Individuals
Dr. Falasca-Zamponi's book "Waste and Consumption: Capitalism, the Environment, and the Life of Things" examines the link between waste and consumption through a cultural approach that integrates Environmental concerns with reflections on the role that consumption has come to occupy in our contemporary capitalist societies.
Dr. Anabel Ford's archaeological field and laboratory work concentrates on the upper Belize River area and El Pilar, and has both basic and applied components. Working on the development of complexity and land use and land cover change, data have been collected on ancient Maya settlement patterns and household belongings in the 20 sq m binational protected area of the El Pilar Archaeological Reserve for Maya Flora and Fauna. Finding the major Maya center El Pilar has led to studies of conservation and development of the Maya Forest working towards the preservation of the cultural heritage in the context of the natural environment, what we call Archaeology Under the Canopy. Community and protected area development play a role in the field projects where we share research goals with citizen scientists whose agricultural strategies reduce temperature, increase biodiversity, conserve water, build fertility, and inhibit erosion. Results and interpretations of the millennial knowledge show that the methods and practices of master forest gardeners in the region are flexible and resilient while producing all the necessities of life essential to living on our planet. Celebrating master forest gardeners everywhere, UCSB's Chancellor Yang presented the prestigious Chancellors Medal to citizen scientist and Master Forest Gardner Narciso Torres in January 2023. The traditions of Indigenous Maya can promote sustainability not only in the tropics but across the world today.
Jeffrey Hoelle is a cultural anthropologist interested in human-Environment interactions. His research seeks to understand Amazonian livelihoods and land uses in relation to political and economic drivers, but also to expand the view through attention to cultural factors, such as ideals of work, nature, and masculinity, as well as food and landscape preferences. The goal is to understand why destructive Environmental practices, particularly cattle raising, make sense from the perspective of different actors. Current research projects include: the cultural dimensions of beef and meat consumption; integrating culture into land use-land change frameworks, theory, and modeling; and the function and aesthetics of everyday forms of nature control and domination.
Environmental Humanities Center
Dr. Harthorn is a medical anthropologist and risk perception researcher. Her research broadly examines culture and health, health inequality, and technological risk and perception; in particular she is studying the intersections of socially constructed risk with gender, ethnicity/race, and other categories of difference.She was Director and Principal Investigator from 2005-2017 of the National Science Foundation Center for Nanotechnology in Society at UCSB. This center was dedicated to studying the societal implications of emerging nanotechnologies and other potentially disruptive technologies. From 2014-2018, she and her group have studied public risk perceptions in the US and UK regarding unconventional oil and gas extraction (aka fracking), and since 2019, the societal and ethical implications of synthetic cells and synthetic biology. The most recent project, funded by the NSF in 2023, will conduct public deliberations on Artificial Coral, in collaboration with scientists at Penn State University who are developing synthetic coral cells. Recent publications have appeared in Nature Energy, Global Environmental Change, and WIREs Climate Change, among other journals. Her work is published in a variety of social science, medical care, public health, environmental science and technology, technology and society, and science journals. She is editor (with John Mohr) of The Social Life of Nanotechnology (2012) and (with Laury Oaks) of Risk, Culture, and Health Inequality: Shifting Perceptions of Danger and Blame (2003).
Center for Nanotechnology in Society, Principal Investigator and Director
Dr. Kim’s research examines how socio-cultural factors, such as religion, social class, and national culture, differentially impact how individuals are motivated to engage in sustainability actions.
Ann-Elise Lewallen’s research and teaching engages with critical indigenous studies, gender studies, multiculturalism, and Environmental justice in the context of contemporary Japan and in Japan’s transnational relations. As a cultural anthropologist, she is also concerned with research ethics and issues of knowledge construction in relation to indigenous and research host communities. Her current book project examines models of sustainable development and Environmental justice within transnational citizen relations between Japan and India.
Professor Shewry's research interests include pacific rim cultures, Environmental studies, and oceans and water. She is the director of Literature and the Environment at UCSB. Her recent publications include "Possible Ecologies: Literature, Nature, and Hope in the Pacific" and "Environmental Criticism for the Twenty-First Century." Her book, Hope at Sea: Possible Ecologies in Oceanic Literature (University of Minnesota Press, 2015), explores hope in the context of Environmental change in the Pacific.
Carsey-Wolf Center
Dr. Steavu’s research focuses on Daoism and Buddhism in the medieval world. His work includes investigating how approaches to nature and the ethics of conservancy in classical East Asian traditions can help us elaborate contemporary strategies for sustainability.