Michigan Technological University

Department of Social Sciences

Faculty and Staff Directory

Faculty

Carl Blair

Instructor

906-487-3625
cblair@mtu.edu
Academic Office Building 215
Mary H. Durfee
"Good things come in small packages—you can get a GREAT liberal arts education from us. Our graduates get jobs and enroll in fine graduate programs at universities like Yale, Michigan, and Johns Hopkins."
—Mary Durfee

Mary H. Durfee

Associate Professor of Government

Department Advisor for Majors University Competitive Scholarships Advisor

Visiting Professor, University of Malta

906-487-2112
mhdurfee@mtu.edu
Academic Office Building 216

Areas of Expertise

  • Great Lakes of North America
  • International Law
  • Malta
  • Scholarship of Pedagogy

Louise Nelson Dyble

Assistant Professor of History

Areas of Expertise

  • United States Political and Policy History
  • Urban and Metropolitan History
  • The Built Environment and Environmental Justice
  • Public Works and Transportation History
  • Metropolitan Area Governance and Intergovernmental Relations
  • Environmental History

Hugh S. Gorman

Associate Professor of Environmental History and Policy

906-487-2116
hsgorman@mtu.edu
Academic Office Building 220

Fields

  • Environmental History and Policy
  • History of Technology
  • History of Science
  • Business History

Research Interests

  • The governance of technological systems and uses of the environment.
  • The political ecology of energy.

Kathleen E. Halvorsen

Professor, School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science

Professor of Natural Resource Policy

906-487-2824
kehalvor@mtu.edu
Academic Office Building 225

Areas of Expertise

  • Woody bioenergy
  • Climate change
  • Natural resource policy
  • Water resource policy
  • Bioenergy policy

Kari B. Henquinet

Lecturer, Department of Social Sciences

Director, Peace Corps Master's International Programs

Areas of Expertise

  • International/transnational development
  • Faith-based development
  • Gender
  • Human rights
  • Global service learning
  • African studies (Niger)
"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter."
—Rachel Carson

Nancy Langston

Professor of environmental history

Member of the Great Lakes Research Center

Specialties

  • Environmental history
  • Watershed change
  • Ecological history
  • Fisheries history
  • Mining history

Carol A. MacLennan

Associate Professor

906-487-2870
camac@mtu.edu
Academic Office Building 209A

Patrick E. Martin

Department Chair, Social Sciences

Professor

Areas of Expertise

  • Industrial archaeology
  • Industrial heritage
  • Historical archaeology
Audrey L. Mayer
"Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life."
—Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder

Audrey L. Mayer

Associate Professor of Ecology and Environmental Policy

Areas of Expertise

  • Environmental and Natural Resources Policy
  • Sustainability science
  • Landscape ecology
  • Biodiversity and Conservation
  • International Trade
  • Information Theory
Emma S. Norman
"Be the change that you want to see in the world."
—Mahatma Ghandi

Emma S. Norman

Assistant Professor of Geography, Department of Social Sciences

Environmental and Energy Policy Program

Areas of Expertise

  • Transboundary Water Governance
  • Water Security
  • Political and Cultural Geography
  • Environmental Governance
  • Nature-Society
906-487-2391
speters@mtu.edu
Academic Office Building 219

Fredric L. Quivik

Associate Professor of History

Editor, IA: Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology

Areas of Expertise

  • History of Technology
  • Environmental History
  • Architectural History
  • Industrial Archeology

Jonathan E. Robins

Assistant Professor of History

906-487-3080
jrobins@mtu.edu
Academic Office Building 223

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

  • History of Globalization
  • Economic History
  • History of Imperialism and Colonialism
  • International Business Organization
  • Commodity Studies
  • History of Food

Mark D. Rouleau

Assistant Professor

906-487-2039
mdroulea@mtu.edu
Academic Office Building 205
Timothy J. Scarlett
"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

Director, Graduate Program in Industrial Archaeology

Research Interests

  • Historical and Industrial Archaeologies, History of Technology
  • Ecobiography, Religion and Identity
  • Archaeological Science and Culture Theory
  • Ceramic Petrology, Neutron Activation Analysis
  • Electronic and Distance Education and Anthropology
  • Archaeology and Cross-Curriculum, Experiential Education

Bruce Seely

Dean of the College of Science and Arts

Professor of History and STS

906-487-2156
bseely@mtu.edu
Walker Arts and Humanities Center 201
Barry D. Solomon
"Economics is too important to leave to economists."

Barry D. Solomon

Professor of Geography and Environmental Policy

Director, Graduate Program in Environmental Policy

Area of Expertise

  • Energy Policy
  • Ecological Economics
  • Emissions Trading
Samuel R. Sweitz
"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

Chair, Global Learning Committee for General Education

Coordinator, Global Issues Steering Committee, General Education Program

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-Colonailism, and Globalization
  • Relevance of Archaeology and Heritage to Identity Formation and Contemporary Social Systems
Steven A. Walton
"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

Assistant Professor of History

Areas of Expertise

  • history of technology
  • history of science
  • artillery, fortification, ordnance
  • history of engineering
  • military history
  • Early Modern European history
Adam M. Wellstead
"...when I have been in Canada, I have never heard a Canadian refer to an American as a "foreigner." He is just an "American." And, in the same way, in the United States, Canadians are not "foreigners," they are "Canadians.""
—Franklin Roosevelt

Adam M. Wellstead

Assistant Professor of Environmental and Energy Policy

906-487-2115
awellste@mtu.edu
Academic Office Building 207

Areas of Expertise

  • Policy Capacity
  • New Governance Arrangements
  • Survey Research
  • Policy Process Frameworks

Areas of Interest

  • Canadian Energy and Environmental Issues
  • Climate Change Adaptation
  • Oil Sands Development
  • Forest Policy

Richelle L. Winkler

Assistant Professor of Sociology and Demography

Areas of Expertise

  • Rural Sociology
  • Population and Environment
  • Environmental Sociology
  • Community Engaged Scholarship
  • Internal Migration
  • GIS and spatial analysis

Department of Social Sciences

Academic Office Building
1400 Townsend Drive
Houghton, MI 49931

Ph. 906-487-2113
Email: socialsciences@mtu.edu

Michigan Technological University

1400 Townsend Drive
Houghton, Michigan 49931-1295
906-487-1885

See a Problem?

Email the Webmaster