The University is expanding its long history of involvement with Adirondacks research in a new collaboration with the Adirondack Research Consortium (ARC). Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies Emerita Ellen Percy Kraly and Joseph Henderson ’03, an associate professor of social sciences in the environment and society department at Paul Smith’s College, are the new co-editors of the Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies (AJES).
Colgate’s Office of Information Technology Services will host the online platform for the journal, and the Environmental Studies Program will serve as the journal’s academic partner.
The AJES, a project of the ARC, is an interdisciplinary journal that expands understanding of Adirondacks ecology and environmental issues and informs policy.
The late geology professor Bruce Selleck ’71 co-edited one edition of the AJES and was a member of the ARC. When he passed away in 2017, Kraly stepped in as a representative of Colgate on the ARC board. Then after the previous editor stepped down, Kraly assumed that role as well and approached Henderson — who counted Selleck among his mentors — with the opportunity to serve as co-editor.
Because the Adirondacks are so ecologically unique, the area is of heightened interest, and the AJES addresses that interest in its pages. “[The Adirondacks] have a ton of fresh water. They have a lot of rare species,” Henderson says. “It’s going to be one of the most stable areas going forward in terms of climate change.”
According to Kraly, the AJES is also noteworthy because “we need to ground our knowledge production within communities involved in whatever issue we’re studying,” she says. “The Adirondack Research Consortium wants to make the knowledge available to — and grounded in — the region.”
Along the way, the AJES and its interdisciplinary approach to environmental analysis aligns with the values of Colgate’s liberal arts education, its commitment to student research, and its Third-Century intention to deepen the rigor of its academic programs.