Keith Morency

Overseas program(s): Fuji Summer 2014
Overseas project(s): Heating up Japan’s Geothermal Debate: The Role of Onsen in a Changing Energy Culture
Expected graduation: May 2016
About me: Hello! My name is Keith, and I am a senior Environmental Studies Major with a Political Economy Minor at Lewis & Clark College. I am primarily interested in the political, economic, and social issues surrounding sustainable development. I am beginning to formulate my capstone project, which will potentially look at current methods that are used to measure the efficacy of sustainable development projects. My interest in this topic was largely inspired by my experiences conducting research in Japan and Vietnam in the Summer and Fall of 2014, respectively.

Navigating Foreign Landscapes and Ambiguous Terminology - Exploring the three themes nature/culture, global/local, and stasis/change is foremost an experiment in the power of terminology. It’s difficult to even begin looking at representations of “nature” in Japan, for example, without first discussing the infinite understandings of what it means to be natural. That being said, my goal is to base my analysis of […]

Diving Deeper into Coral Reef Ecology at Lady Elliot Island

Another day in paradise. Today marked our third day on Lady Elliot Island, and it’s easy to see that we’re all getting used to this. Waking up early isn’t a challenge with the bright sun and the cacophony of seabirds, but for once no one is upset, as our first activity is a quick snorkel […]

Journey to the top of Queensland – 5/4/18

Today marked our last day at Carnarvon, with our next stop to be the Great Barrier Reef. Although we’ve stayed at Carnarvon Gorge longer than expected due to the cyclone off the eastern coast, it allowed us to explore even more of the beautiful park. We were woken again by the sounds of Laughing Kookaburras, […]

Great Times at Great Kepple

April 7, 2018 Our first full day on Great Kepple Island! We spent the morning in lecture learning about coral, coral reefs (there’s a difference!), conservation and the general weather trends that can dictate the biogeography of the ocean. While some had come into this program with invertebrate knowledge from classes at Lewis and Clark, […]

Planes, trains, automobiles and the amazing reef!

On April 10th I woke up to the sound of the train wheels clacking. It was 5:30 in the morning. I was so tired but also so thrilled to be traveling to a new destination. Soon after we woke from the comfy and unique accommodation of the train, we all gathered our belongings and hopped […]

Under the Milky Way Tonight

On April 3, 2018 we stayed at the Takarakka bush resort in Carnarvon Gorge. One of the many highlights of Carnarvon George is the sky. Specifically, the entire Milky Way. Which, as our tutor brought up, used to be a sight that everyone could see. It is because of our cities light pollution that […]