responsible for the three departments' space in four buildings: GSB, HEB, ESB and SAB. Christie handles all office related duties, including room bookings, office and desk assignments, work orders, key system maintenance, various other tasks and assisting with many projects. She started in RENR as a receptionist in 2006, then moved to Financial, Personnel & Payroll and have now been in the Executive Assistant/Office Manager position since 2013.

Kevin Jones has joined REES as Associate Professor of Community Engagement and Public Policy. Dr. Jones is an interdisciplinary social scientist researching adaptations to the social and environmental challenges which increasingly define today’s world. His research explores pathways to transformative change focusing on processes of institutional and governance innovation.

Douglas Mugabe will join REES on July 1, 2022, in an Academic Teaching Staff Assistant Lecturer position. Douglas received his PhD from West Virginia University, PgDip from Midlands State University and MSc and BSc from University of Zimbabwe. His research interests span Energy and Resource Economics, Environmental Policy and Analysis, Climate Change, and Agricultural Productivity Analysis. His most recent position was as Assistant Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at St. Olaf College, MN, USA. He will lead the MAg program and teach undergraduate courses in agricultural business management and, natural resource economics.

Kristine Wray will soon take up a position as Canadian Mountain Network Fellow in Indigenous Knowledge and Decolonization of Science. Kristine is currently a PhD Candidate in Environmental Sociology working with Dr. Brenda Parlee. She is a member of the Métis Nation of Alberta and is originally from the Northwest Territories. Her graduate work has focused on Indigenous approaches to resource management, specifically commercial and traditional fisheries (Great Slave Lake) and caribou. She has a particular interest in the interface of Indigenous Knowledge and science, reflected in her new position. In addition to assisting Dr. Parlee with the Ărramăt project and continuing her own research, Kristine will be developing and teaching a new course, RSOC 260: Indigenous Foundations for Environmental and Conservation Sciences (Fall 2022).

Maik Kecinski (former Assistant Professor, REES) has moved to a new position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Economics and Statistics at the University of Delaware. Maik’s research is focused on human behavior concerning others and the environment. Most of his current work involves collaborations with REES folks and he has been appointed Adjunct Professor in REES. He misses James!

Mohammad Torshizi (former Term Assistant Professor, REES) has moved to a position as Economist in the Program Impact Assessment Unit, Research and Analysis Directorate, Strategic Policy Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), in Ottawa. Using Statistics Canada's firm-level linkable databases, Moh performs quantitative analysis of AAFC's programs on the participating agri-food firms. He has been appointed an Adjunct Professor in REES.

Congratulations to the following REES students
who are moving on from their graduate programs!

Eligible for Convocation in 2020:

Yicuan Wang (PhD), Irene Onyango (MAg), Jelena Sapkovskaja (MAg), Anthony Fisher (MSc), Ravkat Muktarov (MSc), Neal Spicer (MSc), Zhiyu Zhang (MSc), Wenhao Lu (MAg), Ariadna Rincon Mendez (MAg), Julian Faid (MSc), Makenzie MacKay (MSc), Curtis McKnight (MSc), and Catalina Romero Hernandez (MSc).

Eligible for Convocation in 2021:

Lusi Xie (PhD), Yunxuan Chen (MSc), Aggar Frias Luna (MSc), Daniel Schiffner (MSc), Ziwei Hu (MSc), Merlin Uwalaka (MSc), Emilie Zenter (MSc), Kalli Herlein (MSc), Ishwor Bhatta (MAg), Skylar Lipman (MAg), Anna Lovenuik (MAg), Renato Maureria Canales (MAg), Kira Dlusskaya (MSc), Zihui Wen (MAg), Juan Felipe Vargas Alba (MAg), Peigu Shi (MAg), Chenxi Liu (MSc), Sonak Patel (MSc), Adilek Sultanov (MSc), Jennifer Syme (MSc), Sarah Van Wyngaarden (MSc), Wenbei Zhang (MSc).

Eligible for Convocation in Spring 2022:

Hannah Cunningham (MSc), Michael Huang (MSc), Abram Iskander (MSc), Jiwon Kim (MSc), Marina Mendonca De Almeida Malzoni (MSc), Andrea Miller (MSc), Lindsay Vander Hoek (MAg), and Kyle Wheeler (MSc).

In 2020 REES launched a new 12-month course-based masters program , with a focus on students who seek to enhance professional skills within a shorter timeframe, and a stronger emphasis on coursework. The first cohort in 2021 included 12 students from many countries, including Brazil and China. For the 2022 cohort that starts in September, we admitted 28 students with plans to maintain an ongoing group of approximately 20 students on an annual basis. Although we provided options for online-course completion this year, our plans are to maintain in-person delivery starting in 2022. See this link to some of the course-based capstone projects provided here.

The Ărramăt Project: Ms.Yanika Thamoon, the ปกาเกอะญอ (Pgakenyau or Karen) women leader of Khun Mae Yod Community, Mae Chaem District, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand © Pgakenyaw Association for Sustainable Development Mr. Boonsri Chalakkanok (PASD) สมาคม ปกาเกอะญอเพื่อการพัฒนาที่ยั่งยืน

Click here to watch The Ărramăt Project's Welcome Video!

ⴰⵔⵔⴰⵎⴰⵜ The Ărramăt Project

The Ărramăt Project is a Team of Indigenous organizations, governments, university researchers, and other resource people who are working together for research and action in support of the health and well-being of the environment and people. We want to strengthen Indigenous voices and capacities to document their knowledge about the importance of the whole environment (including biodiversity) to the health and well-being of their communities. The outcomes of the research will support Indigenous leaders who want to be heard by local-national-global governments and organizations and address current problems of environment and human health. Together, we are working to develop a strong voice for protecting the environment in ways that benefit Indigenous peoples.

Contact: info@arramatproject.ca

Tracking Change is a research initiative funded by the Social Sciences Humanities Research Council of Canada and led by the University of Alberta, the Traditional Knowledge Steering Committee of the Mackenzie River Basin Board, the Government of the Northwest Territories, and many other valued partner organizations. Over six years (2015-2022), the project has aimed to fund local and traditional knowledge research activities in the Mackenzie River basin and sister projects in the Lower Amazon and Lower Mekong River Basins, with the long-term goal of strengthening the voices of subsistence fishers and Indigenous communities in the governance of major freshwater ecosystems. The project developed in recognition that river systems are important social, economic, cultural, and ecological places that contribute to the well-being of communities in diverse ways. Fishers have been tracking change in the same places, in the same ways, using the same signs & signals for many generations. Such traditional knowledge is key to our understanding of many kinds of issues from resource development, to climate change, and other land uses. This tracking of change is not simply a technical process; people watch, listen, learn, and communicate about change because they care about the health of the land and the health of their communities.

Contact: basin@ualberta.ca

The Energy Transitions in Canada started in 2012 and continues to focus on the social context of energy development, including energy literacy, evolving energy landscapes and the social acceptability of renewable energy technologies such as solar and wind power. The project is funded through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Future Energy Systems, with collaborators at Dalhousie and the University of New Brunswick. Our website summarizes the work of our research team, with information on new and old projects, research articles, reports, media interviews, infographics and other materials that we use to communicate research results and promote energy transition in Canada. Recent articles include an assessment of landowner acceptance of wind turbines on their land and a webinar that explores preferences for renewable energy development among municipal leaders in Alberta.

The future of biomass energy project informs investment decisions and policy development by integrating economic modelling – designed for decision-making under uncertainty – into the biomass energy chains. The overall goal is to construct models that estimate the amount, location, and costs of cellulosic bioenergy feedstocks over time, which are sensitive to changes in market prices and yield variability. The Principal Investigator is Marty Luckert, Feng Qiu and Glen Armstrong are co-investigators, and Jay Anderson and Grant Hauer are research associates. The project is part of the University of Alberta Future Energy Systems signature area supported in part by an investment from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (https://www.futureenergysystems.ca/). Recent publications and presentations are listed here.

The Cooperative Program in Agricultural Marketing and Business, funded by endowment funds in the late 1980's, has operated with a mix of teaching (for example, a regular undergraduate coops course for students across the University), research (for example attitudes towards co-operatives and credit unions in Alberta) and public engagement across the agricultural community. The program also supports the stipend for one graduate student at a time and those students conduct research on a wide range of agricultural marketing and business issues. In spite of COVID on the research side, students have looked at general knowledge about co-operatives and credit unions in Alberta and have found that knowledge is not great for a targeted sample of Albertans under the age of 40. One of the most interesting things is a lack of understanding of the fact that co-ops can be businesses - much more awareness of non-profit co-ops. We have compared these results to those earlier in 2005 and 2010 and knowledge is higher with older and more rural populations in Alberta. However, there is no question about interest. For the last 21 years we have taught the co-ops undergraduate class and students have enthusiastically plunged into group and individual project work related to co-ops and remarked constantly 'I did not know that'. Project work has focused on history and evolution of individual co-ops and student have worked on everything from Alberta electricity co-ops to Fonterra, - Ocean Spray, Lilydale, Agrifoods International, the wheat pools, United Farmers of Alberta, Federated Co-ops and also explored the challenges of developing new co-ops in renewable energy and health care - the students are very keen. Under the program additional research dollars have flowed from Agriculture and Agri-food Canada research networks and Genome Canada projects among many others. Students who received stipends have all entered the agricultural sector for work - in government, in commodity organizations (some after doing internships on co-ops) in the agricultural sector more broadly and have also contributed to a wealth of knowledge on producer challenges from environmental change and adoption of new technologies, consumer preferences for foods, with their production characteristics and desire for more or less 'technology' and changing markets for things like local foods.

Congratulations to our wonderful graduates!
From left to right: John Parkins, Hannah Cunningham, Andrea Miller, Kyle Wheeler, and Kevin Jones.

Student Awards

Shannon Allen - Richardson Applebaum Outstanding Graduate Research Award (PhD thesis), 2021. Food Distribution Research, “Improving the Diets of Children: Understanding the Decision-Making of Parents, Children and Food Manufacturers.

Ravkat Muktarov - Outstanding Masters’ Thesis Award, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society, 2021. The Effect of Source Water Quality on Water Treatment Costs: Evaluation of Source Water Protection Practices” supervised by Dr. Vic Adamowicz.

Patrick Lloyd-Smith - Outstanding PhD thesis award, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society, 2020 for the thesis entitled "Fish, Time, and Water: Essays on Environmental Resource Trade-offs" supervised by Dr. Vic Adamowicz.

Monica Shandal - Outstanding Masters’ Thesis Award, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society, 2020, for the thesis entitled “Nari-Shakti - Women’s Relative Power and Productivity in Rural India" supervised by Dr. Sandeep Mohapatra and Dr. Brent Swallow.

Zhanji Zhang - Outstanding Masters’ Thesis Award, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society, 2020, for the thesis entitled "Economic Incentives for Land Reclamation: Evidence from the Oilsands Industry in Alberta" supervised by Dr. Vic Adamowicz.

Kalli Herlein - 2022 Western Agricultural Economics Association Outstanding MS Thesis award for the thesis entitled: “The Technical Efficiency of Wildfire Suppression in Alberta, Canada: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis.” Supervisor Vic Adamowicz.

Nimanthika Lokuge - 2022 Canadian Agricultural Economics Student Policy Brief Competition.

Faculty Awards

Feng Qiu has been recognized for her success in undergraduate teaching with a North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) teaching award of merit (2021).

Vic Adamowicz, Peter Boxall, Michael Williams, and Jordan Louviere, 2020 Publication of Enduring Quality Award, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association for Adamowicz, W., Boxall, P., Williams, M., & Louviere, J. (1998). Stated preference approaches for measuring passive use values: choice experiments and contingent valuation. American journal of agricultural economics, 80(1), 64-75.

Debra Davidson, Sandeep Mohapatra, and Feng Qiu - ALES Teaching Hall of Fame (2020-2021).

From left to right: Kevin Jones, John Parkins, Hannah Cunningham, Andrea Miller,
and Lindsay Vander Hoek.

Click the links below to read articles featuring
REES faculty and students!

Ellen Goddard – Western Producer, May 6, 2022. Food Choices are often personal. https://www.producer.com/farmliving/food-choices-are-often-personal/

Ellen Goddard – Postmedia news March 8, 2022. As gas prices soar in wake of Ukraine war, Canadians could see cost of goods go up. https://www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/news/as-gas-prices-soar-in-wake-of-ukraine-war-canadians-could-see-cost-of-goods-go-up-100703536/

Ellen Goddard – Western Producer Oct 28, 2021. New ag policy direction suggested for gov’t. https://www.producer.com/news/new-ag-policy-direction-suggested-for-govt/

Ellen Goddard – CBC July 2021. New made in Alberta food label in the works). https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/new-made-in-alberta-food-label-in-the-works-1.6103051

Sven Anders – Western Producer, April 21, 2022. Carbon credit market must better serve farmers: prof. https://www.producer.com/news/carbon-credit-market-must-better-serve-farmers-prof/

Sven Anders – New Food. 25 March 2022. What would you say to insects being a part of your food chain? https://www.newfoodmagazine.com/news/163153/what-would-you-say-to-insects-being-a-part-of-your-food-chain/

Vic Adamowicz – Arizona Republic. 29 May 2021. Wasting disease outbreak would imperil Arizona wildlife. https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2021/05/29/chronic-wasting-disease-outbreak-threatens-wildlife-in-arizona/6751937002/

Brenda Parlee – Globe and Mail, 13 January 2022. Ottawa’s new science grant recipients to tackle complex challenges, including Indigenous-led solutions to stem biodiversity loss. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-amazing-stuff-federal-grants-fund-complex-challenges-including/

REES uses two distinct formats for presenting social science research: a long research seminar for matured research projects, and a shorter brown bag format for presenting ongoing research. The aim of the latter is to obtain early feedback on new ideas, while in the former, the presenter presents methods, analysis, and results in a detailed fashion.

REES is a multidisciplinary department and, as such, its seminar presentation list is eclectic and includes research in the (broadly defined) Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology disciplines. In the last two years, despite the COVID-19 crisis, our department has invited over 30 speakers to present their research in our brown bag and seminar series. Several high-profile presentations include topics such as endangered species (Prof. Tilman Klumpp, University of Alberta, and Department of Economics. Title: “International trade and endangered species”), Contingent Valuation (Prof Christian Vossler, University of Tennessee. Title: Valuing surface water quality improvements: quality measurement, spatial variability, extent of the market, and incentive compatibility), Consumer Economics (Prof. Jane Kolodinsky, University of Vermont. Topic: “Making hemp product choices: Merging models of consumer choice behavior with the diffusion of innovations”), Economics of Households (Prof. Sandeep Mohapatra. University of Alberta, and Department of REES. Title: Identity Economics and Intra-household Bargaining), and the role of emotions in motivating climate actions (Speaker: Prof. Debra Davidson, University of Alberta, and Department of REES. Title: “Feeling climate: exploring emotional pathways to climate action and inaction”).

In addition, in 2022 our graduate students (REESA) have taken an active part in shaping the seminar series by electing their preferred speakers in both disciplines. The selected speakers were: Professor David Tindall, University of British Columbia, and Department of Sociology. Title: “Explaining Perceived Influence in Climate Change Policy Networks: The Canada Case”, and Professor Jennifer Winter, University of Calgary, and department of Economics. Title: Environmental Taxes and Energy Poverty in Canada” .

For information about possible presentations and participation in our seminar series, please contact Professor Philippe Marcoul (marcoul@ualberta.ca). Complete information about the past seminars can be consulted here.

The winter 2022 list is here.

Details for all events are posted on our Department's website at www.rees.ualberta.ca. For further information, please contact Christie Nohos at cnohos@ualberta.ca.

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Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology
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Edmonton, AB T6G 2H1

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University of Alberta - Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology · 9007 – 116 Street NW · 515 General Services Building · Edmonton, AB T6G 2H1 · Canada