 Research and Teaching Interests
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Oregon (2010) (Dissertation: Fighting King Coal: The Barriers to Grassroots Environmental Justice Movement Participation in Central Appalachia) Graduate Certificate, Women's and Gender Studies, University of Oregon (2010) M.S., Sociology, University of Oregon (2007) M.A., Community Change and Conservation, Future Generations University (2005) http://www.future.org/graduate-school M.S.W., Community Organizing & Social Administration, West Virginia University (2004) B.S., Biology; B.A., Religion, Washington & Lee University (2000) summa cum laude, University Scholar, Honors | CONTACT: Shannon Elizabeth Bell, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Sociology University of Kentucky Mailing address: 1515 Patterson Office Tower, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506 Email: shannon.eliz.bell@uky.edu Phone: (304) 610-8318 Biography: I am an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Kentucky and am also affiliated faculty in the Department of Gender & Women's Studies, the newly-forming Environmental & Sustainability Studies Program, and the Appalachian Studies Program. My research primarily falls at the intersections of political sociology, social movements, environmental sociology, and gender. The overarching goal of my intellectual pursuits is contributing to an understanding of how power is acquired, maintained, and exercised by a small elite class, and to use this understanding to further efforts to achieve social justice and curtail environmental degradation. Analyzing the circumstances that lead to social inequality is a primary interest of mine, and discovering how those inequalities can be fought at the grassroots level has been a central motivation for my research. Feminist insights about the gendered nature of power, social practices, structures, and identities inform my theoretical and methodological approaches. Most of my recent work has focused on the power of the coal industry and the ways in which the social and environmental impacts of this industry have affected communities, social movement participation, and the individual lives of residents living in the coalfields of Central Appalachia. |