School of Natural Resources and Environment

Environmental Justice

Maria Carmen Lemos Ph.D.

Professor

Educational Background: 

Ph.D. Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

M.Sc. Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

B.S. Economics,Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora

Research Interests:

My broad research interests are related to the human dimensions of global change and social studies of science. I am particularly interested in understanding: (a) the intersection between development and climate, especially concerning the relationship between anti-poverty programs and risk management (b) the use of technoscientific information, especially seasonal climate (El Nino forecasting) in building adaptive capacity to climate variability and change (drought planning, water management, and agriculture) in the U.S. (Great Lakes) and Latin America (Brazil, Mexico and Chile); (c) the impact of technocratic decisionmaking on issues of democracy and equity; (d) the co-production of science and policy and the role of technocrats as decisionmakers; (e) the role of popular participation in urban environmental policymaking and policymaker/client interactions; (f)U.S.-Mexico border region environmental policymaking especially regarding transboundary water conflict, environmental health, a common use of shared natural resources.

Contact:

lemos@umich.edu

2504 Dana

734-764-9315
764-9315

Dorceta E. Taylor, Ph.D.

Professor, Environmental Justice Field of Studies Coordinator, Past Chair of the Environment and Technology Section of the American Sociological Association

Educational Background: 

Ph.D. Environmental Sociology, 1991, Yale University (Joint doctorates from the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and the Department of Sociology)
M.A. Environmental Sociology, 1988, Yale University
M. Phil. Sociology, 1988, Yale University
M.F.S. Social Ecology, 1985, Yale University

My research interests include urban agriculture, food access, and food insecurity; institutional diversity; green jobs; social movement analysis; environmental justice; leisure and natural resource use; poverty; and race, gender, and ethnic relations. My current research includes an assessment of food access in Michigan and other Midwestern states.  Other recent research activities have included an analysis of the green jobs sector, and four national studies of racial and gender diversity in the environmental field.

Contact:

dorceta@umich.edu

2576 Dana

734-763-5327

Paul Mohai, Ph.D.

Professor

Educational Background: 

Ph.D. Environmental Sociology and Environmental/Natural Resource Policy, 1983, Pennsylvania State University

M.S. Statistics and Environmental Science, 1976, State University of New York-Syracuse

B.A. With Distinction, Mathematics, 1971, University of California-Berkeley

Teaching and research interests are focused on environmental justice, public opinion and the environment, and influences on environmental policy making. A founder of the Environmental Justice Program at the University of Michigan. Current research includes understanding the causes of disproportionate environmental burdens in people of color communities and the role that environmental factors play in accounting for racial and socioeconomic disparities in health.

Contact:

pmohai@umich.edu

3520 Dana

734-763-4598

3360 ISR

Ivette Perfecto, Ph.D.

Professor

Educational Background: 

Ph.D. Natural Resources, 1989, University of Michigan

M.S. Ecology, 1982, University of Michigan

B.S. Biology, 1977, Universidad Sagrado Coran, Puerto Rico

Ivette Perfecto is the George W. Pack Professor of Ecology, Natural Resources and Environment. Her research focuses on biodiversity and arthropod-mediated ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes, primarily in the tropics. She also works on spatial ecology of the coffee agroecosystem and is interested more broadly on the links between small-scale sustainable agriculture, biodiversity and food sovereignty. She teaches General Ecology (Environ 281), Our Common Future (a course on globalization) (Environ 270), Food Land and Society (Environ 318) and Field Ecology (SNRE 556). Her most recent book is Nature’s Matrix: Linking Agriculture, Conservation and Food Sovereignty.

Contact:

perfecto@umich.edu

3541 Dana

734-764-8601

3531 Dana (laboratory)

734-709-6334

Bunyan Bryant Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

Educational Background: 

Ph.D. Education, 1970, University of Michigan

M.S.W. Social Work, 1965, University of Michigan

B.S. Social Science, 1958, Eastern Michigan University

Instrumental in establishing the School's Environmental Justice Program that focuses on the differential impact of environmental contaminants on people of color and low-income communities; Founder and Director of the Environmental Justice Initiative for research and retrieval/dissemination conferences and policy briefings. Played a critical role in the development and implementation of the Environmental Justice Certificate Program. Research and conferences include both a domestic and international foci, particularly on climate justice. Teaching portfolio includes: Introduction to Environmental Justice (Environ. 222), Conception, Practical Issues and Dilemmas in Environmental Justice (SNRE 582), and the Masters Project/NRE 701.

Contact:

bbryant@umich.edu

2572 Dana

734-763-2470

None

Environmental-Justice Educator and Activist Bunyan Bryant Receives National Award for Lifetime of Pioneering Work

Bunyan Bryant, a prominent educator, social activist and pioneer in the environmental-justice movement, received national recognition on Oct. 20 for his personal contribution and dedication to environmental justice during a national symposium on the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University, which hosted the event in New Orleans on Oct. 19-21, presented Bryant, a University of Michigan professor, with the Damu Smith Power-of-One Environmental Justice Award. The award honors the late Damu Smith, an activist who advanced the cause of environmental justice and paved the way for the formation of the first-ever national network of Black environmental-justice activists.

Detroit Mothers Reveal Environmental Abuses through Photography

Ann Arbor, MI
6/27/2007

With the snaps of their cameras, Detroit Head Start mothers are speaking out against what they see as environmental injustice that harms their children.

In the Photo Voice project, mothers are documenting the abuses through photography. Their photos have captured cases of illegal dumping in their neighborhoods by trucks with covered license plates. Some photos show air pollution from factories, as well as abandoned, unsafe buildings.

 

Watch the video >

 

Fields of Study: 
Environmental Justice

Toxic wastes and race: Report confirms no progress made in 20 years

Environmental injustice in people-of-color communities is as much or more prevalent today than 20 years ago, say researchers commissioned to conduct a follow-up to the 1987 landmark study, "Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States." The new report, "Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty, 1987-2007: Grassroots Struggles to Dismantle Environmental Racism in the United States, " shows that 20 years later, disproportionately large numbers of people of color still live in hazardous waste host communities, and that they are not equally protected by environmental laws.

Students Take Sustainable Approach to Helping St. Bernard Parish Residents Rebuild Their Community After Massive Oil Spill

Ann Arbor, MI
6/5/2007


Nearly two years after Hurricane Katrina tore through St. Bernard Parish in Louisiana and rising flood waters dislodged a one-million-gallon crude-oil storage tank at the New Orleans Murphy Oil refinery, contaminating 1,700 homes in an adjacent one-square-mile neighborhood, the residents of this devastated area are still on hold. Some are still living in FEMA trailers or with relatives, uncertain about when, or whether, to return to their oil-stained homes. However, help is on the way.

Fields of Study: 
Environmental Justice

AAAS annual meeting: Professors host five symposia

The University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment is the only graduate environmental school in the nation to combine natural science, social science and design into one shared research and educational enterprise. Nine faculty members representing multiple disciplines are hosting five symposia that address distinct and complex facets of sustainability science.

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