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Millie Spencer and Emma Tyrrell: New York Times Article "How Do You Measure Snow From Space? First, Climb a Mountain."

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 15:12:03 +0000

Millie Spencer and Emma Tyrrell: New York Times Article "How Do You Measure Snow From Space? First, Climb a Mountain." Gabriela Rocha Sales Tue, 03/24/2026 - 09:12

Article copied for archival purposes.

How Do You Measure Snow From Space? First, Climb a Mountain.

A new satellite could transform how water is studied worldwide. But to help unlock its capabilities, scientists first needed to take critical measurements on a mountaintop.

By Sachi Kitajima Mulkey

Photographs and Video by Nina Riggio

Sachi Kitajima Mulkey and Nina Riggio reported from high in the Colorado Rockies alongside a team of scientists on skis.

March 24, 2026

At 4:30 a.m. on a recent Wednesday, three alpine scientists arose from fitful sleep in a chilly research lab in the Colorado mountains, 11,500 feet above sea level. They drank some grainy coffee, strapped into their skis and headed out into the moonlight, dragging a sled loaded with gear.

They had a satellite to meet.

The scientists were on an unusual mission. They needed to measure the depth of the snow at a particular mountaintop location just as a new satellite passed directly overhead. That satellite, equipped with powerful radar, has the potential to be the first one capable of estimating how much water is on the ground, in the form of fallen snow, from outer space.

It would be an extraordinary technological milestone, providing global data on snowpack, precipitation and how much water might be available to feed rivers and reservoirs downstream in spring and summer. But first, the satellite would need to be calibrated.

And one of the most accurate ways to do it is to be physically present on the mountain to measure the snow under the exact same conditions, and at the exact same time, that the satellite does. Other scientists are doing similar things around the world.

Precise timing matters. Snow changes quickly and the satellite passes over the same spot only once every 12 days.

So with hearts pounding from the thin alpine air the three skied out onto moonlit snow. Two of them towed the sled, equipped with a small portable radar that is capable of measuring the snow’s depth and density simply by dragging it back and forth across the mountainside.

“Only 4 centimeters deep here!” one of the scientists, Emma Tyrrell, called out. She was leading the project as part of her Ph.D. at the University of Colorado and the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. At the back of the sled, helping her pull it, was Arielle Koshkin, a postdoctoral researcher in the same lab, who made a note of the measurement.

For two hours, Ms. Tyrrell and Dr. Koshkin skied back and forth in precise zigzags across the slope of the ridgeline, pulling the radar with them and plunging a ruler into the snow every few feet. Somewhere, invisibly above them, the satellite charted its own path across the sky.

The satellite, known as NISAR, was launched last summer by National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Indian Space Research Organization. The satellite’s capabilities are the closest humans have come to measuring water content in snow across vast regions, from space, the holy grail of snow science.

The new technology comes at a critical time. As the world warms, snow is vanishing across many parts of the planet. That includes Western United States, which is currently undergoing a record snow drought. In states including Colorado and Utah, the snowpack is the lowest since comprehensive modern recording began, 40 years ago. That’s a problem because these states rely on snow melt for up to 80 percent of their water.

Snowpack, Ms. Tyrrell said, acts like a frozen water tower, storing and releasing water that then gets used by communities and farms downstream throughout the year. She paused to gesture across the mountain peaks, where the snow was visibly patchy and thin.

The area she was working, known as Niwot Ridge, would typically be blanketed in a thick layer of snow this time of year. The area is part of a watershed that provides a third of the water needed by the city of Boulder, which was visible that morning, some 25 miles away, as cluster of twinkling lights.

The warming world will doubtlessly transform Colorado, but because of the state’s high elevation there’s uncertainty about precisely how that might play out, Dr. Koshkin said, speaking as she helped Ms. Tyrrell adjust a GPS sensor on the top of the sled. Some precipitation might fall as rain instead of snow, but rain doesn’t remain stored on the mountainside to steadily provide meltwater later in the year. She also said the swings between good and bad snow years are likely to become more drastic.

The sun had started to rise, tinting the mountains scarlet. Several dozen yards away, Millie Spencer, a Ph.D. candidate in the same research group helping out on the day’s mission, was digging a snow pit with a shovel.

This old-school approach remains the gold standard for accurate data on snow. Even when working with modern technologies, like the sled radar, scientists often take analog measurements from snow pits at the same time.

Water managers still rely on long-term records from manual snow measurements to predict how much water to expect from snow each year, from which they create complex forecasting models that patch together different kinds of data. Perhaps most important of these is a large federally run network of snow-weighing sensors that take daily measurements across Western states.

But these sources capture only conditions at a single, isolated point. That’s a problem, because snow can vary significantly across even a short area. And as snow vanishes from the places it used to fall, scientists and water managers say these methods will become less reliable.

The new satellite has some important caveats. It can’t measure snow in densely forested areas, or if the snow becomes too wet. And the satellite’s radar doesn’t always strike Earth at an optimal angle for snow measurements.

The problem is that it wasn’t designed or intended to measure snow, said Jack Tarricone, a scientist at the University of Maryland and NASA. The original mission, first proposed more than two decades ago, was to monitor crops and a variety of other Earth systems like natural disasters, tectonic activity and glaciers.

While the new satellite may be no silver bullet, it’s the best chance scientists have had to measure snow on a wide scale. Researchers at universities and federal agencies alike said they had spent years anticipating the satellite and preparing for its launch.

Now, the clock is ticking. Satellites often stay up well past their intended life spans, but the snow-measuring radar on this one is planned to operate for only three years.

That’s one reason Ms. Tyrrell felt urgency to do these calibration measurements now. Other teams of scientists are also taking measurements at other locations around the world, using a variety of different techniques, to give the satellite the best chance of being accurately calibrated against differing locations and geographical conditions.

Some are flying helicopters and drones with laser scanning devices, other are using radars like Ms. Tyrrell. Each method has pros and cons, but for all its scientific benefits, dragging a sled is certainly hard and slow going.

After several hours, around 7:30 a.m., Ms. Tyrrell and Dr. Koshkin started wrapping up for the day. The satellite had moved on.

They dragged their radar sled back toward the mountainside lab while Ms. Spencer, still working on her snow pit, struggled to examine lumps of snow crystals with a magnifying glass. The task was made nearly impossible by the ribbons of sleet pelting her face.

Back at the shed, Ms. Tyrrell unzipped the cloth covering over the radar and spotted a problem. Snow had somehow gotten onto the device. Worse, one of its many wires had become unplugged.

But there was nothing to be done. It was probably fine, Dr. Koshkin reassured her. The device was made for snow, after all. And most likely the wire fell out as they hauled it indoors.

Next would come a harrowing 45-minute drive back down the mountain in an open-air vehicle with caterpillar treads. Fully checking her data would have to wait until she was back in Boulder. Either way, she said she intended to try again when the satellite comes back in a couple weeks, as long as the snow doesn’t melt in the meantime.

That’s just the nature of studying snow. “There’s only so much you can control,” she said. “We have to work with what we’ve got.”

Sachi Kitajima Mulkey covers climate and the environment for The Times.

A new satellite could transform how water is studied worldwide. But to help unlock its capabilities, scientists first needed to take critical measurements on a mountaintop.

By Sachi Kitajima Mulkey

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Katherine Siegel Named in The Story Exchange's Saving Nature: 11 Women to Watch in Science

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 16:57:15 +0000

Katherine Siegel Named in The Story Exchange's Saving Nature: 11 Women to Watch in Science Gabriela Rocha Sales Fri, 03/06/2026 - 09:57

Copied from The Story Exchange (https://thestoryexchange.org/11-women-to-watch-in-science-2026/) for archival purposes.

Letter from the Editor

We live in a time when words like “women,” “gender” and “diversity” are banned or restricted in federal research grants, particularly at agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health.

Yet that has not stopped trailblazing women from searching for urgent, innovative, science-based solutions to the human-caused “climate crisis” (another phrase that’s been banned, along with “global warming” and “emissions”).

These scientists are working to safeguard the safety of our water, air and soil. They’re seeking the smartest ways we can transition to clean energy. They’re pushing their limits to stop deforestation and curb greenhouse gas emissions. And they’re doing it within a system that – on top of the banned words and the Trump administration’s rollback of environmental protections — has long discriminated against them. Research confirms that women in science are paid less, given fewer leadership roles, and receive far less recognition than their male peers.

We can help with that last problem.

At The Story Exchange, we have long elevated women’s voices and achievements. Today, we are thrilled to spotlight these women scientists — nominated by peers — who are working tirelessly on our behalf. Their efforts alone will, of course, not be enough to save our natural world. We need thousands of committed scientists (and business and industries) like them. But their stories, dedication and perseverance can surely inspire others to try to do the same – and maybe just give the Earth a fighting chance.

Kathleen Alexander

Marianne Cowherd

Liz Dennett

Cynthia Gerlain-Safdi

Madeline Walker Miller

Rebecca Peters

Katherine Siegel

Ada Smith

Paige Stanley

Sarah Waickowski

Yagmur Yegin

"These women are using their hard-earned knowledge to protect our planet already ravaged by brutal storms, epic floods and intense wildfires."

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Illegality and the transformation of low-wage labor regimes in the context of rural gentrification

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 21:47:59 +0000

Illegality and the transformation of low-wage labor regimes in the context of rural gentrification Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 03/02/2026 - 14:47

Dr. Lise Nelson
Professor
School of Geography & Development
University of Arizona

Abstract: Over the last three decades, domestic amenity or “lifestyle” migration has stimulated a process of rural gentrification across the United States, shifting landscapes of production to landscapes of consumption--from Jackson Hole, Wyoming to Highlands, North Carolina. My research investigates an under-appreciated dimension of rural gentrification: the recruitment of low-wage, mostly undocumented Latine immigrant workers essential to building and maintaining gentrifying landscapes and lifestyles. The talk at UC Boulder focuses on the emergence and consolidation of immigrant-based labor regimes in two case study communities between the late 1990s and late 2000s, Steamboat Springs, CO and Rabun County, GA, exploring qualitative data that illustrate how and why employers in gentrification-linked sectors recruited an unfamiliar labor force. I trace how, over time, employers transformed their business model to reach new levels of profitability predicated on access to racially marked, “illegal” workers. I also discuss how these racialized labor regimes shaped life and work for immigrant newcomers navigating rural landscapes of affluence.

Over the last three decades, domestic amenity or “lifestyle” migration has stimulated a process of rural gentrification across the United States, shifting landscapes of production to landscapes of consumption--from Jackson Hole, Wyoming to Highlands, North Carolina.

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Black Environmental Science: Nanny, Obeah, and the Mysterious Ecologies of Marronage

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 17:37:19 +0000

Black Environmental Science: Nanny, Obeah, and the Mysterious Ecologies of Marronage Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 02/23/2026 - 10:37

Dr. Alex A. Moulton
Assistant Professor
Geography and Environmental Science
Hunter College, CUNY
Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies

Abstract:

Within Afro-Jamaica religions, “science” is used as descriptor for traditional medicinal knowledge, ritual practices, and spirituality. Practitioners of Obeah, Myal, and other Afrocentric spiritual traditions, often identify themselves as “scientists”. We can read this as a challenge to the negation and denigration of Marron practices as evil or satanic. Through the analytical framework of Black Ecologies, this paper leans into a reading of the maroon claim to science not so much an appeal for Western science or the translation of Maroon practices into Western scientific rationality, but an assertion of a counter-science, an alternative Black science that is not less valid than Western science. Centering the famed Grande Nanny, chieftainess of the Windward Maroons, I consider how the mythic stories of marronage and maroon obeah disclose a Black ecological science concerned with the advancement of Black communal flourish. While Nanny is denounced by colonial historians as a practitioner of witchcraft, and unmoored from reality, I argue for attention to the concrete Black ecologies, messiness of social reproduction, and gendered geographies of mobility that placemaking evince. Taking seriously the British fears of the maroons, narrated as a ghostly foe haunting the project of conquest, the paper considers the present imperative of marronage in struggles for socioecological justice and agrarian sovereignty.

Zoom Option: https://cuboulder.zoom.us/j/92617865791

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2026 Geography Mapathon

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 16:39:36 +0000

2026 Geography Mapathon Gabriela Rocha Sales Tue, 02/10/2026 - 09:39

The Colorado Geographic Alliance (COGA) and �鶹��Ѱ��Geography are calling for maps that capture life affirming geographies. This year's theme is Cartographies of Hope.

"Cartographies of hope are doorways to rehearsing a liberatory world in the here and now." - Dr. Isaac Rivera

Submit Your Map

�鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Affiliate Submission

Colorado College and University Affiliate Submission

Colorado High School Affiliate Submission

Email coga@colorado.edu with questions and technical difficulties.

Mapathon Events on Friday, April 10th:

Open House
- Food and refreshments.
- Gallery walk of map submissions and category winner.
- People's choice voting.
Grand Opening of Dr. Isaac Rivera's Rita Martinez Spatial Justice lab for Life Affirming Geographies.
Professor Sarah Elwood's Lecture 4:00-5:00pm.
People’s Choice Award Winner announced at 5:30pm.

Frequently Asked Questions

What maps are accepted?

Conventional, creative, drawn, digital, and abstract representations of geographic spaces or places are all acceptable. See this link for examples. Both digital and analog maps are accepted. For analog or drawn maps, please take a picture of your map and submit the picture to the online submission portal.

What will happen after I submit my map?

At the Open House map gallery before the Professor Sarah Elwood's Lecture on April 10th, attendees can vote on their favorite Map (People’s Choice Award). Two winners (Best Overall Map and People's Choice Map).

Categories:

Grand Prize: Best Overall Map
People’s Choice: Voted on by attendees
Thematic Awards:
- Life Affirming Geographies
- Geographies of Resistance and Repair
- Geographies of Care
- Geographies of Sustainability and Environmental Justice

How will my map be judged?

Once you submit your map it will be reviewed by a panel of �鶹��Ѱ��Geography Faculty and Graduate Students based on the following criteria:

Content
- Evident engagement with the larger "Cartographies of Hope” theme.
- Evident engagement with the theme the map is submitted under (i.e. life affirming, resistance & repair, care, sustainability & Environmental Justice).
- Readability/educational value (i.e. can the content of the map be followed and does it provide an interesting or important lens of the topic it addresses?).
Design and Style
- Title (i.e. is the title engaging and clearly connected with the content of the map?).
- Color balance (i.e., are the colors engaging but not overbearing? Do they work well with each other?).
- Layout (i.e., is the layout balanced, easy to follow, and engaging?).
- Images/visuals (i.e., are they engaging? Are they balanced? Do they match the content?).
Symbology
- (i.e. does the content match the representation?).

I'm not a �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Student, can I still submit?

Yes! Those outside of �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder are welcome to submit to the Mapathon and will be evaluated with their academic background in mind. For example, if you are a K-12 Educator, we encourage you to submit your students' maps and they will not be judged against PhD-level submissions.

What did last year's maps look like?

See our winners and other submissions here.

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Colorado Geographies Panel

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 14:19:22 +0000

Colorado Geographies Panel Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 02/09/2026 - 07:19

Sid Whiting Jr (Sicinagu Lakota)
Indigenous Youth Educator
Cultural Engagement Coordinator

Jeanette Vizguerra
Community Organizer
Founder of Sanctuary For All

Kalyn Rose Heffernan
Education Freedom Fighter
Lead Singer of Wheelchair Sports Camp

In the geographic tradition of Clyde Woods, this panel underscores the knowledge holders of Colorado, making visible the everyday ways in which our speakers transform places, landscapes, and futures into spaces of life affirming possibility. This panel will discuss Native ways of knowing Colorado, accountable relations with Native nations and peoples; immigrant dignity and practices of relational liberation; disability justice and the transformation of the built environment to affirm all life. The seeds for a liberatory world are already here.

This panel will be held in the Map Libraries at CU-Boulder. This is located in the basement level of the Earth and Sciences building.

Panelist Bios:

Sid Whiting Jr

Mr. Sid Whiting is Sicangu Lakota from the Rosebud Sioux reservation in south central South Dakota. He has lived in Denver most of his life as a part of the Native American community. He began working in his community at a young age. Being the president of the metro Indian youth group at 16 years of age, his family has been a part of creating many Native American organizations in the Denver area. Sid has been a part of the Denver March Pow wow and TallBull Memorial Grounds since their inception in the mid 70's. His involvement in community has been with youth primarily. Such as a Board member for Casa Milagro Youth Services. Sid's involvement with youth has seen him as a teacher for the now defunct American Indian Academy of Denver. But currently he is a Cultural �鶹��Ѱ�� Presenter for multiple school districts in the metro area. Doing presentations such as, Indigenous Drum Math, Tipi Calculus, Eagle Feather Physics, and Bison Science using Native objects. He also works for Create ayA, which is a Cultural arts promotional organization for Native Artists that puts on Denver's only Native American Comic Con and Futurism's event. As a Cultural Engagement Coordinator, Sid sits on the Denver Art Museum's Indigenous Council and the Native American Council at the University of Denver. He currently has objects at The Denver Art Museum Native American Gallery and a Gallery of objects at the Creative Nations Gallery in the Dairy Arts Complex in Boulder. Sid is currently working on the Living Land Project at Denver's City Park, transforming a portion of the park into a Native American inspired vision. This vision includes a Short Grass Prairie, a Medicinal Medicine Garden, and an Amphitheater meeting place for large events. Sid's work with the city of Denver has him working with others to build a Native American Cultural Embassy, a 20 million dollar project that was passed in the Vibrant Denver Bond last November. Sid has many other projects he is working on, including the Breathing Healing Bus, and the Sundance Film Festival in Boulder just to mention a few.

Jeanette Vizguerra

Jeanette Vizguerra originally from Mexico City came to the USA in 1997 for safety, as her husband suffered three express kidnappings in Mexico City. Like many immigrants, even though she has a degree in Psychology was unable to practice her profession here. Her first job was as a janitor. There she immediately began her activism for labor rights, which led the SIEU Local 105 union to invite her to work directly with them just three months after arriving in the USA. They saw her potential to organize, and from then on, her life has been dedicated to serving Colorado's most vulnerable communities. She is a champion of labor, civil, and human rights, and founder of immigrant rights in Colorado, her work is not only local but also national. She is the founder of the sanctuary movement in Colorado and independent organizations such as Sanctuary for All and Abolish ICE Denver. She supports and participates in all movements that affect her community. As someone impacted by the immigration system, she has been detained four times in ICE detention centers and twice sought sanctuary refuge. Her resilience led Time magazine to name her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2017. She sought sanctuary to resist deportation proceedings during the Trump administration, as her case became known worldwide. She has not stopped working for her community. For 30 years even while detained, she helped organize to liberate others within the detention center. She is the recipient of many civil rights awards and continues her work in the community.

Kalyn Rose Heffernan

Kalyn is the wheelchair-using, rap heavy, many arts, educating freedom fighter. Kalyn, who fronts the internationally acclaimed band Wheelchair Sports Camp has more recently stretched into theatre, performance art, politics, permanent installations, museum takeovers, prison tours, film and who knows what’s next. She infamously led Denver's first disabled, queer, artist campaign for the mayor seat 2019. Well known for fighting for access, human rights, and calling out those in power who protect capital interests over the future - Kalyn is well known for raising hell in a very loud and distinct high pitched sense of humor.

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Bodies as Infrastructure: Gender, Water, and situated infrastructural violence in North Indian Cities

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 14:14:38 +0000

Bodies as Infrastructure: Gender, Water, and situated infrastructural violence in North Indian Cities Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 02/02/2026 - 07:14

Yaffa Truelove
Associate Professor
Department of Geography
University of Colorado at Boulder
truelove@colorado.edu

Abstract

Over the last decade, a growing number of North Indian cities have been declared “waterless,” referring to the temporary stoppage of piped water delivery for days or weeks on end. While receiving widespread media attention for these moments of water crisis – with newspapers often showing images of middle-class residents queuing in long lines at off-grid water sources – urban “waterlessness” is an everyday reality for working class residents who altogether lack access to the centralized network. These residents piece together fragmented and off-grid infrastructures as a normative practice, enabling water to flow to homes and across neighborhoods, maintaining city life. Through conceptualizing bodies as part of infrastructure, this research traces the ways the social and material work of the body helps to build, develop, and maintain cities and their water networks in North India. Bringing a feminist political ecology lens to infrastructure studies, I specifically show how gendered/casted/classed bodies act as part of urban infrastructure through the quotidian practices and labor of finding and circulating water to households in Delhi, Mohali, and Shimla. By examining when and how bodies become “internalized” as part of infrastructural networks, this research aims to render visible often overlooked dimensions of infrastructure and our analytic view of it. I argue that conceptualizing the body as infrastructure helps make visible 1) the embodied labor, maintenance and care work that subsidizes and enables infrastructural assemblages and networks, 2) the socio-political processes and forces that produce the necessity for particular gendered /casted/racialized/classed bodies to act as infrastructure in the first place, and 3) situated forms of infrastructural violence that emerge from everyday practices that enable water’s circulation in cities.

Over the last decade, a growing number of North Indian cities have been declared “waterless,” referring to the temporary stoppage of piped water delivery for days or weeks on end...

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An Indigenous Geopoetics for the Apocalypse

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 22:38:04 +0000

An Indigenous Geopoetics for the Apocalypse Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 01/26/2026 - 15:38

Dr. Mabel D. Gergan
Assistant Professor
Department of Asian Studies
Vanderbilt University

Abstract:

Somewhere deep in the Dzongu valley, in the shadow of Mt. Kanchendzonga, lies a secret pathway to Mayal Kyong – a hidden paradise of abundance, home to seven immortal couples revered as ancestors by the Lepchas (Mutanchi Rongkup Rumkup). Mayal Kyong is one though perhaps the most significant of several hidden places believed to exist in Dzongu, where sacred scriptures, relics, religious teachings, and even precious jewels are said to lie concealed in rocky caves, crags, and waterfalls. These treasures are believed to reveal themselves only in moments of great need or at the end of the mortal world. One such sacred treasure is a pot filled to the brim with grains and seeds, meant to help the Lepcha people rebuild in the event of an apocalypse.

Since 2006, Dzongu has been the site of a vibrant anti-dam movement led by the Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT), which successfully pressured the state to withdraw four proposed dams on the River Teesta in Sikkim, India. Today, however, much of the Teesta has been dammed, and only a few free-flowing stretches remain. Hydropower development has also intensified the impacts of cyclical disasters, the most devastating of which include the 6.9 magnitude earthquake in 2011 and the 2023 Glacial Lake Outburst Flood. Despite significant pressure and criticism, ACT members continue to nurture the hope that the Teesta will remain a free-flowing river. Their activism is nourished and sustained by their belief in the power and protection of Sikkim's sacred landscapes. It is this act of nurturing hope, and the beliefs and practices that sustain it, that inform my analysis here.

In Lepcha oral histories and prophecies, the apocalypse much like in its original Greek meaning signals not only a time of disaster and doom but also a moment of sacred revelation. In conversation with Indigenous Himalayan and critical geographic theorizations of geopoetics, sacred landscapes, and prophecy, I understand these articulations as an Indigenous geopoetics: a praxis and philosophy grounded in the particularity of place, one that reads the earth and its signs in ways that maintain hope in times of crisis and uncertainty.

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Professor Emily Yeh: SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education welcomes 13 faculty fellows

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 20:40:13 +0000

Professor Emily Yeh: SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education welcomes 13 faculty fellows Gabriela Rocha Sales Fri, 01/23/2026 - 13:40

Copied from �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Today online publication on 1/23/2026 for archival purposes.

1/22/2026

The SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder has selected 13 faculty members as its inaugural SPIKE Faculty Fellows, launching a new initiative designed to strengthen and expand sustainability education across campus.

The SPIKE Faculty Fellows will play a central role in advancing sustainability-focused teaching and praxis at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder. Together, they will build a cross-campus network of faculty committed to integrating sustainability into curriculum and applied learning, while providing critical faculty perspective to broader university initiatives connected to sustainability education.

During the program’s first six months—starting in January 2026—the fellows will focus on two primary objectives: developing and delivering an annual Sustainability Across the Curriculum training for �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder faculty, beginning each May, and offering faculty voice and input into campuswide visions and initiatives that intersect with sustainability education.

In spring 2026, fellows on academic-year appointments will concentrate on teaching strategies responsive to the current moment, as well as foundational sustainability content. The theme for the spring 2026 cohort will be environmental and climate justice.

Advancing transformational learning

In coordination with administrators, staff, students and faculty colleagues across �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder, the inaugural class of SPIKE Faculty Fellows will work toward a range of outcomes that benefit both the Buckley Center and the campus community. These include:

Co-creating and coordinating a campuswide agenda for transformational learning related to sustainability (distinct from formal curriculum development, which will be supported through a separate ambassadors program)
Informing and illuminating best practices in sustainability education to guide campuswide efforts and reinforce �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s role as an international leader
Sharing experiences and challenges encountered in sustainability education and praxis
Advocating for innovative initiatives that energize and support pathways toward more sustainable futures
Cultivating networks of faculty support across campus, including serving as liaisons to centers and institutes
Collectively preparing and delivering a faculty training on sustainability education
Identifying, assessing and curating sustainability education materials for teaching and learning

Through these efforts, the SPIKE Faculty Fellows program aims to deepen collaboration, elevate faculty leadership and embed sustainability more fully into the educational experience at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder.

Spring 2026 SPIKE Faculty Fellows

The inaugural cohort of faculty fellows includes:

Thomas Andrews, Professor, History and Social Science
Karen Bailey, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies and Natural Science
Dave Ciplet, Associate Professor, Environmental Studies and Natural Science
Azza Kamal, Associate Teaching Professor, Environmental Design and Communication
Gregor Macgregor, Assistant Teaching Professor, Environmental Studies and Natural Science
Cresten Mansfeldt, Assistant Professor, College of Engineering and Applied Science
James C. Rattling Leaf, Sr., Geography, Natural Science and CIRES
Esther Rolf, Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering
Jonathan Skinner-Thompson, Associate Professor, Colorado Law
Seema Sohi, Associate Professor, Ethnic Studies and Social Science
Katharine N. Suding, Distinguished Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Natural Science
Meghan Van Portfliet, Assistant Teaching Professor, Leeds School of Business
Steven Vanderheiden, Professor, Political Science and Social Science
Emily Yeh, Professor, Geography and Natural Science

Together, these faculty leaders represent a wide range of disciplines and perspectives, underscoring the SPIKE Center’s commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration and inclusive approaches to sustainability education at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder.

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A Mountain Debate on Climate/Relational Change: Revitalizing the Voice of Indigenous Territorial Sovereigns in Tibetan Contemporary Literature

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 22:11:35 +0000

A Mountain Debate on Climate/Relational Change: Revitalizing the Voice of Indigenous Territorial Sovereigns in Tibetan Contemporary Literature Gabriela Rocha Sales Tue, 01/20/2026 - 15:11

Dr. Tashi Dekyid Monet
Post-doctoral Scholar
Modern Tibetan Studies
Weatherhead East Asian Institute
Columbia University

Abstract:

What do Tibetan mountains say about the recent climate change that is driven by and intensifies complex changes and disruptions to multiple relationships on the Tibetan Plateau? How do the mountains communicate their emotions, thoughts, pains, and resolutions? How can we listen, observe, know, and understand the mountains’ perspectives? In this paper, I explore how two Tibetan contemporary short stories provide creative and generative spaces to reflect on these questions. They are “Snow” (1999) by Pema Tseten and “The Conference of Lhanyen Mountains” (2020) by Joné Yumtsering. These questions emerge from Tibetan cosmologies and ontologies of the environment, personhood, life, and the plateau itself. Understanding the thoughts, moods, and visions of the mountains—known to Tibetans as Territorial Sovereigns (Zhidak གཞི་བདག; also rendered as mountain gods in English) —has been important for Tibetan communities in many ways, ranging o

ver cultural practice, agricultural production, and political governance. Territorial Sovereigns are both physical mountains and metaphysical figures who rule and protect specific places that constitute the Tibetan Plateau. I also engage the history of, and poetic evocations to, Mountain Sovereigns, including lived experiences of mountain ceremonies in my community. Similar to conclusions drawn by Indigenous climate studies (Whyte 2021; Cane 2025), these Tibetan stories illustrate how the “unnatural” events of natural disasters are signs of, and results from, disruptions in their human and more-than-human relationships. I argue that these stories offer a space for the emergence of fuller stories of Tibetan mountains and place-based relationships, including their entanglements with multiple changes today. They are also spaces where we can reflect on the possibilities and challenges of understanding places in their fuller being and senses than the often disembodied, objectified, extracted, and fragmented manners in which they are dealt with in research.

Speaker Bio:

Tashi Dekyid Monet (མོ་ངེ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་སྐྱིད།) is a Tibetan scholar, writer, and translator whose academic and literary work explores Indigenous Land-based traditions, multispecies care, and the intersections of literature, spirituality, peoplehood, and the environment. Born and raised in Minyak Rabgang, one of the Six Mountain Ranges of eastern Tibet, she earned her BA in Tibetan Literature from Minzu University of China. She received her Ph.D. in Education from the University of Virginia (2024), where her research connects Tibetan literary and oral traditions of Land, Buddhist sacred geography, Indigenous storytelling, popular culture—art, music, literature and film—with global conversations on decolonial methodologies, critical Indigenous education, human geography, environmental humanities, and multispecies justice.

Tashi Dekyid is a postdoctoral scholar in the Modern Tibetan Studies program at Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University, where she co-leads a collaborative Indigenous-led the project on “Indigenous Knowledge and Climate Change on the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas.” Her publications includes “Translating the Tibetan Lifeworld: An Ontological Bridge or Erasure” (Yeshe), a co-edited trilingual anthology Hope that Burns, Friendship that Heals: An Anthology by Tibetan Women Writers, and “Rejoicing in Reciprocity” (The Brooklyn Rail), She has authored three Tibetan-language children’s books—Ten Precious Yaks, Snow Friend, and Where Are You?—and translated works by Joy Harjo, Leslie Marmon Silko, Margaret Atwood, and others into Tibetan. She co-organized the 2022 international Symposium of Tibetan Women Writers at University of Virginia.

Zoom Option: https://cuboulder.zoom.us/j/91058919425

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