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Financing Mechanisms for Clean Energy in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)
No full textThis document breaks down 10 key financing mechanisms for clean energy projects by outlining their structures, benefits, limitations, and applicability for public and private Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The financing mechanisms below fall under five main categories: Debt Instruments, Third-Party Ownership, Performance-Based Financing, Internal Funding, and Risk Mitigation & Credit Enhancement.
The majority of the mechanisms can be applied to both types of HEIs, and only two options (direct investment and revolving loan funds) require some upfront investment. The advantages include lower interest rates, contract term flexibility, and future savings, while some of the drawbacks include enabling legislation and high creditworthiness requirements. In addition, the document lists a brief description of each mechanism, an introduction to an emerging tool that HEIs should take advantage of: Green Banks, as well as a few institutional characteristics to keep in account when navigating financing options. Lastly, the document briefly discusses Smith College as a case study
The Role of Socioeconomic Status in Shaping Associations Between Sensory Association Cortex and Prefrontal Structure and Implications for Executive Function
Full text linkSocioeconomic status (SES) is associated with widespread differences in structure of temporal, parietal, occipital, and frontal cortices. Development of sensory processing regions—in particular visual association cortex (VAC) and auditory association cortex (AAC)—may scaffold development of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Experiences that correlate with SES like cognitive stimulation and language may influence VAC and AAC development, in turn allowing the PFC to resolve conflicts between similar stimuli. SES-related differences in these regions may partly explain differences in executive function (EF) skills. Here, we use structural equation modeling of longitudinal data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development study to test the hypothesis that SES-related differences in AAC and VAC are associated with differences in structure of the PFC and development of the PFC over time, which in turn are associated with development of EF. We found partial support for this model, demonstrating that SES-related differences in PFC structure are mediated by differences in sensory cortex structure, and that SES-related differences in sensory cortex structure mediate the association between SES and EF. These findings highlight the role sensory processing regions play in SES-related differences in PFC development. Future studies should explore proximal environmental factors driving SES-related differences to inform interventions
Building a New World in the Shell of the Old: Co-Designing Post-Capitalist Visions
No full textDesigners working towards social change have often focused on designing discrete solutions to social problems, rather than working within the long-term world-making practices of movements. This paper examines the potential of a more embedded design practice within prefigurative movements, where mutual aid networks, worker cooperatives, and other solidarity economy initiatives are already developing alternative systems in the present. What if we could design everyday tools with these collectives to embody their transformative visions? Yet it can be difficult to design for transformation collaboratively. Collectives include members with diverse visions that can conflict, as well as different ideas about how to create change. To explore these challenges, I discuss a project that guided local prefigurative collectives in articulating and sharing their visions of a future 100 years beyond the fall of capitalism by co-creating an illustrated map. The project achieved the collaborative articulation of transformed futures, and it also initiated a dialogue on how to design for these transformative visions today. Moving forward, the project raises questions about the risks of sharing diverging visions while attempting to build coalitions, as well as the opportunity to clarify where our dreams overlap and diverge, empowering collective members to take non-normative steps with confidence
Une nosotres sin límites: la poesía cubana y cubana americana en la redefinición del papel de las mujeres
No full textRiver Valley Radical Futures
No full textRiver Valley Radical Futures is a gallery exhibition that will be shown at A.P.E. Gallery in Northampton from May 2-25, 2025. This exhibit builds on 2 years of work, supported by a CEEDS Faculty Fellowship, the Humanities and Social Science Labs, and the Design Thinking Initiative. The exhibit will display an illustrated map of the Connecticut River Valley in a future 100 years beyond the fall of capitalism. This map has been co-created with about 13 local groups who build alternative economies in the Valley today. The exhibit will also include work from six local artists who are making artifacts that are excavated from the future envisioned by the map
Some objects stay with us : (or the other way round)
No full textSome objects stay with us: they give us a vocabulary and send us to encyclopedias and other books. We appreciate their shape, their colors and the material they’re made of. We remember when we came across them. They were in other places, part of life stories we don’t know, and now they\u27re here in our house. They have become familiar, while often remaining foreign, even those that were intimately tied to the house of our childhood.https://scholarworks.smith.edu/frn_books/1023/thumbnail.jp
Beyond Methodology: Hungry Translation as a Yearning for Justice
Full text linkThis essay emerges from an invited lecture that I delivered at the University of Amsterdam in 2024. My reflections include glimpses from three decades of journeying within and across diverse sites of knowledge-making: a farmers’ and workers’ movement, a theatre group and my classrooms. I ask: how do we move from the idea of remaking research to a transformational praxis through which we can co-create shared hungers for justice that refuse the borders among research, creativity, unlearning and relearning? I draw on my co-authored labours in Playing with Fire, Muddying the Waters and Hungry Translations to explore this question through concepts such as situated solidarities, radical vulnerability, hungry translations and writing-as-praxis
What Do We Know about Insect Responses to Global Change? A Review of Meta-Analyses on Global Change Drivers
Full text link1. Global change is causing major declines in biodiversity, especially of insects. Scientific interest in global change impacts on insects has increased in recent years, resulting in many different meta-analyses examining questions within this topic.
2. We performed a comprehensive review of meta-analyses examining the effects of global change stressors on insects to identify well-studied questions and gaps in our knowledge and synthesise the responses of insects to those stressors. We identified 75 meta-analyses that fit our scope, accounting for 905 meta-results and spanning 18 global change stressors.
3. Our synthesis identified several global change stressors that are relatively well-studied across insect groups, such as agriculture, habitat degradation, and pesticide use. Moreover, other global change stressors were found to be relatively less studied, highlighting areas that need more attention; for example, very few meta analyses considered the impacts of global warming, ozone, light pollution, and interactive effects of multiple stressors on insects.
4. Most stressors are more associated with negative than positive effects on insects, except for nutrient addition, ozone, and air pollution. Negative effects accounted for the large majority of consequences on reproductive responses, which may help explain recent insect declines. Additionally, we found evidence for higher trophic levels being more negatively affected by global change and insects in aquatic habitats experiencing fewer negative responses to stressors.
5. Given these largely negative impacts of global change on insects, we argue for the need for national and local policy actions to monitor and actively conserve insect communities
The Development and Validation of a Dimensional Childhood Adversity Measure
Full text linkResearch on the developmental consequences of early adversity has grown rapidly, yet measures of childhood adversity have not kept pace with evolving theoretical models. Existing measures often lack comprehensive assessment and psychometric evidence. This study addresses these gaps by developing the Deprivation and Threat—Adult Self-report (DT-AS) measure, a psychometrically sound scale assessing childhood threat and deprivation exposure, evaluated in young adults. Psychometric analysis was performed in waves on a total sample of N=796 participants. Pilot data (n1=210; n2=208) were analyzed using Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) to refine item selection andoptimize response formats. The final sample (n3=378) confirmed a correlated factor structure of threat and deprivation with excellent psychometric properties. DT-AS consists of 33 items measuring threat and 30 measuring deprivation, offering a robust tool to examine associations between childhood adversity and psychopathology outcomes in adulthood