Current and Upcoming Events

This page updates readers about current happenings in MELDI and issues of interest.

January 2011

MELDI DIRECTOR DORCETA E. TAYLOR EDITS NEW BOOK

Environment and Social Justice: An International Perspective
Research in Social Problems and Public Policy, Volume 18.

Published by Emerald Group Publishing Limited, this book is a compilation of original research articles and is divided into six parts. Articles in Part I focus on urban environmental issues and sustainability including Central Park's influence on historical and contemporary models of funding public parks, London's community-based efforts to deliver affordable fresh food to the poor and the relationship between sustainable living, green consumption and social justice concerns in an ecovillage in New York. Part II concentrates on water resources and the hazards of toxic fish consumption. Part III features food security, agriculture and land loss. Energy and the theme of land and resource loss in host communities is the focus in Part IV. It discusses the poverty that is pervasive in communities hosting extractive oil and gas installations and the industry and attitudes towards it in rural Trinidad and Nigeria. Part V employs spatial analyses techniques to examine siting and toxic releases and Part VI examines diversity and environmental attitudes and presents findings of national studies and environmental conflicts.

For details about purchasing this book, please visit:
http://books.emeraldinsight.com/display.asp?isb=9780857241832&CUR=GBP

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

Movements, Neighborhood Change and the Media: Newspaper Coverage of Anti-gentrification Activities in the San Francisco Bay Area. 1995-2005
June Gin
Fritz Institute, San Francisco, California, USA
and Dorceta E. Taylor
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Food Security and Sustainability: Community Food Initiatives in London
Shumaisa Khan
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
October 2010

MELDI's WEBSITE INDEXED BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Earlier this year, the Library of Congress (LOC) began archiving the content of the MELDI website. This is a new project by the LOC to begin archiving web content. MELDI was on the the environmental sites chosen for this project.

CHOICE REVIEW OF "THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE PEOPLE IN AMERICAN CITIES, 1600s-1900s"

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries

The following review appeared in the July 2010 issue of CHOICE:

Laura Sell Publicist
Duke University Press
Box 90660
Durham, NC 27708-0660

Taylor, Dorceta E. The environment and the people in American cities, 1600s-1900s: disorder, inequality, and social change. Duke University, 2010 (c2009). 626p index afp ISBN 9780822344360, $99.95; ISBN 9780822344513 pbk, $27.95

Taylor (Michigan ) has gleaned profound insights from the social sciences and humanities to weave them into this superbly written tour de force on environmental and social justice in the urban US. She deftly brings out rarely made connections between urban environmental challenges and their demographic context, social classes, labor market dynamics, and politics. Taylor delves deeply into the environmental past of urban spaces and finds cities at the forefront of environmental activism. In this way, her work represents a monumental account of urban evolution in the contemporary cities alike. In the same vein, she finds continuity in the ideology and policies of past and present urban reformers. Above all, Taylor links environmental classism and environmental racism in the present with their progenitors of centuries past. In short, this is the best account of urban ecology that has come out in the past two decades. Divided into five parts and 14 chapters, this magnum opus has all the makings of classic that is destined to be one of the most referenced volumes of our times. Summing Up: Essential. Undergraduate/graduate collection in environmental sociology, urban sociology, urban ecology, political ecology, and environmental studies. --T. Niazi, University of Wisconsin

THE PROGRESSIVE RADIO SHOW: AN INTERVIEW WITH DORCETA E. TAYLOR

Dr. Dorceta E. Taylor, author of "The Environment and the People in American Cities, 1600s-1900s" was interviewed for "The Progressive Radio Show", a weekly half-hour radio show hosted by Matthew Rothschild. Click on following link to listen to the podcast: http://www.learnoutloud.com/Podcast-Directory/Politics/Liberal-Politics/.... THE PROGRESSIVE RADIO SHOW: AN INTERVIEW WITH DORCETA E. TAYLOR
April 2010

MELDI RELEASES EXPANDED COLLECTION OF PROFILES OF MINORITY ENVIRONMENTAL PROFESSIONALS ONLINE

Back by popular demand! MELDI has collected additional profiles and is releasing online an expanded version of the Profiles of Minority Environmental Professionals who have had Outstanding Careers in the Environmental Field. This database contains more than 200 profiles of people of color who have built successful careers in many areas of the environmental field. The online database combines the profiles originally contained in the reports, The Paths We Tread and The Journey Continues. In addition, new profiles have been added. This is the largest collection of profiles of People of Color environmental professionals in existence. But we are not done yet! We are still collecting profiles and will be expending this database. If you are a person of color and has had an outstanding environmental career (or know of such a person) please go to the Submit page on this website and provide us with information to complete a profile.

Stephanie, an undergraduate in a college environmental program where she encounters no other student of color and has no faculty of color in her program sent us a note after reading the profiles, “I can’t tell you how happy I was to come across and read the profiles. It feels great to know that other people like myself are involved in the environment too.” A teacher in an environmental high school where more than 70 percent of the students are students of color said, “I use the profiles to help our students find role models. We have a difficult time, particularly with our young black and Hispanic males. They don’t see themselves represented in environmental organizations so they switch their majors when it is time to go to college. I hope they can find mentors from looking at these profiles.”

MELDI DIRECTOR DORCETA E. TAYLOR HELD BOOK SIGNING AT BORDERS IN ANN ARBOR

Dorceta E. Taylor presented and signed her latest book The Environment and the People in American Cities on Friday, January 29, 2010 at Borders Bookstore, 612 E. Liberty Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104. The discussion and reading was followed by a Q & A session and reception. The turnout was great and the guests provided helpful feedback. Overall, it was an informative and enjoyable evening.
February 2010

THE GAME CHANGER: DORCETA E. TAYLOR

During her graduate years at the School of Forestry and Environmental studies at Yale University, Dorecta E. Taylor became interested in an environmental sociological and historical outlook.

But the basic information that Taylor noticed was missing was how to get a job, internship, grant or attend a meeting with an environmental organization, information which is pretty well-known if you are middle-class and connected to the environmental network, she explains.

To read the entire article, visit the following link:
http://earth911.com/blog/2010/02/01/people-to-celebrate/

Source: Earth911.com

May 2009

MELDI RELEASES THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL DIRECTORY OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE RESEARCHERS – MORE THAN 2,000 ENTRIES

MELDI has compiled the first International Directory of Environmental Justice Researchers. The directory contains the names, contact information and research profiles of more than 2,000 researchers working on environment and social justice issues from around the world. Researchers working on a broad array of environmental issues have been included in the directory. You can contribute to this directory by using the Submit page to provide information on researchers not included in the directory. We consider submissions from academic, student researchers, as well as researchers in government agencies, nonprofit organizations, etc.
March 2009

MELDI LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE, NAME AND LOGO

MELDI is pleased to launch its new website. We made this change because our old website could no longer handle the volume of information on it. We have taken the opportunity to develop a more user-friendly, dynamic and interactive site that organizes information in ways that are more readily accessible visitors. We hope you enjoy using the new site and find the resources provided helpful. We are also asking you to help us serve you better by using the Submit page to provide information to us that can be considered for inclusion on this site.

We have also changed our name and logo. We are now the Multicultural Environmental Leadership Development Initiative (MELDI). While MELDI remains true to its core organizing principles, this name reflects the broader array of issues MELDI focuses on. See the About MELDI page for a description of our mission, accomplishments and ongoing activities. Our new logo reflects our commitment to a diverse, fair, equitable and sustainable global environment and environmental movement. It incorporates a tree-like symbol that reflects our foundation in the concern for equity, justice and diversity in the environmental field while at the same time branching out to new areas and taking a leadership role in facilitating connections between disparate groups. The circle symbolizes a continuing-journey that we hope will be completed as time goes by.

MELDI’S RESEARCH ON DIVERSITY AND GREEN JOBS REACHES THE PRESIDENT OBAMA’S TRANSITION TEAM

When a team of environmental justice activists needed data on diversity and green jobs to present to President Obama’s environmental transition team they turned to MELDI. MELDI’s research on diversity trends in environmental organizations and our preliminary findings on worker characteristics desired by employers advertising green jobs was presented to the transition team. The data was quite influential in helping the president’s transition team to formulate policy in this arena. The impact was readily apparent when the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, pledged to increase the diversity of the EPA’s workforce in her first public address. That address was given at WE ACT’s conference held in New York from January 29-30th, 2009.

As one student who worked on putting together the database from which the information on green jobs was taken said, “It is very exciting to see all the hard work used to make an impact. It is difficult to see how the big picture fits together sometimes when we are spending hours on end looking for information.” In addition to the MELDI Program Director, Dorceta E. Taylor and Program Coordinator, Latonia Phillips, several students worked on the green jobs project last year. We received invaluable help from: Sarah Barjum, Sidney Brown, Yukari Higuchi, Sarah Lashley, Marcia McDade, Alexandria Teague

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