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Course Information

Culture & Ecology of Hawaiian Islnd (EESC 181)

Term: 2024-2025 - FALL

Faculty

Kathleen Schnaars

Please email me and we can arrange a convenient time for both of us to 'chat'. I usually respond in 24 hours or less, except weekends/breaks.

ALL faculty office hours can be found here:

https://www.uj.edu/current-student/academics/faculty-office-hours

AND A BIT ABOUT ME -

I was born in Brooklyn, NY and loved escaping to my brother’s dairy farm in the northern Adirondacks. I was excited when an opportunity to move to North Dakota presented itself.

As a field ecologist, I have broad interests in birds, plants and insects. I conduct research on the recovery of habitat, severely degraded by destructive snow goose foraging and I oversee the Hudson Bay Project recovery ecology program. I am also interested in declines in aerial insectivores and their population trends, behavior and niche requirements, at and beyond the published range. I am currently examining this by providing and monitoring artificial nest boxes to tree swallows north of tree line and monitoring insect population trends through the breeding season. I have involved students from the US and Canada in my research projects. I also involve the local communities in Churchill, Manitoba and Jamestown, ND, in the projects as citizen scientists.

I am a member of the National Wildlife Society, ND Chapter of The Wildlife Society, North American Arctic Goose Venture, Beta-Beta-Beta Honor Society, Entomological Society of America and advisor to the UJ Student Chapter of the Wildlife Society. I am a Primary Investigator with The Hudson Bay Project and I conduct research each summer in Churchill, Manitoba. I have brought student researchers every summer to participate in the exciting investigations of the Hudson Bay Project. Let me know if you want to join me!

Description

Students will develop an appreciation of the various cultural influences involved in settling and defining current day Hawaii. The Hawaiian Archipelago is one of the most remote in the world! Topics include historical events impacting Hawaii and the changes through the eras. Students embark on a historic resource study, specifically using Hawaiian units of the National park System (NPS). The NPS mission in Hawaii is unique in that their mission is not only to preserve, but also to perpetuate and promote traditional Hawaiian culture. The Parks possess prehistoric sites as well as resources related to the period after European and American vessels began to visit the islands. Text materials will cover origins of the Hawaiian Population, origins of Hawaiian Culture and Natural Sciences of Hawaii as well as Hawaiian responses to intercultural encounters. The course will meet weekly during the semester and culminate in a 7-day trip to Hawaii. Students will have daily opportunities to embed t