Speaker｜ Prof. Richard C. Stedman (Chair, Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, Cornell University)
Date｜12th Sep 2024
Time｜14:00 – 15:30 (GMT+8)
Venue｜2F Lecture Hall, Environmental Change Research Building, Academia Sinica (中研院環境變遷研究大樓 2 樓演講廳)
Language｜English
Register｜https://user45434.pse.is/6cwlq3

Recent Research
My research is rooted in connection to place and to community and how these connections may be affected by rapid social and ecological change.  As a sociologist who takes the natural world seriously, I believe that place matters, even in this age of extraordinary mobility.  Our environmental behaviors—from stewardship, to politics, to consumer choices–are rooted in our experiences, our understandings of, and preferences for places we care about.  I study a wide range of these places, at multiple scales, facing a diverse array of challenges, including wildlife conflict, invasive species, energy development, climate change, migration, and many others.

About the speaker
​Dr Stedman earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin (Sociology/Rural Sociology), his M.S. from Cornell University, and his BA from the University of Wisconsin. Prior to his arrival at Cornell University in 2007, he served as a faculty member in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at The Pennsylvania State University (2002-2007), and led the Social Science Research Group for the Canadian Forest Service in Edmonton Alberta.

​​Stedman’s research, teaching, and outreach is rooted in social-ecological systems. An author of over 200 peer reviewed works, he is especially interested in sense of place—as the meanings and attachments that are held for particular landscapes—and the role of environmental quality in underpinning this connection. He also focuses on the well-being of resource dependent communities, especially communities in transition. Much of his recent work in this area targets issues related to energy transitions, ranging from shale gas to large scale renewable efforts, but he also has keen interests in water, wildlife, and fishery systems, domestically and internationally. When not engaged in these activities, he enjoys all manner of outdoor pursuits, especially those that put food on the table, and writing mediocre poetry.