City view: Nijman studies world geography from an urban perspective

Luly Casares dedicates herself to helping students through crisis

City view: Nijman studies world geography from an urban perspective

an Nijman has traveled down the Amazon, trekked through a rainforest in Nepal, experienced the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong, and seen the massive basilica of Yamoussoukro in Africa’s Ivory Coast. But it was a research trip aboard a train from Helsinki to Leningrad in 1981 that Nijman will remember most. “I remember the train stopping on the border. All the passengers were ordered outside where Soviet soldiers were standing with machine guns. They searched the train and then they searched us. They told us they were looking for literature, and when I asked what kind, they said it was three things: the Bible, pornography, and a book called The Russians.” Written by Hedrick Smith, a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent, the book painted a grim picture of ordinary life in Russia. “It was considered anti-Soviet propaganda,” says Nijman. “I hadn’t heard of the book, but I thought to myself, ‘I’m going to get it right away.’” Back then, Nijman was a curious college student at the University of Amsterdam. Today, he is a professor of geography and regional studies in the School of International Studies. His research and special interests lie in geopolitics and the global processes of urbanization. While his counterparts often study countries or states, Nijman prefers to study the dynamics of cities. “I look at a world map, and instead of seeing countries, I see a collection of 40 or 50 big cities that are the main parts of a global system,” says Nijman. “These are the places where major decisions are made. These are the places from which major money and investments flow, and where financial markets and the headquarters of large companies are located. You can also go inside of a city and actually see it at work, the materialization of the role it plays in the world.” He cites Miami as an example. “Major finances flow from South America via Miami to many other places in the world,” he says. “You can go to Miami’s airport, west and see the geography of international trade. Or you can go to Brickell and stand face-to-face with a central node in the global financial networks. And that’s something you can’t do with countries. In that sense, the United States is an abstraction, as is Russia or India. Nijman, who is a native of the Netherlands and speaks four languages (Dutch, French, German, and English), is no stranger to his field. In 1991, he won the Nystrom Award for best doctoral dissertation in geography in the United States. He is the author of The Geopolitics of Power and Conflict, The Global Moment in Urban Evolution, and coeditor of The Global Crisis of Foreign Aid. His current line of research focuses on Bombay, the second-largest city in the world. “Bombay is extremely poor, but it’s also very rich. And the way that plays out on the ground is quite mind-boggling. The scale of the poverty is just suffocating at first—five or six million people living in slums and about 250,000 living on the streets without anything. But then you come to a certain part of the city where a lot of foreign companies are located and where you’ll find some of the highest real estate prices in the world.” Nijman is preparing a book on the economic and social effects of globalization on Bombay. Nijman has visited the city on several occasions for his NSF funded research and says the perception that Bombay is nothing more than a poor metropolis is one that he often tries to correct among students. “Bombay has a beautiful culture and has a lot of happy people, and the city is buzzing all the time,” he says. “It’s a bit like New York in that sense.” The effect of the September 11 terrorist attacks on cities is another area Nijman has focused on recently. “You can think of winners and losers after September 11, and New York has been damaged more than people have been inclined to acknowledge,” says Nijman. “But the city that has won the most is Kabul, Afghanistan,” he says, where urban life is getting back to normal now that the Taliban regime has been forced out. Recently, Nijman was appointed to the National Geographic Society’s Committee for Research and Exploration (CRE), which distributes grants for scientific field research and exploration in geography, anthropology, archaeology, biology, and other fields. “Traveling and fieldwork in different places has become an addiction for me in a way,” he says. “I find it hard to go a year without it. If you travel with your eyes open, you gain perspective. That is really what it is all about.”

Luly Casares dedicates herself to helping students through crisis

eing a psychologist sometimes means putting your own feelings of grief, sorrow, and fear aside to tend to the emotional well-being of others. Luly Casares, a staff psychologist in the University’s Counseling Center, is aware of that reality all too well. On the day of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Casares was part of a team of UM psychologists that was dispatched to the Whitten University Center to provide emotional support for hundreds of students who were watching live news coverage of the crisis on television. “We knew we had a lot of students from New York who might be seeing something very personal to them,” says Casares. “So we were looking out for reactions to see how we could help.” But even as Casares walked around the UC lounge, reassuring any students who were concerned about the well-being of relatives or friends in New York, she was battling to contain her own fears. “I had a family member who was in Washington, D.C., and happened to be on Capitol Hill that day,” she says, referring to the nation’s capital, also targeted by terrorists on September 11 when one of the four hijacked airliners slammed into the Pentagon. “But I had to put that aside and do my job.” It is a job Casares has been doing for over two years now: outpatient individual therapy and intakes with University students. She holds a doctoral degree in psychology from George Washington University and specializes in minority mental health and eating disorders. While she also has a host of other responsibilities—such as crisis intervention and management and supervising psychology interns and practicum students—working with students, she says, is what she enjoys most. “College students are really in a stage of transition—in between being an adolescent and having to deal with everything that stage brings developmentally, and being an adult with new and bigger responsibilities,” explains Casares. “I love that transition because it is so new to them.” Casares helps students with everything from depression and anxiety to the emotional strain of a breakup and even the pressures of being away from home for the first time in their lives. “Young people, especially at a counseling center at a university, are very intellectual,” she says. “They have a lot of insight and don’t necessarily see therapy as this horrible, stigmatized thing.” Casares is the creator and director of Cane CARES. Now in its second year, the eating disorders education and prevention program responds to the needs of students, faculty, administrators, and others who have concerns about eating-related issues regarding themselves or others. Its goal is to promote positive body image and healthy living. The acronym describes the activities to which the group is dedicated: Clinical/Counseling Services, Awareness, Resources, Education, and Service Coordination. Pamphlets and brochures distributed at residence and dining halls, and talks by expert guest speakers are only a few of the ways the program informs the University community. A Coordinated Care Team is available for any student who needs treatment. Created and directed by Pamela Deroian, a staff psychologist and assistant director for outreach and marketing, the team is composed of a physician, psychiatrist, therapist, and nutritionist all working together to help one person. “It’s innovative, and we’re lucky to have it here,” says Casares. This spring, Cane CARES, with assistance from a School of Communication faculty member, will conduct a Web-based survey on students’ attitudes toward eating, body image perceptions, as well as their sources of support and coping skills. Surveys also will be conducted in the UC breezeway during Eating Disorders Awareness Week, according to Casares. Casares says the study will be a challenge, but well worth it because it will help students. “And there’s nothing I enjoy more.”

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