A Social Research Conference at The New School

Disasters: Recipes and Remedies - Thursday and Friday, November 1-2, 2007

Collaborative Organizations

The American Civil Liberties Union is the foremost defender of the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The ACLU has played a major role in nearly every critical civil liberties battle of the last century — in courtrooms, in Congress and in the public arena. Learn more about joining the ACLU.

The slide show that will be presented between conference sessions comes to us from a course in the Eugene Lang College, The New School for Liberal Arts. “Teaching and Making Art in Sri Lanka” allows students to visit this island nation as artists, scholars, and teachers, working with children orphaned by the deadly tsunami on Dec 26, 2004. Students travel to ancient cultural sites and modern art venues, attend special lectures, and complete selected readings to enable them better to teach art and art-making to these children. Skill-based art lessons provide a forum for expression to help children think about, talk about, and come to terms with their devastating losses. The artwork produced by the children is taken to the United States, where it is auctioned. The faculty/student organization that has emerged from this endeavor, “Making Art Everywhere,” uses the funds generated by the auctions to sustain a year-round art program for survivors of the tsunami, conducted by local Sri Lankan artists. In addition to Sri Lanka, “MAE” has been to Afghanistan, and is currently planning a trip to Darfur.

Related Organizations and Publications

The American Water Resources Association is a non-profit professional association dedicated to the advancement of men and women in water resources management, research, and education. AWRA’s membership is multidisciplinary; its diversity is its hallmark. It is the professional home of a wide variety of water resources experts including engineers, educators, foresters, biologists, ecologists, geographers, managers, regulators, hydrologists and attorneys. Upcoming conferences include:

43rd AWRA Annual Water Resources Conference
Embassy Suites Hotel, Albuquerque, NM November 12-15, 2007
Preliminary Program now online.

2008 AWRA Spring Specialty Conference
GIS & Water Resources V
San Mateo Marriott, San Mateo, CA
March 17-19, 2008
Call for abstracts underway. Abstract submittal deadline: October 29, 2007

2008 AWRA Summer Specialty Conference
Riparian Ecosystems & Buffers: Working on the Water's Edge
Founder's Inn & Spa, Virginia Beach, VA, June 30 - July 2, 2008
Call for abstracts underway. Abstract submittal deadline: February 4, 2008

The Disaster Research Center, the first social science research center in the world devoted to the study of disasters, was established at Ohio State University in 1963 and moved to the University of Delaware in 1985. The Center conducts field and survey research on group, organizational and community preparation for, response to, and recovery from natural and technological disasters and other community-wide crises. DRC researchers have carried out systematic studies on a broad range of disaster types, including hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hazardous chemical incidents, and plane crashes. DRC has also done research on civil disturbances and riots, including the 1992 Los Angeles unrest. Staff have conducted nearly 600 field studies since the Center’s inception, traveling to communities throughout the United States and to a number of foreign countries, including Mexico, Canada, Japan, Italy, and Turkey.

The Forum on Science and Innovation for Sustainable Development links individuals, institutions, and networks engaged in the field of science and technology for sustainability and serves as a resource for the latest research, events, and opportunities in sustainability science.
The mission of the New Jersey Chapter of the American Planning Association is to promote sound planning as a process and a body of knowledge essential to improving the quality of life of the citizens of New Jersey and all stakeholders with an interest in the state.

The New York Metro Chapter of the American Planning Associationpresents its Annual Conference, "Creating a More Livable Region" in conjunction with NYU Wagner's Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management.

The Society for Judgment and Decision Making is an interdisciplinary academic organization dedicated to the study of normative, descriptive, and prescriptive theories of decision. Its members include psychologists, economists, organizational researchers, decision analysts, and other decision researchers. The Society's primary event is its Annual Meeting at which Society members present their research. It also publishes the journal Judgment and Decision Making and publishes a free Newsletter on Decision Making.

The UC Irvine Center for Disaster Medical Sciences is an interdisciplinary group of researchers and physicians dedicated to preparing for and mitigating the effects of disasters. Specific research foci include disaster triage, transnational and border health issues, public health preparedness, translational research, and counterterrorism. The Center sponsors a fellowship in emergency medical services and disaster medical sciences, offering a unique integrated approach to studying cross-cutting issues affecting modern populations while earning an advanced degree in public health.

The University of Washington's Master in Strategic Planning for Critical Infrastructures is a fully accredited, fully online program for leaders in charge of protecting critical infrastructures and emergency services. Developed in partnership with the Washington State National Guard, the MSPCI program was specifically created for officials in public and private infrastructure systems, emergency management and homeland security. The program is designed to train managers in the strategic decision- making required to prevent and counter threats to critical infrastructures and public health. A blend of strategic planning and systems theory, it follows a distinctive analytic approach that enhances the conventional emergency management approach to hazards.

Books and Publications from Conference Authors (Click on titles for summaries or to order)

Elliot Aronson
Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me!) Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts, with Carol Tavris, (New York: Harcourt, 2007)

Robert D. Bullard
The Black Metropolis in the Twenty-First Century: Race, Power, and Politics of Place, Edited by Robert D. Bullard, (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007)

The Quest For Environmental Justice: Human Rights and the Politics of Pollution, Edited by Robert D. Bullard, (University of California Press, 2005)

Growing Smarter: Achieving Livable Communities, Environmental Justice, and Regional Equity, Edited by Robert D. Bullard, (MIT Press, 2007)

Lee Clarke
Mission Improbable, (University of Chicago Press, 1999)

Worst Cases: Terror & Catastrophe in the Popular Imagination, (University of Chicago Press, 2005)

Howard Kunreuther
Catastrophe Modeling: A New Approach to Managing Risk, with Patricia Grossi, (Springer, 2005)

Wharton on Making Decisions, with Stephen Hoch, (Wiley, 2001)

Erwann Michel-Kerjan
Seeds of Disaster, Roots of Response. How Private Action Can Reduce Public Vulnerability, with P. Auerswald, L. Branscomb and T. LaPorte, (Cambridge University Press, 2006)

William Morrish
Civilizing Terrains: Mountains, Mounds and Mesas, (William Stout Architectural Books, 2004)

John Mutter
Journal of Geophysical Research, Editor with Richard Arculus, (AGU Publications)

Eric K. Noji
The Public Health Consequences of Disasters, (Oxford University Press, 1997)

Disaster Medicine, Edited with Gregory Ciottone, Philip Anderson, Erik Auf Der Heide, Robert Darling, MD, Irving Jacoby, Selim Suner; (Elsevier, 2006)

Charles B. Perrow
Organizing America: Wealth, Power, and the Origins of American Capitalism, (Princeton University Press, 2002)

The Next Catastrophe: Reducing Our Vulnerabilities to Natural, Industrial, and Terrorist Disasters, (Princeton University Press, 2007)

Robert Pollack
Signs of Life: the Language and Meanings of DNA, received the Lionel Trilling Award and has been translated into six languages (Houghton Mifflin, 1994)

The Faith of Biology and the Biology of Faith: Order, Meaning and Free Will in Modern Science, (Columbia University Press, 2000)

The Missing Moment: How the Unconscious Shapes Modern Science, (Houghton Mifflin, 2001)

Enrico L. Quarantelli
What is a Disaster? New Answers to Old Questions, Co-Editor with Ronald W. Perry, (Xlibris, 2005)

Handbook of Disaster Research, Co-Editor with Havidan Rodriguez and Russell Dynes, (Springer, 2006)

Irwin Redlener
Americans At Risk: Why We Are Not Prepared For Megadisasters and What We Can Do Now, (Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, 2006)

Robert J. Ursano
Textbook of Disaster Psychiatry, (Cambridge University Press, 2007)

Trauma and Disaster Responses and Management, Edited with A. E. Norwood, (American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., Washington, DC, 2003)

Terrorism and Disaster: Individual and Community Mental Health Interventions, Edited with C. S. Fullerton and A. E. Norwood, (Cambridge University Press, London, 2003)

Bioterrorism: Psychological and Public Health Interventions, Edited with C. S. Fullerton and A. E. Norwood, (Cambridge University Press, London, 2004)