Department of International Development and Social Change

Faculty

Certain IDSC policies require you to work with core faculty, while others encourage you to connect with many different kinds of faculty across the university.  This list is updated annually on the web to help you identify which faculty are connected with the IDSC program and to let you know who is on leave or sabbatical. 

Core IDSC Faculty

The core IDSC faculty meet regularly (at least once a month) to discuss the major and make decisions on any petitions or problems that might arise.  After declaring the major, you will work with one of these faculty members as your academic advisor.  Remember that you have to take at least two classes in your specialization with one of these core faculty members.

Research Faculty

Research faculty are retired professors and other associates who remain involved in the life of the department.  They can serve as readers for honors theses and will teach occasional classes open to undergraduates.

Full and Part-time Visiting Faculty

Some full time adjunct faculty may serve as your advisor, honors thesis reader, or supervisor for internships.  Please check with the Undergraduate Coordinator for more details.

Other IDCE Faculty

Because we are an interdisciplinary department, you may be interested in working with other IDCE faculty in the other three programs:  CDP, ES&P, and GISDE.  Many IDSC majors participating in the BA/MA Program decide to pursue their fifth year in the CDP program.  While ES&P also has an undergraduate major, GISDE and CDP only operate as graduate programs.  Advanced undergraduate students nonetheless may seek instructor permission to take classes in those programs.

ES&P

CDP

GISDE

IDCE Affiliate Faculty

IDSC majors may approach affiliate faculty for supervision on internships, honors theses, and directed studies.  If an IDSC major chooses an affiliate faculty member as his/her first reader, then the second reader must be an IDSC core faculty member.

  • Charles Agosta, Ph.D.: experimental condensed matter physics, energy
  • Yuko Aoyama, Ph.D.: global economic change, technological innovation, and industrial organization
  • John Baker, Ph.D.: biology, ecology, aquatic ecosystems, life-form traits
  • Parminder Bhachu, Ph.D.: urban anthropology, financial globalization, nationalism, gender
  • Lois Bruinooge, J.D. wetlands and tidelands protection, environmental enforcement, municipal conservation issues
  • Joseph de Rivera, Ph.D.: peace and justice, social psychology
  • Patrick Derr, Ph.D.: philosophy, biomedical ethics, history and philosophy of science, ethical issues in risk analysis and management
  • J. Ronald Eastman, Ph.D.: geography, GIS, remote sensing, cartography
  • Jody Emel, Ph.D.: hydrology, resource/environmental geography, feminist theory
  • Odile Ferly, Ph.D.: Caribbean literatures and cultures from a comparative perspective
  • Susan Foster, Ph.D.: ecology, evolutionary biology, population biology
  • Jacqueline Geoghegan, Ph.D.: resource economics, environmental policy, land use
  • Dominic Golding, Ph.D.: risk communication, evaluation of risk burdens
  • Beverly C. Grier, Ph.D.: African politics, international development
  • Susan Hanson, Ph.D.: urban and social geography, transportation, research methods, feminist geography
  • Dale Hattis, Ph.D.: quantitative risk assessment, pharmacokinetic modeling, carcinogenesis, biomarkers, interindividual variability
  • Donna Hicks, Ph.D.: conflict resolution, international development, sustainable conflict transformation
  • Amy Ickowitz, Ph.D.: economic development, environmental and natural resource economics, political economy
  • Douglas Johnson, Ph.D.: cultural ecology, geography, arid lands management, land degradation
  • Sharon Krefetz, Ph.D.: U.S. urban politics, suburban politics, housing policies, women and politics
  • Laurence A. Lewis, Ph.D.: land degradation, geomorphology, tropical agriculture
  • Todd Livdahl, Ph.D.: ecology, population biology
  • Deborah Martin, Ph.D.: urban/social/political geography, social movements, qualitative methods
  • James T. Murphy, Ph.D.: sustainable energy technologies, manufacturing systems, and land-use practices
  • Richard Peet, Ph.D.: political economy of development, social theory
  • Colin Polsky, Ph.D.: vulnerability analysis, human dimensions of environmental change, spatial statistics
  • Robert Gilmore Pontius Jr., Ph.D.: geographic information science, quantitative environmental modeling, land change science, spatial statistics
  • Paul W. Posner, Ph.D.: Latin American politics, democratic theory, comparative environmental politics
  • Dianne Rocheleau, Ph.D.: cultural/systems ecology, gender, forestry
  • John Rogan, Ph.D.: geographic information science, landscape ecology, land cover, change monitoring
  • Paul Ropp, Ph.D.: Chinese social and intellectual history
  • Robert Ross, Ph.D.: urban studies, political sociology, political economy, social policy
  • Joseph Sarkis, Ph.D.: operations management, environmentally conscious business practices
  • Srinivasan Sitaraman, Ph.D.: international relations, international organizations, international political economy
  • Valerie Sperling, Ph.D.: post-Soviet and East European politics, comparative politics, social movements and collective action, women’s studies
  • Kristen Williams, Ph.D.: international relations theory, arms control and international security, nationalism and ethnic politics, U.S. foreign policy