Faculty Directory | Social Sciences | Michigan Technological University

Faculty

Melissa F. Baird

Associate Professor, Anthropology
On leave 2024-25, Program Director, NSF, DGE

Research Interests

Extractive zones
STEMM Higher ED

Angie Carter (she/her)

Associate Professor, Environmental/Energy Justice

Areas of Expertise

Environmental & rural sociology
Community-based and participatory research
Social movements and social change
Gender & ecofeminism
Agrifood systems

Kayla Gabehart

Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy

kgabehar@mtu.edu

Links of Interest

Google Scholar

Areas of Expertise

Public Policy
Environmental Policy
Policy Process
Advocacy Coalition Framework
Rural-Urban Conflict
Food, Agriculture, and Agricultural Policy
Emotions in Policymaking

Kathy Halvorsen

Associate Vice President for Research Development
University Professor of Natural Resource Policy
Joint Appointment in Social Sciences and CFRES

kehalvor@mtu.edu
906-487-3098
Lakeshore Center 304

Areas of Expertise

Climate change mitigation policy
Arctic climate change impacts
Energy conservation policy
Renewable energy policy
Indigeneity and climate policy

Kathryn L. Hannum

Assistant Teaching Professor
Coordinator of Student Programs
Policy and Community Development Program Advisor

Research Interests

National Identity
Migration and Diaspora
Sociolinguistics
Memorial Landscapes
Geographies of Sport

Regional Focus

The Hispanic World
Spain
Argentina

Kari B. Henquinet

Teaching Professor, Social Sciences Undergraduate Studies Director
Peace Corps Prep Program Director
Sustainability Science and Society Program Advisor

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

International/transnational development
Faith-based development
Gender
Human rights
Global service learning
African studies (Niger)
Disaster risk reduction and vulnerability

Don Lafreniere

Professor of Geography and GIS
Graduate Director
Director, Geospatial Research Facility

Links of Interest

Research Interests

Environmental Change and Life Course Epidemiology
Urban Environments and Population Health
Public Participatory GIS
Historical GIS & Deep Mapping
Spatial Humanities
Deindustrialization and Shrinking Cities
Time-Space Integration and Modeling in GIS
Demography and Historical Record Linkage
Sense of Place and Neighborhood Construction

Nancy Langston

Distinguished Professor of Environmental History, Social Sciences
Affiliate Professor, CFRES

nelangs3@mtu.edu

Links of Interest

Areas of Interest

Toxics, forested watersheds, and northern lakes
Environmental history
Watershed change and water quality
Mining history

Susanna D. Peters

Associate Teaching Professor
Social Sciences Program Advisor
University Ombuds

Areas of Interest

Resource Economics
Cyberlaw
Intellectual Property
Constitutional Law
Orientation to Legal Careers
American Government

"Every artist, every scientist, must decide NOW where they stand. They have no alternative. There is no standing above the conflict on Olympian heights. There are no impartial observers. Through the destruction-in certain countries-of the greatest of human literary heritages, through the propagation of false ideas of racial and national superiority, the artist, the scientist, the writer is challenged. The struggle invades the formerly cloistered halls of our universities and other seats of learning. The battlefront is everywhere. There is no sheltered rear. The artist must take sides. They must elect to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative."
—Paul Robeson, 1958, Here I Stand

Mark Alan Rhodes II

Assistant Professor of Geography

marhodes@mtu.edu
906-487-2459
Schedule an Appointment

Research Interests

Post-Industrial Geographies & Heritage
National Identity in the 21st Century
Cultural Sustainability and Sustainable Tourism
Political Ecology, Place, & Memory
Critical Geographies & Memorial Landscapes

Areas of Expertise

Memory and Memorialization
Heritage Institutions
Cultural Landscape
Welsh Studies
Historical Geography
Cultural Geographies

Jonathan E. Robins

Associate Professor of History

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

Commodity history
Global economic and business history
History of colonialism
Food history

Laura Walikainen Rouleau

Associate Teaching Professor
Anthropology and History Program Advisor

Mark D. Rouleau

Interim Chair, Social Sciences
Associate Professor, Social Sciences

Research Interests

Interdisciplinary studies
Social simulation (agent-based modeling)
Policy analysis
International relations
Sustainability assessment
Complex adaptive systems
Norm evolution and social influence
STEM education evaluation
Research design and methods

Sarah Fayen Scarlett

Associate Professor of History

Links of Interest

Research Interests

Spatial, material, and experiential aspects of social power in industrial communities
Historical GIS for Community-Engaged Scholarship
American Vernacular Architecture and Material Culture Studies
Public History, Historic Preservation, and Museums
History of Design, Craft, and Production in the United States
Cultural Landscapes and Historic Architecture of the Keweenaw

"Whereas innovation, in the backwards reading of creativity, lies outside of time, improvisation, in a forward reading, is inherently temporal."
—Elizabeth Hallam and Tim Ingold (2007) Creativity and Cultural Improvisation. Berg, New York.

Timothy J. Scarlett

Associate Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology

Links of Interest

Research Interests

Historical and Industrial Archaeologies
Heritage and Energy Systems, Sustainability and Development
Creativity and Work Process
Remote Sensing, Survey, and Geospatial Sciences
Heritage, Placemaking, and Culture Building
Archaeometry and Conservation Sciences
Community-based scholarship, public science/humanities

Chelsea Schelly

Professor of Sociology, Department of Social Sciences
Affiliated Professor, College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science
Director of Research, Center for Innovation in Sustainability & Resilience

Links of Interest

Research Interests

Socio-technological systam transitions
Technology adoption
Energy policy
Energy practices
Sustainable communities
Self-provisioning
Environmental education

Dan Shtob

Assistant Professor of Sustainability and Health

Research Interests

Natural hazards and disasters
Environmental planning and response
Sustainability and mental health
Socio-environmental complexity
Environmental regulation

Areas of Expertise

Environmental sociology
Urban sustainability
Qualitative and mixed methods
Planning for complexity

Roman Sidortsov

Associate Professor, Energy Policy

Research Interests

Sustainable Energy Systems
Energy Security and Justice
Risk Governance of the Energy Sector
Arctic Energy Development
Russian Energy Policy
U.S. Energy Policy

Areas of Expertise

Energy and Environmental Policy
Comparative and International Energy Law
U.S. Energy Law
U.S. Environmental Law
Russian Energy and Environmental Law
Energy Geopolitics

"All this information, this material, must be taken up and reconsidered in the light of man himself, and one must try if possible, to rediscover, beyond all the details, life itself... Everything must be recaptured and relocated in the general framework of history, so that...we may respect the unity of history which is also the unity of life."
—Fernand Braudel, On History, 1980.

Sam R. Sweitz

Associate Professor of Anthropology & Archaeology

Research Interests

Historical and Industrial Archaeology
Social, Economic, and Political Dimensions of Haciendas, Plantations, and Industrial Communities in the American West, Latin America, and the Caribbean
Issues Related to Colonialism, World-Systems Analysis, post-Colonialism, and Globalization
Relevance of Archaeology and Heritage to Identity Formation and Contemporary Social Systems

"I find it astonishing that any man can regard fine machinery without admiration."
—John William Stone (in Stones Fall, by Iain Pears)

Steven A. Walton

Associate Professor of History

Links of Interest

Comprehensive Fields

History of Technology

History of Museums

Industrial History

Areas of Expertise

history of technology
history of science
artillery, fortification, ordnance
history of engineering
military history
Early Modern European history

"Academics are the only people I can think of for whom this sentence makes sense: 'I'm hoping to get some time off so that I can get some work done.'"
—Sidney Verba