The Transformation Network

Transformation Network 2025 Annual Meeting
2025-05-21 - 2025-05-22
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TN Leadership Meeting
2025-05-08 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-04-24 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-04-10 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-03-27 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-03-13 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-02-27 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-02-13 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-01-30 13:00 - 14:00 (America/Denver) and 2 more dates

Book Reading: "Water Bodies: Love Letters to the Most Abundant Substance on Earth"
2025-04-08 18:00 - 19:30
Join us for an engaging night of readings and community discussion about water. Water Resources (UNM), along with our co-sponsors*, are hosting an evening of readings from the anthology “Water Bodies: Love Letters to the Most Abundant Substance on Earth.” View the event flyer here.
Contributors: Laura Paskus (editor), Maria Lane, Desiree Loggins, Michelle Otero, and Leeanna Torres.
Summary: As the climate crisis simultaneously pinches water supplies and exacerbates flooding, some of the West’s most thoughtful journalists, poets, and writers remind us that water isn’t a natural resource to manage or a commodity to sell—nor do humans live out their lives at the scale of interstate river compacts, interbasin transfers, or 30-year projections. Rather, water is a force that’s beguiling and seductive—and a creature whose knowledge and will supersedes our own.
This diverse group of contributors to Water Bodies shares intimate stories of rivers and snow patches, swimming holes, and ephemeral streams. They also explore how waters shape our landscapes and our consciousness as they consider what becomes endangered when we lose sight of the power of water.
Date and Time: Tuesday, April 8, 2025; 6:00-7:30pm
Location: Bobo Room, Hodgin Hall, UNM; light refreshments will be served.
Bookworks will have copies of Water Bodies for purchase at the event.
Please pass this invitation and attachment on to all who are interested in any aspect of water. Everyone in the community is welcome!
*Gratitude to our co-sponsors: Accelerating Resilience Innovations in Drylands (ARID) Institute, South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Intermountain West Transformation Network, and the Sustainability Studies Program.

TN & ASPRS Monthly Writing Club
2025-04-04 12:00 - 14:00, 2025-03-07 12:00 - 14:00
Join ASPRS and the Transformation Network for our monthly writing club and office hours in PAIS 2120 at UNM. Join us for a work session where you can bounce ideas off peers, have a designated work time, and enjoy some free coffee, bagels, and fruit!

Transformation Network Community Engagement Team Meeting
2025-04-03 09:30 - 10:30, 2025-03-06 09:30 - 10:30, 2024-12-05 10:00 - 11:00

TN Spring Speaker Series: Exploring Front Range Research
2025-04-02 12:00 - 13:00
Please join us on Wednesday, April 2 at 12 PM MT/11 AM PT for a presentation from our Front Range Place-Based Collaborative. Hear from Colorado State University students Griselda Landa-Posas, Kayla Schultz, and Jamie Woolet at this event. View the flyer for this talk here.

They will each give 10-15 minute presentations about their Transformation Network funded research happening under the Front Range Place-Based Collaborative.

Join Us on Zoom:
https://unm.zoom.us/j/91036334450

TN Spring Speaker Series: Columbia River Basin PBC
2025-03-10 14:00 - 15:00
Please join us on Monday, March 10 at 2 PM MT/1 PM PT for a presentation from our Columbia River Basin Place-Based Collaborative (PBC). This meeting will review the current and planned work of the Columbia River Basin group. We’ll highlight in particular an effort focused on identifying emerging Guided Transformation activities in the Columbia River Basin, and are interested to hear examples from other PBCs.

This event will be led by Julie Padowski (WSU) with possible contributions from other members of the PBC, including: Kinsey Ayers, Abdisa Kebebew, Brad Gaolach, Jennifer Adam, Sonia Hall, Courtney Flint, Jan Boll, Philip Moffatt, Moazzam Rind, Jessica Schad, Emma Epperson, Alex Theophilus, Claudia Wright, and Hailey Smith.

Join Us on Zoom:
https://unm.zoom.us/j/91036334450

"Fluid Geographies" Book Panel
2025-03-07 15:00 - 17:00
This panel will highlight Maria Lane’s new book Fluid Geographies: Water, Science, and Settler Colonialism in New Mexico with commentary from three experts on water and climate in New Mexico. Lane will respond to panelists’ insights and share her own experiences with researching and writing Fluid Geographies. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and make comments. View the event flyer here.
The panel discussion will be held on Friday, March 7 from 3-4pm in the Waters Room of Zimmerman Library, with a reception at the University Club from 4-5pm. Authors will be available for book signing during the reception. The event is being hosted by the Intermountain West Transformation Network, UNM Department of Geography & Environmental Studies, UNM Sustainability Studies Program, UNM Water Resources Program, and the ARID Institute at UNM.
Featured Authors and Panelists:

K. Maria D. Lane, Author of Fluid Geographies: Water, Science, and Settler Colonialism in New Mexico
Myrriah Gómez, Author of Nuclear Nuevo México: Colonialism and the Effects of the Nuclear Industrial Complex on Nuevomexicanos
Eric Perramond, Author of Unsettled Waters: Rights, Law, and Identity in the American West
Laura Paskus, Author of At the Precipice: New Mexico’s Changing Climate

NAU Presentation — Bridging Knowledge Systems: The Transformation Network’s Interepistemic Approach to Complex Challenges
2025-03-04 14:30 - 15:30
Join the Transformation Network’s Principal Investigator, Melinda Morgan, for a talk at Northern Arizona University. Mindy will be speaking in the NAU Science Annex, Room 225 at 2:30 PM on Tuesday, March 4 with a reception to follow. View the event flyer here.
Talk Abstract: The challenges facing the Intermountain West are characterized by radical complexity and enormous consequences. They include climate change and associated ecological effects, such as catastrophic wildfire and drought, and are also inextricably linked to social inequities, including freshwater availability and land conversion. A meaningful response to these challenges requires new thinking. Convergent research is designed to foster new thinking by creating novel frameworks and conceptual models that drive innovation. In this talk, team lead Melinda Morgan will share the Transformation Network’s approach to convergent research, as well as its theoretical framework, Guided Transformation.
Speaker Bio: Melinda Morgan is a Regents’ Professor at the University of New Mexico in Geography and Environmental Studies. Mindy has dedicated her career to natural resource and environmental issues in the American West. Her research and scholarship focus on emerging environmental governance regimes, with a particular emphasis on how these approaches interface with existing legal and regulatory requirements. Along with Robin Craig, she is the author of The End of Sustainability: Resilience and the Future of Environmental Governance in the Anthropocene. She is currently the lead project investigator of the Intermountain West Transformation Network, a National Science Foundation funded Sustainable Regional Systems Network that represents a partnership between eight Western U.S. universities with over 80 partner organizations. Prior to academic life, she worked as an attorney, representing communities on natural resource issues.

TN Spring Speaker Series: Four Corners, Three Rivers PBC
2025-02-27 14:00 - 15:00
Please join us on Thursday, February 27 at 2 PM MT/1 PM PT for a presentation from our Four Corners, Three Rivers Place-Based Collaborative. Join the Four Corners, Three Rivers Place-Based Collaborative and learn about the creation of a documentary on the Gold King Mine Spill, watch some film previews, and hear plans for dissemination of this project. This presentation will be led by Dr. Kevin Lombard (NMSU) and students Daveishena Redhouse (BFA, Institute of American Indian Arts. Currently pursuing a MFA in Animation at Savanah College of Art and Design) and Cayden Manuelito (Associates of Applied Science, Digital Media Arts and Design Degree, San Juan College). View the event flyer here.

Join Us on Zoom:
https://unm.zoom.us/j/91036334450

Columbia River Basin PBC Quarterly Meeting
2025-02-13 10:00 - 11:00

Transformation Atlas Workshop
2025-01-30 11:00 - 12:00

Rio Grande Fireshed Retreat
2025-01-22 - 2025-01-24
Members of the Rio Grande Fireshed Collaborative Working Group will be participating in a two-day retreat in Santa Fe, NM.

TN Student Winter Writing Retreat
2025-01-07 - 2025-01-10
The Transformation Network is hosting a Winter Writing Retreat for TN-funded Master’s and PhD students from January 7 – 10, 2025 outside of Albuquerque, NM. Students applied to participate in this retreat. We hope to host another in summer 2025!

TN Office Closed - UNM Winter Break
2024-12-23 - 2025-01-01
The Transformation Network’s administrative office will be closed for UNM’s Winter Break from Monday, December 23, 2024 – Wednesday, January 1, 2025. UNM staff will return to work on Thursday, January 2.

Fall Speaker Series: How to Build Relationships with Indigenous Knowledge by Using an Indigenist Research Paradigm
2024-12-06 15:00 - 16:00
Join the Intermountain West Transformation Network in the final presentation in our Fall 2024 Indigenous Community Engagement speaker series on Friday, December 6 at 3 PM MT! This month, we are thrilled to host Dr. Shawn Wilson, the author of Research is Ceremony. Dr. Shawn Wilson is from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation in northern Canada and lives on Syilx territory in Kelowna, British Columbia. He is an Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies and coordinates the Indigenous Knowledges Theme at the University of British Columbia. View the flyer for this event here.
This event is sponsored by the UNM Department of Geography & Environmental Studies, the Native FEWS Alliance, the University of Arizona Indigenous Resilience Center, and UNM Native American Studies.

Join Us on Zoom:
https://unm.zoom.us/j/91036334450

TN Office Closed - UNM Thanksgiving Break
2024-11-28 - 2024-11-29
The Transformation Network administrative office will be closed for UNM’s Thanksgiving Break.

Fall Speaker Series: Community-Based Participatory Research on Food-Energy-Water Projects
2024-11-18 14:00 - 15:00
Join Dr. Vicky Karanikola (University of Arizona) and Dr. Tommy Rock (Northern Arizona University) for the November session of our Fall 2024 Indigenous Community Engagement Speaker Series. They will present on “Community-Based Participatory Research on Food-Energy-Water Projects” on Monday, November 18 at 2 PM MT. View the flyer for this event here. This is the third talk in our Fall 2024 Speaker Series. View our full fall speaker series schedule here.
Talk Description: The Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park community is situated in the Navajo Nation between the Utah and Arizona state line. The community has a low population density and its proximity to central infrastructure, such as water and electrical services, is far thus households in the area lack access to electricity, water, and often to fresh food. The TseBii and Honor Water organizations started working on community-empowered initiatives related to water, food, and energy. While the two organizations and the community are continuously improving quality of life within the community with water and energy access for the last few years the University of Arizona recently partnered with the organizations to support this vision and provide off-grid water treatment from the water harvested from nearby sources. The UA project is a demonstration of off-grid water purification systems, designed to treat water from existing spring water sources in the Navajo Nation. The presenters will talk about their work with the organizations (non-profit and Universities), how it started, where it is currently, and where it will go in the future. The presenters will discuss the importance of community led projects and how community-based research questions are derived through this work.
Zoom Link: https://unm.zoom.us/j/91036334450
