Life Sciences Seminar: Smash the Crash: An Interdisciplinary Initiative to Study and Prevent Bird-Window Collisions
Life Science Seminar
Smash the Crash: an Interdisciplinary Initiative to Study and Prevent Bird-Window Collisions
Dr. Richard Fadok
Postdoctoral Fellow, Humanities Center
University of Rochester
Abstract: Fatal collisions with glass windows claim the lives of up to 2 billion birds every year in the United States alone. This talk from a cultural anthropologist will review the history, biology, and politics of collisions to understand why they occur and what is being done about them. It will also describe an interdisciplinary community research initiative to study this local conservation crisis at the University of Rochester’s River Campus, where up to a thousand birds are expected to collide annually, and make recommendations about how to make universities safer places for both resident and migratory birds.
Bio: Richard Fadok is a cultural anthropologist whose research combines multispecies ethnography and the anthropology of design to understand how the built environment mediates human-nonhuman relations. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Humanities Center, where he is working on ethnographic projects about the environmental politics of bird-safe architecture in the United States. He is also the lead scientific advisor on Smash the Crash, a student-and-faculty initiative to study and prevent bird-window collisions at the University of Rochester. Richard received his PhD in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society from MIT; his master’s in Biomedicine, Bioscience, and Society from the London School of Economics; and two bachelor’s degrees in Neuroscience and Science & Society from Brown University. Before coming to Rochester, he was a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania.
Intended Audience: All are Welcome!
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Event Snapshot
When and Where
Who
This is an RIT Only Event
Interpreter Requested?
No