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Afton Clarke-Sather
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  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 

    

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