Environment & Community

"If anyone is going to study environment and community, Humboldt County is the place to be. There are so many examples of how the community and environment have met, clashed, and sometimes even resolved the complex issues facing them." Carrie Gergits, Program Graduate, 2003

Faculty

Mark Baker Program Coordinator

Ph.D. 1994, Wildland Resource Science, UC Berkeley

Teaches courses in the Department of Government and Politics and the Geography Department. He is interested in enduring and emerging community-based natural resource management regimes, with a particular focus on equity, collective action, and political authority. He is the author of The Kuhls of Kangra: Community-Managed Irrigation in the Western Himalaya (University of Washington Press, 2005) and the co-author of Community Forestry in the United States: Learning from the Past, Crafting the Future (Island Press, 2003).

Office: FH 140

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Phone: 826-3907
Website: http://www.humboldt.edu/politics/faculty_staff

Yvonne Everett

Ph.D. 1993, Wildland Resource Science-Landscape Ecology, UC-Berkeley

Teaches courses in natural resources policy and regulation, planning, and ecosystem analysis. Her research interests are in applied forest and landscape ecology, management of non-timber forest products, community forestry, land use planning and management, and participatory research and planning processes.

Office: NR 214

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Phone: 826-4188
Website: http://www.humboldt.edu/environment/facstaff/everett.html

Gregg Gold Associate Professor

Ph.D. 2000, Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles

Teaches social psychology, social influence and persuasion, and psychology of prejudice. His research focuses on social influence both theoretical and applied. He has been the chair of the North Group Sierra Club for the past 7 years. He is the author (or co-author) of numerous articles related to social influence, most recently An Examination of Emotional Empathy, Attributions of Stability, and the Link Between Perceived Remorse and Forgiveness, in Personality & Individual Differences (2011).

Office: BSS 426

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Phone: 826-3740
Website: http://www.humboldt.edu/psychology/fs/gold/gold.htm

Steven Hackett

Ph.D. 1989, Economics, Texas A&M

Specializes in applied microeconomics, particularly environmental and natural resources economics and policy. He has over 35 publications including his book Environmental and Natural Resources Economics: Theory, Policy, and the Sustainable Society, third edition, 2006. His policy research on California’s Dungeness crab fishery (in collaboration with colleagues at HSU and at UC-Davis) received the 2005 gold award for best refereed journal article by the Association of Natural Resource Extension Professionals. In recognition of his research into regional economic issues, and what HSU President Rollin Richmond described as “the clarity and significance his work brings to global questions of environmental economics,” Hackett was selected as Humboldt State University’s Scholar of the Year for 2005.

Office: SH 206C

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Phone: 826-3237
Website: http://users.humboldt.edu/hackett/

Richard Hansis

Ph.D. 1976, Geography, Penn State

Is coordinator of HSU’s Environmental Science Program. He has been studying human-environmental interactions ever since he did master’s thesis research in Ecuador. He did doctoral research in Argentina and subsequent studies of non-timber forest products picking in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. He has interests in public participation in land management decisions.

Office: NR 221

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Phone: 826-4148
Website: http://www.humboldt.edu/environment/facstaff/hansis.html

Nikola Hobbel Associate Professor

Ph.D. 2003, Critical Teacher Education/Educational Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Teaches courses in curriculum development and pedagogy in the English department. Her research interests include the nature and effects of neoliberal educational policies on marginalized populations, social justice pedagogies, and learning theories. She is the co-editor of Social Justice Pedagogy across the Curriculum: The Practice of Freedom (Routledge, 2010), and the author of “Standards Talk: Considering Discourse in Teacher Education Standards,” in Critical Pedagogy and Teacher Education in the Neoliberal Era: Small Openings (Springer, 2009).

Office: FH 172

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Phone: 826-3161

Arne Jacobson

Ph.D. 2004, Energy and Resources Group, UC Berkeley

Specializes in international development, renewable energy, and the equity dimensions of energy access in a carbon limited world. His work is interdisciplinary, combining a social geography based approach to development studies with expertise in energy policy and renewable energy engineering. His current research is based in Kenya.

Office: HGH 116B

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Phone: 826-3184
Website: http://users.humboldt.edu/arne/

Matt Johnson

Ph.D. Ecology, Tulane University, 1999

Studies relationships between wildlife conservation and human livelihood. Recent interests revolve around the integration of agriculture, food sovereignty, and biodiversity conservation. His work has also involved the interdisciplinary valuation of ecosystem services provisioned by wildlife.

Office: WFB 222

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Phone: 826-3218
Website: http://humboldt.edu/wildlife/faculty/johnson/index.html

Erin Kelly Assistant Professor

PhD (2010) Oregon State University, Forest Social Science

I am interested in evaluating whether forest policies are effective, and the many intended and unintended consequences of their implementation. Because forestry has long been intertwined with community well-being, much of my research has focused on how communities are affected by the forest sector and by the interactions among forest governance, tenure, and management. Research topics have included: community forestry; tenure arrangements on industrial and post-industrial forests; rural restructuring and rural development; individual and policy perspectives of forest management; and the history and politics of tribal land acquisition.

Office: 210 Forestry Building

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Phone: 707.826.4150
Website: http://humboldt.edu/fwr/faculty/detail/erin_kelly

Corey Lewis

Ph.D. English, 2003, Literature and Environment Program, University of Nevada Reno

Author of “Reading the Trail: Exploring the Literature and Natural History of the California Crest” Corey Lewis specializes in the interdisciplinary and field-based study of regional works of environmental literature. He currently teaches both environmental literature, nature writing and research writing in the English department and works on issues of re-localization and cultural change.

Office: FH 170

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Phone: 826-3228

John M. Meyer Professor

Ph.D. 1997, Political Science, Wisconsin-Madison

Teaches environmental politics and political theory. His research focuses on the relationship of environmentalist concerns to conceptions of politics, property, and rights. He is the author of the book Political Nature: Environmentalism and the Interpretation of Western Thought (MIT Press, 2001) and articles in both academic journals and political magazines.

Office: FH 138

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Phone: 826-4497
Website: http://users.humboldt.edu/john.m.meyer

Laurie Richmond Assistant Professor

Ph.D. 2011, University of Minnesota, Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology

Teaches courses in human dimensions of natural resources, marine and coastal planning, and environmental impact assessment. My research focuses on developing collaborative relationships with natural resource-dependent communities to examine how they navigate both political and ecological changes in their resource systems. In particular, I have focused on marine and coastal issues and on indigenous and rural communities. Interests include: human dimensions of marine and coastal management; indigenous and community natural resource issues; fishing communities; coastal communities and climate change; politics of environmental knowledge; environmental justice; environmental geography and sense of place; narrative and story; governance of the commons; environmental conflict; interdisciplinary research approaches.

Office: NR 218

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Phone: 826-3202
Website: http://humboldt.edu/environment/faculty-and-staff/laurie-richmond

Marlon Sherman

Oglala Lakota, J.D. 1997, University of Colorado School of Law

Teaches in the Native American Studies Department, specializing in indigenous and tribal law, justice, peacemaking, governance, environment, resource use, culture, history and philosophy. His poems were awarded the 2003 First Book Award for Poetry by the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas.

Office: BSS 256

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Phone: 826-3821
Website: http://www.humboldt.edu/nasp/

Peggy Stewart Administrative Support Assistant

When I joined the History/Politics/Environment & Community M.A. Program office in August 2009, it furthered a connection with HSU and Founders Hall that began when I came to HSU as a student to study English and geography. After I graduated in 2006, I worked as a copy editor at The Eureka Reporter until the newspaper folded, at which point I returned to HSU as a staff member. I feel very fortunate to be working in a university environment and especially in the History/Politics/Environment & Community office. Personally, I love books, sports (I was a member of the HSU women’s basketball team as a student), and cooking.

Office: FH 180

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Phone: 707-826-3653

Jessica Urban

Ph.D. 2004, Political Science, Northern Arizona University

Teaches in the Women’s Studies Program and for the Multicultural Queer Studies Minor. Her research and other interests vary widely, but are grounded in an interrogation of interlocking systems of power, privilege and oppression as well as a commitment to exploring and growing coalitional strategies for environmental, reproductive, and social justice. Some of her writings include Nation, Immigration and Environmental Security (forthcoming Palgrave Macmillan); “Interrogating Privilege/Challenging the ‘Greening of Hate’” (forthcoming) International Feminist Journal of Politics; “Bordering on the Absurd: National, Civilizational and Environmental Security Discourses on Immigration,” in the forthcoming edited book by Mary Bloodsworth-Lugo and Carmen Lugo-Lugo entitled A New Kind of Containment: “The War on Terror”, Sexuality and Race, and “Constructing Blame: ‘Overpopulation,’ Environmental Security, and International Relations,” WID Publication Series #273, Michigan State University, 2001.

Office: BSS 250

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Phone: 826-4927

Betsy Watson

Ph.D. 1986, Sociology, Rutgers

Betsy is Director of the Institute for Study of Alternative Dispute Resolution and the Center for Resolution of Environmental Disputes at HSU and has mediated timber harvest plans, land use conflicts, and water disputes.

Office: BSS 536

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Phone: 826-5421

Noah Zerbe

Ph.D. 2003, Political Science, York University, Toronto

Teaches international and comparative environmental policy and food politics. His research focuses on the social, political and environmental consequences of agricultural biotechnology. He is the author of Agricultural Biotechnology Reconsidered: Western Narratives, African Alternatives (Africa World Press, 2004), and numerous articles on environmental governance.

Office: FH 139

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Phone: 826-3911
Website: http://users.humboldt.edu/nzerbe