Completed Doctoral Dissertations
Since its inception in 1997, the doctoral program in Environmental Sciences, Studies, and Policy has admitted many students; see the list below for information on students who have thus far completed the program. To learn about the interests of our current doctoral students, visit the list of current PhD students.
Tim Christion Myers (Winter 2019) Motivating Collective Action in Response to an Existential Threat: Critical Phenomenology in a Climate-Changing World
Focal Department: Philosophy
Position: Pending Data
Committee Chair: Bonnie Mann (co-chair), Philosophy
Ted Toadvine (co-chair), non-UO
Committee Members:
Kari Norgaard, Sociology
Rocio Zambrana, Philosophy
John Foster, Sociology
Paul Guernsey (Winter 2019) Towards and Anticolonial Philosophy of Land in the West
Focal Department: Philosophy
Position: Post Doc Fellowship at Penn State
Committee Chair: Scott Pratt (co-chair), Philosophy
Ted Toadvine (co-chair), non-UO
Committee Members:
John Foster, Sociology
Bonnie Mann, Philosophy
Michelle Jacob, College of Education
Jean Faye (Spring 2018) Farming and Meaning at the Desert’s Edge: Can Serer Indigenous Agricultural and Cultural Systems Coevolve Towards Sustainability?
Focal Department: Geography
Position: Instructor at MISSU
Committee Chair: Dennis Galvan (co-chair), Political Science
Peter Walker (co-chair), Geography
Committee Members:
Scott Bridgham, Biology
Derrick Hindery, International Studies
Patricia McDowell, Geography
Yvonne Braun
, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Jules Bacon (Spring 2018) Producing, Maintaining and Resisting Colonial Ecological Violence: Three Considerations of Settler Colonialism as Eco-Social Structure
Focal Department: Sociology
Position: Instructor at WVA
Committee Chair: Kari Norgaard, Sociology
Committee Members:
Jill Harrison, Sociology
Stephanie LeMenager, English
Ryan Light, Sociology
Brian Klopotek, Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies
Lucas Nebert (Winter 2018) On Germs and Germination: Uncovering the Hidden Ecology of Seedborne Bacteria and Fungi in Open-Pollinated Maize
Focal Department: Biology
Post Doc Research Fellowship at Oregon State University
Committee Chair: Scott Bridgham, Biology
Committee Members:
Brendan Bohannan, Biology
Barbara Roy, Biology
Ryan Light, Sociology
Cynthia Ocamb, non-UO
Taylor McHolm (Spring 2017) Representational Challenges: Literatures of Environmental Justice in the Anthropocene
Focal Department: English
Position: Director of Student Sustainability Center at University of Oregon
Committee Chair: Stephanie LeMenager, English
Committee Members:
Courtney Thorsson, English
Kirby Brown, English
Sarah Wald, English
Daniel Ho Sang, Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies
Sierra Deutsch (Spring 2017) Western Conservation as an Accidental Vector for Capitalism: A Socioeconomic Cross-National Comparison of Irrawaddy Dolphin Conservation Projects
Focal Department: Sociology
Position: Post Doc Researcher at WUR, Netherlands
Committee Chair: Richard York, Sociology
Committee Members:
Jill Harrison, Sociology
Jocelyn Hollander, Sociology
Ryan Light, Sociology
Lamia Karim, Anthropology
Shane Hall (Spring 2017) War by Other Means: Environmental Violence in the 21st Century
Focal Department: English
Position: Assistant Professor at Salisbury University, MD
Committee Chair: Stephanie LeMenager, English
Committee Members:
David Vazquez, English
Sarah Wald, English
Anita Chari, Political Science
Jacob Hamblin, non-UO
Sonja Kolstoe (Spring 2016) Essays on the Recreational Value of Avian Biodiversity
Focal Department: Economics
Position: Assistant Professor of Economics w/ joint appointment in the Environmental Studies Department at Salisbury University, MD
Committee Chair: Trudy Cameron, Economics
Committee Members:
Ralph Mastromonaco, Economics
Wesley Wilson, Economics
Scott Bridgham, Biology
Daniel Gleason, non-UO community member
Erica Elliott (Summer 2014) Strategies for Containment: The U.S. Federal Government at the Hanford Nuclear Site
Focal Department: English
Position: Adjunct Instructor in English at University of Oregon
Committee Chair: Karen Ford, English
Committee Members:
Trudy Cameron, Economics
Louise Westling, English
Mary Wood, English
Susan Hardwick, Geography
Ezra Markowitz (Summer 2012) Affective and moral roots of environmental stewardship: The role of obligation, gratitude and compassion
Focal Department: Psychology
Position: Assistant Professor of Environmental Conservation at University of Massachusetts Amherst
Committee Co-Chairs: Sara Hodges, Psychology; Azim Shariff, Psychology
Committee Members:
Ronald Mitchell, Political Science
Kari Norgaard, Sociology
Paul Slovic, Psychology
Shangrila Joshi Wynn (Summer 2011) Justice, Development, and India’s Claim to Environmental Space: A Postcolonial Political Ecology of the Atmospheric Commons
Focal Department: Geography
Position: Member of Faculty of the Graduate Program on the Environment at Evergreen State, WA
Committee Chair: Shaul Cohen, Geography
Committee Members:
Alexander Murphy, Geography
Peter Walker, Geography
Ted Toadvine, Philosophy
Anita Weiss, International Studies
Janet Fiskio (Summer 2009) Nature, Knowledge, Justice: The Epistemology of Literary Form in Hurston, Ortiz, and Nabhan
Position: Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Oberlin College
Focal Department: English
Committee Chair: Louise Westling, English
Committee Members:
Alan Dickman, Biology/ENVS
Paul Peppis, English
Scott Pratt, Philosophy
William Rossi, English
Sarah Jaquette Ray (Summer 2009) The Ecological Other: Indians, Invalids, and Immigrants in U.S. Environmental Thought and Literature
Focal Department: English
Position: Associate Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies; Program Leader for Environmental Studies at Humboldt State
Committee Chair: Shari Huhndorf, English
Committee Members:
Susan W. Hardwick, Geography
Juanita Sundberg, Geography, University of British Columbia
Louise Westling, English/ENVS
David Vázquez, English
Michael Hughes (Fall 2008) Channel Change of the Upper Umatilla River During and Between Flood Periods: Variability and Ecological Implications
Focal Department: Geography
Position: Associate Professor and Program Director of Environmental Sciences at Oregon Institute of Technology
Committee Chair: Patricia McDowell, Geography
Committee Members:
W. Andrew Marcus, Geography
Patrick Bartlein, Geography
Joshua Roering, Geological Sciences/ENVS
Chaone Mallory (Fall 2006) ‘Subject to the Laws of Nature’: Ecofeminism, Representation, and the Nature of Political Subjectivity
Focal Department: Philosophy
Position: Associate Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University
Committee Chair: John Lysaker, Philosophy
Committee Members:
Julie Novkov, Political Science
Scott Pratt, Philosophy
Bonnie Mann, Philosophy
Suzanne Clark, English
Stacy Rosenberg (Summer 2005) Watershed Restoration in Western Oregon: Landowners, Watershed Groups, and Community Dynamics
Focal Department: Geography
Position: Visiting Associate Professor of Planning, Public Policy, and Management at University of Oregon
Committee Chair: Peter Walker, Geography
Committee Members:
Patricia McDowell, Geography
Alexander Murphy, Geography
Richard Margerum, Planning, Public Policy & Management
Charles Hudson, Sociology
Patrick Hurley (Spring 2004) Whose Vision? The Political Ecology of Land-Use Policy in Nevada County, California
Focal Department: Geography
Position: Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at Ursinus College
Committee Co-Chairs: Susan Hardwick, Geography; Peter Walker, Geography
Committee Members:
Richard York, Sociology
Lise Nelson, Geography
David Hulse, Landscape Architecture
Tony Leiserowitz (Fall 2003) Global Warming in the American Mind: The Roles of Affect, Imagery, and Worldviews in Risk Perception, Policy Preferences, and Behavior
Focal Department: Geography
Position: Research Scientist and Director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication at Yale University
Committee Chair: Shaul Cohen, Geography
Committee Members:
Alexander Murphy, Geography
Peter Walker, Geography
Paul Slovic, Psychology
Mark Johnson, Philosophy
Rev. 10-24-2019