International female and male students’ segregation per academic fields of study designates an important challenge for educational equity, diversity, and gender equality in tertiary education institutions worldwide. This study probes the determinants of study field choice among 984 students from 57 countries who enrolled at the University of Oradea, Romania, during 2022–2023. By incorporating gender approaches and concepts within broader economic and cultural theories, we utilized the bivariate analysis and multinominal regression models to scrutinize how students’ preferences for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), AHSS (arts, humanities, and social sciences), or medicine are influenced by their gender, and the more general cultural and economic attributes of their home country. Our findings enrich the knowledge and understanding of gendered patterns of academic study field choice, providing a cross-cultural and integrative viewpoint that enables us to set forth recommendations to bridge higher education gender gaps.

Oil frequently plays a crucial role in modern industrial economies. It is a very costly natural resource for those countries that do not have it, but very profitable for those that do. Yet, developing oil resources and transporting them to market has its own costs, not only in terms of production but also in terms of impacts on other valuable natural resources such as clean water. Not surprisingly, governments can have strict environmental regulations concerning oil transport. However, such regulations can be complicated, especially in countries like the United States where many different government agencies claim jurisdiction, especially at differing spatial scales. Consequently, conflict can result from competing interests, pitting those developing oil resources against those already using resources such as clean water. This paper explores the complicated geographies of environmental regulations and how competing entities pursue and protect their interests through environmental ligation. In doing so, this study uses the example of the Dakota Access Pipeline (the DAPL) because the conflict surrounding it garnered considerable national and international attention.

Natural resource use can produce conflicts, especially when new resource plans threaten existing practices. Such is the case, for example, with the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), constructed 2016–2017. However, such conflicts can be complicated and difficult to decipher. In recent years, the concept of Response Assemblages (RAs) has become an increasingly used tool of analysis. Simultaneously, differing notions of RAs have emerged. This article applies varying conceptions of Response Assemblages (RAs) to the conflict surrounding the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) to provide better understandings of both RAs and the conflict. This article focuses on the court cases that ensued from the time that the DAPL was approved by the Trump administration in January 2017 until May 2021.

Wind energy has grown in popularity and concomitantly so has the installation of wind turbines. As both alternative and green sources of energy, many may assume that wind energy is replacing fossil fuels such petroleum and natural gas and leading us to a more sustainable future. While renewable energy is part of the sustainability equation, another common attribute of achieving sustainability is the localization of production and consumption. In many ways, this almost automatically occurs with wind turbines because electricity does not transport well over long distances. However, despite this characteristic of electricity, it does not mean that electricity cannot be exported, especially when political geographies are considered. Indeed, this research will examine the U.S. state of South Dakota to demonstrate that wind-generated electricity can be treated from an economic point of view as an export commodity despite any local benefits that it generates. By examining statistics for electricity generation, it will be seen that wind energy is doing much more than replacing local electricity generation by fossil fuels. Further examination will show that a significant amount of wind-generated electricity in South Dakota is exported outside the state.