From Households to Habitats: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Human-Environment Interaction
Communication, Science, and Society Initiative

A symposium for people interested in interdisciplinary conversation and scholarship that highlights four projects-in-process funded by the CSSI and features four scholars working at the intersection of communication, science, and society.

Friday, September 11, 2026 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., breakfast at 8:45 a.m. The Boardroom at the Nittany Lion Inn, University Park, PA

Featured Scholars:

Rajiv Rimal Johns Hopkins University; Jeff Niederdeppe Cornell University; Jenell Johnson University of Wisconsin; and Andrew High Penn State

Topics:

Community awareness of health risks associated with the Aedes japonicus mosquito in Pennsylvania through laboratory diagnostics and educational field ecology approaches with James Mutunga, Biology, Penn State-Harrisburg; Joshua Trey Barnett, Communication Arts and Sciences; Coren Jagnow, Center for Survey Research; Drew Lysaker, Penn State Extension

Family communication, youth digital media engagement, and physical health with Weimiao Zhou, Communication Arts and Sciences; Orfeu Buxton, Biobehavioral Health; Priya Kumar, Information Sciences and Technology; and Shawn Whiteman, Health and Human Development, Utah State University

Obstacles to countering the spread of Aedes aegypti in rural Peru with Kara Fikrig, Entomology; Leann Andrews, Landscape Architecture; Emily Pakhtigian, Public Policy; Alfredo Reyes, Entomology; Margarita López-Uribe, Entomology; and Chris Skurka, Media Studies

Mapping against the binary in the Mexico-US borderlands with Melissa W. Wright, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Geography; Anthony Robinson, Geography; Lily Houtman, Geography

Contact

  Allison Savage
  amk133@psu.edu