Political Ecologies of Health
Much of the lab’s research engages with scholarship on political ecologies of health. This work applies concepts and approaches from the broader field of political ecology to question the causality of environmental-health problems in ways that take into account recursive feedback loops, co-determination, and often overlooked scales of interaction that influence vulnerability and risk.
The Social Ecology of Substance Use and Misuse
Another key focus of our research are landscapes of addiction. This research investigates how COVID-19 is changing landscapes of addiction in rural Appalachia.
Livelihoods, Health, and Environment
Our research investigates how historical spatial formations as well as new environmental challenges such as global climate change produce new vulnerabilities to disease and the opportunities for health justice. This work is committed to documenting how the political environmental context shapes the ways in which health is embodied, experienced, and managed.
Bodies, Nutrition, and Food Security
Another key focus of work centers of questions of nutrition, food security and food safety. This research investigates how health experiences are mediated by uneven access to foodscapes and nutritional environments. This work examines how various and complex food-related challenges shape possibilities for health and well being.
Contested Environmental Illnesses and Uncertainty About Health Risks
Our work examines how uncertainty about health risks shapes bodies, subjectivities and practices of natural resource use. This research is tied together by an interest in documenting the geographies produced by and productive of uncertainty.