Afton Clarke-Sather
(formerly Sather-Knutsen)
Department of Geography
University of Delaware
223 Pearson Hall, Newark DE 19716
302-831-2344 Office · 302-384-0732 Mobile
afton@udel.edu
Education
2012 Ph.D. in Geography, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO
Subfields: Political Ecology, Political Geography, and Geography of China
2007 M.S. in Environmental Policy, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI
2004 B.A. in Politics with Honors in Major Study, Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA
Appointments
2012-Present Assistant Professor, Dept. of Geography, University of Delaware, Newark, DE.
2009-2010 Visiting Scholar, Scientific Information Center for Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China
2009-2011 Instructor, Dept. of Geography, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
2007-2012 Teaching Assistant, Dept. of Geography, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
2007 International Sustainable Development Engineering Research Experiences Program Fellow (ISDERP) NSF/ Michigan Technological University, La Paz, Bolivia.
2005-2007 Teaching Assistant, Dept. of Social Sciences Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI
2004-2005 English Instructor, Northwestern Polytechnic University, Xi’an, China
Grants and Awards
(Total research related funding US $51,000)
2014 University of Delaware Global Scholars Award ($10,000)
2014 University of Delaware General University Research Grant ($6000)
2014 University of Delaware Writing Center Writing Fellows Program (2x $500)
2013 University of Delaware Writing Center Writing Fellows Program ($500)
2011 University of Colorado Graduate School Summer Dissertation Fellowship ($6000)
2011 University of Colorado United Government of Graduate Students Travel Grant. ($300)
2009 Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Grant. ($32,594)
2009 National Science Foundation (Geography and Spatial Sciences Program) Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant. ($12,000)
2009 Association of American Geographers Political Geography Specialty Group Dissertation Enhancement Award. ($800)
2009 Beverly Sears Named Fellowship (best research proposal in social sciences), University of Colorado Graduate School. ($2,000)
2008-2009 Foreign Language Areas Studies (FLAS) Fellowship for Chinese Language, University of Colorado.
2008 US Department of State/CAORC Critical Language Scholarship for Chinese, Heilongjiang University, Harbin, China.
2007 Michigan Tech Graduate Student Association Travel Grant. ($300)
2006-2007 Sustainable Futures Institute Graduate IGERT Scholar, Michigan Technological University.
2006 UC Berkeley/ Ford Foundation Community Forestry Research Fellowship. ($3700)
2000-2004 Penrose Academic Scholarship, Whitman College.
Peer Reviewed Publication
Clarke-Sather, A. 2014 Hydrosocial Governance and Agricultural Development in Semi-Arid Northwest China. In Negotiating Water Governance: Why the politics of scale matter. Ed. E. Norman, C. Cook, and A. Cohen. London: Ashgate.
Clarke-Sather, A. 2012 “State development and the rescaling of agricultural hydrosocial governance in semi-arid Northwest China.” Water Alternatives 5 (1) pp 98-188.
Clarke-Sather, A. and B. Solomon. 2012.“Grantocracy: Conservation grant-making and the territorialization of neoliberalism in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula.” Geoforum 43 (1) pp. 68-80.
Clarke-Sather, A., J. S. Qu, Q. Wang, J.J. Zeng, and Y. Li. 2011. “Carbon Inequality at the Sub-National Scale: A Case Study of Provincial-Level Inequality in CO2 Emissions in China 1997-2007”. Energy Policy 39 (9) pp. 5420-5428.
Ballard, M., A. Clarke, A. Sather-Knutsen, B. Barkdoll, and J. Mihelcic. 2008, May 16-19, "Collaborative International Research: Technology Transfer & Efficiency of Wastewater Treatment Systems in Rural Communities of Bolivia," World Water Resources Congress. Honolulu HI.
Papers in Review
Clarke-Sather, A. (in review) Proposed EPA Rules Likely to Increase Between State Disparities in CO2 Intensity of Electrical Generation Energy Policy
Clarke-Sather, A. (in review) State Power and Domestic Water Provision in Semi-arid Northwest China: Towards an Aleatory Political Ecology Political Geography
Conference Presentations and Invited Lectures
Clarke-Sather, A. 2014 April 9. “Water Use Efficiency in Subsistence and Commercial Cropping Systems in Gansu Province, China.” Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Tampa FL.
Clarke-Sather, A. 2014 March 31. “ ‘But we are the most backward’ placing Dingxi, Gansu in the Modern Chinese Polity” Association for Asian Studies, Philadelphia, PA.
Clarke-Sather, A. 2013 May 5. Shades of Green and Blue: Agricultural Water Management in Northwest China. University of Delaware Department of Geology.
Clarke-Sather, A. 2013 April 11. “State Power and Domestic Water Provision in Semi-arid Northwest China: Towards an Aleatory Political Ecology.” Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Los Angles, CA.
Clarke-Sather, A. 2012, Feb 26. “The Capital of Potatoes and Urbanization of Agricultural Development in Northwest China.” Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, New York, NY.
Clarke-Sather A. 2011, Nov 30. “From the Heavens to the Markets: State, Development, and the Remaking of Water in Northwest China.” University of Delaware, Department of Geography
Clarke-Sather A. 2011, Nov 18. “From the Heavens to the Markets: State, Development, and the Remaking of Water in Western China.” University of Colorado, Department of Geography
Clarke-Sather, A. 2011, Sept 29 “From the Heavens to the Markets: State Development and the Mediation of Nature in Northwest China” University of Colorado Center for Asian Studies, Boulder, CO.
Clarke-Sather, A. 2011, April 14 “Aridity, Agriculture and the Rescaling of Nature in Northwestern China” Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Seattle, WA.
Clarke-Sather, A. 2011, April 1 “Drinking Water Security and National Development in Northwest China” Joint Conference of Association for Asian Studies and the International Convention of Asia Scholars. Honolulu, HI.
Clarke-Sather, A. 2010, November 25 “Agricultural Water Technologies and Agricultural Cropping Patterns in Dingxi, Gansu." Invited Lecture at Lanzhou Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Lanzhou, China.
Clarke-Sather, A. 2010, April 24 “Landscape and Nation in the Yellow River Piano Concerto: Towards a Structurationist Position on National Culture in International Classical Music ” Symposium on Constructing China's Nationhood: Music and Transmission in East Asia, Organized by the Department of Music, School of Humanities, The University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong, China.
Clarke-Sather, A. 2009, October 30 “Urbanization and the Environment in the United States.” Invited Lecture at Lanzhou Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Lanzhou, China.
Clarke-Sather, A. 2009, March 23 “Veins of the nation: Development, Dams, and Nation-Building in Ningxia” Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Las Vegas, NV.
Clarke-Sather, A. 2009, February 18 “Essential Understandings About Chinese Geography” prepared and presented for the National Consortium for Teaching Asia workshop, Northglenn Colorado.
Sather-Knutsen, A. 2008, April 18, “Rearticulating Chinese Nationality Identity in the Yellow River Piano Concerto” Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Boston, MA.
Sather-Knutsen, A., Clarke, A., Ballard, M., Mihelcic, J. and N. Reents, 2007, September 29, "Community and the State in Wastewater Management in the Alto Beni Region of Bolivia," Association of American Geographers Great Plains – Rocky Mountain Annual Meeting. Denver, CO.
Sather-Knutsen, A. 2007, April 20, “The Politics of Parcels: Community and Landownership Change in the Keweenaw Peninsula” Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, San Francisco, CA.
Sather-Knutsen, A. 2006, October 31, “Community Responses to Landscape Parcelization in the Keweenaw Peninsula” invited lecture Human Dimensions of Natural Resources course, Michigan Technological University.
Sather-Knutsen, A. and E. McDonald, 2006, September 17, “Community Responses to Landscape Parcelization in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula,” 2006 Community Forestry Research Fellowship Workshop, Missoula, Montana.
Teaching (As Instructor of Record)
At University of Delaware
2014 Geography 422/622 Resources, Environment, Development (20 students)
2014 Geography 120 World Regional Geography (130 students)
2013 Geography 120 World Regional Geography (180 students)
2013 Geography 320 Water and Society (30 students)
2012 Geography 320 Water and Society (50 students)
At University of Colorado
2011 Geography 3682 Geographies of International Development (80 students)
2009 Geography 1982 World Regional Geography (50 students)
Graduate Student Committees Served (bold indicates committee chair)
Chelsea Leiper, 2014. M.A. Geography
Chelsea Leiper, in progress, Ph.D. Geography
Mary Schorse, in progress, Ph.D. Geography
Asia Downtin, in progress, Ph.D. Geography
Sarmistha Chatterjee, in progress, Ph.D. Geography
Kelsea Schumaker in progress, Ph.D. Energy and Environmental Policy
Curt Davis, in progress, Ph.D. Energy and Environmental Policy
Panels Organized
2014, March 27-30. Territorial Classification, State Power, and National Identity in China's Periphery Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference. Philadelphia PA
2011, April 1. Environmental Management and Nation Building in China's Periphery: Historical and Geographical Approaches. Joint Conference of Association for Asian Studies and the International Convention of Asia Scholars. Honolulu, HI. Co-organized with J. Schlesinger (History, Harvard) and J. Kinzley (History, University of California - San Diego)
Professional Service
2014 Reviewer for Energy Policy, Geoforum, Environment and Planning A
2013 Reviewer for Energy Policy, Energy Efficiency
2013 Panelist for National Science Foundation, Directorate of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences
2012 Reviewer for Water Alternatives
University Service
2013 Human Geography Faculty Search Committee
2013-present Departmental Representative to the American Association of University Professors
2012-present Departmental Representative to the Delaware Valley Geographic Alliance
2012 Internal reviewer for Environmental Studies Program unit review, University of Colorado, Boulder
2008-2009 University of Colorado, Boulder Department of Geography. Graduate Student Representative to the Faculty.
Workshops and Other Training
2011 Association of American Geographers Early Career Geography Faculty Development Alliance Workshop. Boulder, CO June 12-18
2009 Association for Asian Studies Dissertation Workshop on Politics of the Environment in Asia. Chicago, IL. March 29-April 1, 2009.
Professional Association Memberships
Association for Asian Studies
Association of American Geographers
Languages
Proficient Mandarin Chinese
Proficient Spanish
Location: 
