Kari Norgaard - Environmental Studies/Sociology

At Whitman, I am a member of both Sociology and Environmental Studies. Within the field of Environmental Sociology, I am particularly interested in the intersection of social inequality (e.g. gender, race, class) and environmental problems. This area is also known as environmental justice. I frequently teach Introduction to Environmental Studies (ENVS 120), Environmental Sociology (Soc 309) and the Senior Seminars for both Sociology and Environmental Studies. I also teach advanced seminar courses like Environmental Justice (Soc 353) and Environmental Social Movements (Soc 349). My most recent research is set in Northern California along the Klamath River. Here I have been working with the two largest Native American tribes in California on the health, cultural, economic and psychological impacts that the loss of salmon has had for their communities. This work gained national attention in 2005 with a front page story in the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47525-2005Jan29.html

And a segment on All Things Considered: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4539960

I also have ongoing research on emotional dimensions of environmental problems. Here are a few recent articles:

Norgaard, Kari. 2006. “People Want To Protect Themselves A Little Bit” Emotions, Denial and Social Movement Non-Participation The Case of Global Climate Change.” Sociological Inquiry 76(3): 372-396.

Norgaard, Kari. ‘We Don’t Really Want to Know’ The Social Experience of Global Warming: Dimensions of Denial and Environmental Justice” Organization and Environment 19(3).

Kari Norgaard and Richard York, 2005 “Gender Equality and Nation State Environmentalism” Gender and Society Vol. 19 No. 4, 506-522.

I’ve received some awards for my scholarship (Pacific Sociological Association’s Distinguished Practice Award for 2005 and the Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award for the American Sociological Association Section on Environment and Technology in 2003). If you want to learn other things about me, check out my C.V:

I enjoy being outdoors, especially hiking, whitewater rafting, kayaking, skiing (both telemark and cross country) – and pretty much any excuse I can get to sleep on the ground. In case you haven’t discovered it, Whitman has a great outdoor program: http://www.whitman.edu/outdoor_program/

If you are over there you may run into my husband, Sam “Salmon” Norgaard-Stroich.

I am an active member of the American Sociological Association section on Environment and Technology. If you are interested in learning more about environmental sociology you can check out their web page: http://www.linfield.edu/soan/et/index.html