Troubling the waters: Race, the environment and activism in the United States South
Melissa Checker
Dr. Melissa Checker is in the PhD Program in Anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her research focuses on environmental justice, urban sustainability in the United States, the social justice implications of the green economy and social movements.
Her most recent book, Polluted Promises: Environmental Racism and the Search for Justice in a Southern Town (NYU Press, 2005) won the 2007 Association for Humanistic Sociology Book Award and was a finalist for the Julian Steward Award and the Delmos Jones and Jagna Sharff Memorial Book Prize. She also co-edited (with Maggie Fishman) Local Actions: Cultural Activism, Power and Public Life (Columbia U Press, 2004), and has authored a number of academic articles and book chapters as well as articles for popular magazines and newspapers. Her current focus is on environmental justice activism in an era of dual ecological and economic crisis. She is conducting ethnographic research on extended struggles and strategies for environmental justice in the U.S. South, and on the relationship between environmental justice activism and sustainable policies and practices in New York City. She is also co-editor (along with Alaka Wali and David Vine) of the "Public Anthropology Reviews" section of American Anthropologist.
Associate Professor Department of Urban Studies
Queens College
PhD Programs in Anthropology and Environmental Psychology
The Graduate Center CUNY