Faculty Research
Fall 2005 UM Faculty Exchange to the University of Joensuu’s Faculty of Forestry
Rebecca T. Richards, Professor, Department of Sociology
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| Professor Rebecca Richards in Finland. |
Introduction
The UM Faculty Exchange Award that I received to the University of Joensuu supported a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award from the U.S. Department of State and the Finland Bilateral Fulbright Commission. Without the UM Faculty Exchange Award, I would have been unable to have accepted the Fulbright award due to the high cost of living in Finland. I am very grateful to the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Provost’s Office, and International Programs in supporting my award. The description that follows documents my activities during my exchange.
Effect upon The University of Montana curriculum as measured by course proposals, syllabi changes, thesis supervision, and related outputs.
During the fall semester at the University of Joensuu, I developed and taught a new course, Social Perspectives on Non-Wood Forest Products in North America (3 credits) in the Faculty of Forestry for the International Study Program in Environmental Sciences and Forestry at the University of Joensuu from 24 October through 3 November 2005. The course coordinator for the Faculty of Forestry at Joensuu, Jukka Matero, provided me with a course evaluation summary, which I am attaching to this report.
I am redeveloping the course that I taught at Joensuu this wintersession (2007) and offering it as a cross-listed course with Forestry as Soc 495/For 495: Sociology of Non-Timber Forest Products. I anticipate that this course could become a regular course offering and an elective in the Department of Sociology’s Rural and Environmental Change program.
In addition, I prepared and presented a cross-comparative lecture on rural restructuring in the American West and Finland as an invited lecturer at the XIII American Voices Seminar for the North American Studies Program at the University of Turku, Finland on 22 October. I have incorporated this lecture in my Soc 346: Rural Sociology course as part of our international comparisons of rural restructuring.
While I was on the UM Exchange, I advised two MA students as thesis chair during my absence through e-mail. Both successfully defended their theses and completed their degrees following my return to UM.
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| Scenic view in Finnish Lapland. |
Effect upon scholarship, research and/or creative activities at The University of Montana as measured by refereed papers, grant proposals, contracts, presentations, or other related works.
While I was an exchange faculty member at the University of Joensuu, I was invited by members of the Geography Department there to accompany them and present a paper at a bilateral conference organized by the Russian Academy of Sciences in Petrazovedsk, Russia. The resulting presentation that I gave on October 14, 2005 was also published in the proceedings as:
Richards, Rebecca T. 2005. “The Role of the International Non-Wood Food Forest Product Industry in Local and Regional Development” (pp. 339-346) [in English] in Proceedings of the International Scientific-Practical Conference, 4th Arseniev’s Readings on the Border Region in Conditions of Integration Processes and Reforms of Local Authorities, Government of the Republic of Karelia, Petrozavodsk, Russia. Petrozavodsk: Russian Academy of Sciences [In Russian].
In addition, I have recently completed an invited book chapter with my Joensuu host, Olli Saastamoinen, as co-author. The resulting publication in press is:
Richards, R.T. and Saastamoinen, O. (Invited chapter by People and Plants International in preparation). “Everyman's gathering rights and social change in non-timber forest product traditions and markets in Finland” in Non-Timber Forest Products Policy: Frameworks for the Management, Trade and Use of NTFPs (Eds. Sarah Laird, Rebecca McLain, and Rachel Wynberg). London: Earthscan Books. Contract signed 25 July 2006.
During my faculty exchange, I was invited by my host to participate in the research project on which I was collaborating at a workshop that he organized in Prague, the Czech Republic. The resulting presentation that I gave at the workshop was:
Richards, R.T. Invited Paper “The Role of NWFP Commodity and Value Chains in Alleviating Rural Poverty: A Comparative Analysis of Finland, the U.S./Canadian Pacific Northwest, and the Russian Republic of Karelia” at the Second Workshop of the Academy of Finland Project: Poverty Alleviation and Non-Wood Forest Products: A Comparative Study in Tropical and Temperate Forest Contexts, Czech University of Agriculture, Prague, Czech Republic, 19 November 2005.
Currently, I remain in contact with my host, Olli Saastamoinen at the University of Joensuu, and a sociology research professor, Pekka Rantanen, at the University of Tampere regarding on-going data analysis and future research collaboration on the harvesting of wild berries my migrant Thai and Eastern European pickers in Finnish Lapland.