Profile picture of Kari Marie Norgaard

Kari Marie Norgaard

Director of Graduate Studies for Sociology
Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies
Climate Studies, Food Studies, IRES, Native American Studies, Sociology
Phone: 541-346-8615
Office: 634 PLC, 1291 University of Oregon, Eugene OR 97403-1291
Office Hours: Sp24: Tuesday 2:00-4:00
Research Interests: Gender, Place and Environment, Social Psychology and Interaction, Sociology of Culture, Theory Knowledge Science, Qualitative Approaches

Biography

Professor Norgaard (B.S. Biology Humboldt State University 1992, M.A. Sociology Washington State University 1994, PhD Sociology, University of Oregon 2003) is a Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon. Dr. Norgaard trained as a postdoctoral fellow in an interdisciplinary IGERT Program on Invasive Species at University California Davis from 2003-2005 and from there joined the faculty as Assistant Professor at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA from 2005-2011. She joined the University of Oregon faculty in 2011. Over the past ten years Dr. Norgaard has published and taught in the areas of environmental sociology, gender and environment, race and environment, climate change, sociology of culture, social movements and sociology of emotions. She currently has two active areas of research:

1) work on the social organization of denial (especially regarding climate change), and

2) environmental justice research with the Karuk Tribe on the Klamath River.

Both of these areas of scholarship have been nationally recognized through the award of research grants, speaking invitations, and coverage of research by high profile media outlets including the Washington Post, National Geographic, British Broadcasting System, and National Public Radio. Her most recent book, Salmon and Acorns Feed Our People: Colonialism, Nature and Social Action, is now available for purchase: http://bit.ly/2WThteW
Her book Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions and Everyday Life came out with MIT Press in the Spring of 2011. Norgaard is the recipient of the Pacific Sociological Association’s Distinguished Practice Award for 2005.

Research Interests

  • tribal environmental health
  • race and environment
  • gender and environment
  • climate change denial
  • emotions and social movements

Honors and Awards

2019 Sociology of Emotions Recent Contribution Award, American Sociological Association

2019 Fred Buttel Distinguished Contribution Award, Environmental Sociology Section of American Sociological Association

2018 “Examining the effects of climate change on American Indian uses of forests, habitats and resources in Pacific Northwest and Northern California” With Frank Lake, Kathy Lynn and Jonathan Long, Northwest Climate Science Center

2018 Chair, Section on Environmental Sociology, American Sociological Association

2017 Fund for Faculty Excellence Award, University of Oregon

2017 Climate Adaptation Planning, Department of Energy on behalf of Karuk Tribe

2017 PG and E Resilient Communities on behalf of Karuk Tribe