Newsletter April 1998
Minutes of the Business Meeting of the Environmental Studies Section of the International Studies Association, April 20, 1998, Minneapolis, MN
Attendence: 48 people
1. The meeting was called to order by Section Chair Phillippe LePrestre, shortly after 12:30. The agenda was shown and adopted. An Ad Hoc Secretary (Ronnie Lipschutz) was appointed to take minutes.
2. LePrestre acknowledged and thanked the members and work of the Executive Committee: Detlef Sprinz, Beth DeSombre, Andrew Hurrell, Richard Matthew and Karen Litfin. Marvin Soroos was presented with a gift from the ExCom in recognition of his many years of tireless work as newsletter editor.
3. Elections were held; a sheet with nominations was passed out to those present.
Nominating Committee:
Nominated were
- Peter Dauvergne, Research Fellow, Dept. of IR, ANU
- Arild Underdal, Prof. Of Pol. Sci., Univ. of Oslo
- Yasuko Kawashima, Researcher, Nat’l Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan
- Marvin Soroos, Prof. Of Pol. Sci., NC State
- Miranda Schreurs, Asst. Prof. Of Govt. & Pol. Sci., Univ. of Maryland.
- Ken Conca, Assoc. Prof. Of Govt. & Pol. Sci, Univ. of Maryland (withdrew)
Dauvergne, Underdal and Schreurs were elected.
Executive Committee:
Nominated were
- Geoff Dabelko, Dir, Env. Change & Sec. Project, Wilson Center
- Neil Harrison, Asst. Prof. Of Political Science, Univ. of Wyoming
- Shin-wha Lee, Asst. Res. Prof, Graduate School of Int’l Studies, Korea University, Seoul
- Detlef Sprinz, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research & Univ. of Potsdam, Germany
Dabelko & Harrison were elected outright; there was a tie between Lee and Sprinz, and Sprinz withdrew. Continuing as members are Elizabeth DeSombre, Karen Litfin & Richard Matthew.
Sprout Award Committee:
Nominated to serve were
- Ken Conca, Assoc. Prof. Of Govt. & Pol. Sci, Univ. of Maryland
- Don Munton, Prof. Of Int’l Studies, Univ. of Northern British Columbia
- Kate O’Neill, Post-Doc Research Fellow, Belfer Center, Harvard
- Stacy VanDeveer, Post-Doc Research Fellow, Belfer Center, Harvard
Conca, O’Neill and VanDeveer were elected. Continuing are Gary Bryner and Jeniffer Clapp.
Chair, Int’l Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change (IHDP) Committee:
The sole nominee, and elected, was Oran Young, Professor, Dartmouth College.
Newsletter Editor:
The sole nominee and appointed was Ronnie Lipschutz, Assoc. Prof. of Politics, UC-Santa Cruz
Webmaster:
The sole nominee and appointed was Ron Mitchell, Asst. Prof., Univ. of Oregon.
4. Oran Young explained the duties of the IHDP committee and answered questions from the floor.
5. Committee Reports
The Sprout Award Committee for 1997-98 included Hugh Dyer, Mary Durfee, Jennifer Clapp and Gary Bryner. Bryner will be the new chair; Durfee will not return. The Committee received some 35-40 books for review this year, of which 8-9 made the short list. The three finalists were:
Second runner-up: Bryant, Raymond L., Third World political ecology. London; New York: Routledge, 1997.
First Runner Up: Kuehls, Thomas. Beyond sovereign territory : the space of ecopolitics. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 1996.
Winner of the Sprout Award: Dauvergne, Peter. Shadows in the forest : Japan and the politics of timber in Southeast Asia. Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, 1997.
- The Junior Scholar Award was announced by ExCom member Beth DeSombre. The winner was Steven Bernstein, University of Toronto, for his 1997 ISA paper on “The Evolution of International Environmental Cooperation.”
- Webmeister Ron Mitchell reported on the State of the Web.
- Global Environmental Politics Education listmeister Michael Maniates reported on the GEPED list.
6. General Information
- Phillippe LePrestre reported that there were 17 ESS or ESS-linked panels at the 1998 conference, plus several additional ones with environmental themes sponsored by the Governing Council.
- Papers from the 1998 ISA Conference are on-line at the Columbia University Press/CLIO web site. These can be accessed through the ISA web site.
- The 1999 Conference will be held in Washington, DC, February 16-20. The conference topic is: “One Field, Many Perspectives: Building the Foundations for Dialogue.” Deadline for proposal submissions is June 15, 1998. Proposals should be submitted to:
Joe Hagan, Program Chair
Dept. of Political Science
316 Woodburn Hall
P.O. 6317
West Virginia University
Morgantown, WV 26506-6317
Fax: 304-293-8644
E-mail: isaprog@wvu.edu
Http://csf.colorado.edu/ias/washington
Please send a copy of your proposal to Phillippe LePrestre at le_prestre.philippe@uqam.ca.
- A late withdrawal policy will also be in effect for the Washington conference. If you withdraw after the program is finalized, you will not be permitted to present at the conference in 2000 (and you wouldn’t want to miss the Millennium, would you?). Get your proposals in early.
- The Governing Council wants you! The Nominating Committee is looking for a few good candidates. Roger Coate, University of South Carolina, is chair of the Nominating Committee for 1999.
- The ISA has funds for workshops. About $28,000 were allocated this year; the same amount will be available next year, with a limit of $7,000 per workshop.
- There is a joint ISA/ESGIS Joint Convention in Vienna, September 16-19, 1998 and, as of March 20, papers and panels were still being accepted. Barbara Jancar-Webster (bjancar@acspr1.acs.brockport.edu) has a list of open panels. About $15,000 in travel grants are available from ISA headquarters for graduate students and junior faculty.
7. Financial Report: Phillippe LePrestre reported on the state of the ESS treasury. As of March 20, there was $1,743 in the ESS account, before paying for the reception (expected to cost $300). The ESS had $1,300 in income in 1997–Headquarters retains interest, and has also expressed a desire to charge sections members $1.00 in rents. The ESS ExCom has expressed its strong opposition to this idea.
Expenditures for 1997 included: $525 for the newsletter; $350 in travel grants for the Toronto Conference; $1,177 for the reception at the Toronto Conference.
8. Election results were announced (see above).
9. New Business: Phillippe LePrestre proposed that, in the future, elections be held via electronic ballot, as several other sections are already doing. The proposal was tabled for the moment, but will be discussed by the Executive Committee. This might require a constitutional change.
The meeting was adjourned (early!!) at about 1:25 PM
Ronnie Lipschutz
Ad Hoc Secretary, 1998
