Faculty Directory | Social Sciences | Michigan Technological University

Faculty

Melissa F. Baird

Associate Professor of Anthropology
Graduate Director, Social Sciences
Faculty Fellow, Graduate School

mfbaird@mtu.edu

Research Interests

Extractive zones
STEMM Equity in Higher ED
Forensic & Ethnographic methods

Carl Blair

Teaching Professor, History & Anthropology
Anthropology Program Advisor

cblair@mtu.edu
906-487-3625
AOB 222 (Spring 23' Office Hours Mondays 11am-12pm & Wednesdays 2-3pm)

Links of Interest

Frontiers and Fortresses Summer School

Research Interests

Experimental Archaeology
Early Large scale iron production
Roman and Anglo-Saxon England
Rise of socially complex societies
International program development

Angie Carter (she/her)

Associate Professor, Environmental/Energy Justice
Please note: Not accepting new students academic year 2023-2024

ancarter@mtu.edu
906-487-1431
Academic Office Building (Student hours Mondays 1-3 schedule using link below)

Areas of Expertise

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

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

khannum@mtu.edu
906-487-2824
AOB 225 (Spring 23' Office Hours Tuesdays & Thursdays 11am-12pm)

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
Peace Corps Prep Program Director
Sustainability Science and Society Program Advisor

kbhenqui@mtu.edu
906-487-2116
AOB 226 (Spring 23' Office Hours Wednesdays 1-3pm)

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

Department Chair, Social Sciences
Director, Geospatial Research Facility
Associate Professor of Geography and GIS

djlafren@mtu.edu
906-487-2189
AOB 215 (Spring 23' Office Hours Tuesdays 9-11am)

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
Affiliated Professor, CFRES

nelangs3@mtu.edu
AOB 220 (Spring 23' Office Hours Wednesdays 11am-1pm)

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

speters@mtu.edu
906-487-2391
AOB 219 (Spring 23' Office Hours Tuesdays and Thursdays 2-3pm, or by appt)

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 learn

Mark Alan Rhodes II

Assistant Professor of Geography

marhodes@mtu.edu
906-487-2459
AOB 211 (Spring 23' Office Hours Wednesdays 10am-12pm)

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

jrobins@mtu.edu
906-487-3080
AOB 223 (Spring 23' Office Hours Wednesdays 1-3pm)

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

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

Laura Walikainen Rouleau

Associate Teaching Professor
History Program Advisor

lwrouleau@mtu.edu
906-487-2870
AOB 212 (Spring 23' Office Hours Tuesdays & Thursdays 11am-12pm)

Mark D. Rouleau

Associate Professor, Social Sciences

mdroulea@mtu.edu
906-487-2039
AOB 205 (Spring 23' Office Hours Tuesdays and Thursdays 11am-12pm)

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

sfscarle@mtu.edu
906-487-2110
Academic Office Building 221

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

scarlett@mtu.edu
906-487-2359
AOB 210 (Spring 23' Office Hours Mondays 9-11am)

Links of Interest

Research Interests

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

Chelsea Schelly

Associate Professor of Sociology
Affiliated Associate Professor, CFRES

cschelly@mtu.edu
906-487-1759
AOB 200A (Spring 23' Office Hours Mondays and Thursdays at 10am)

Links of Interest

Research Interests

Alternative technology adoption
Renewable energy technologies
Renewable and alternative technology policy
Sustainable communities
Energy conservation and consumption practices
Self-provisioning
Environmental education

Roman Sidortsov

Associate Professor, Energy Policy

rsidortsov@mtu.edu
906-487-1095
Academic Office Building 206

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

srsweitz@mtu.edu
906-487-1476
AOB 213 (Spring 23' Office Hours Tuesdays and Thursdays 11am - 12pm)

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

sawalton@mtu.edu
906-487-3272
AOB 224 (Spring 23' Office Hours Mondays 3-4pm & Tuesdays 11am-12pm)

Links of Interest

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

Adam M. Wellstead

Professor of Public Policy, Social Sciences

awellste@mtu.edu
906-487-2115
Academic Office Building 227

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

Policy advisory systems
Governance and political mechanisms
Survey research
Policy process frameworks

Areas of Interest

Canadian Energy and Environmental Issues
Climate Change Adaptation
Oil Sands Development
Forest Policy
Canadian Studies
Policy Innovation Labs
Policy Design

Richelle L. Winkler

Professor of Sociology and Demography, Social Sciences
Social Sciences Undergraduate Studies Director

rwinkler@mtu.edu
906-487-1886
AOB 217 (Spring 23' Office Hours Wednesdays 9:30-11:30am)

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

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

LouAnn Wurst

Professor of Archaeology

lawurst@mtu.edu
906-487-3188
Academic Office Building 216

Research Interests

Historical and Industrial Archaeology
Archaeology of Capitalism
Class and Inequality
Marxist Theory
Historic Preservation and Cultural Resource Management

Shan Zhou

Assistant Professor, Environmental and Energy Policy

shanzhou@mtu.edu
906-487-2864
Academic Office Building 203

Fields

Environmental and Energy Policy

Links of interest

Shan's published articles

Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Georgia Tech Climate and Energy Policy Lab

Public Service Careers

Research Interests

Environmental & Energy Policy
Smart Grids, Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency & Green Buildings
Sustainable Technology Adoption & Diffusion
Environmental and Energy Justice
Urban and Local Sustainability
Policy Processes
Policy Analysis

Adjunct and Affiliated Faculty

Valoree Gagnon

Director, University-Indigenous Community Partnerships, Great Lakes Research Center
Assistant Professor, College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science

vsgagnon@mtu.edu
906-487-2180
Noblet Building 168

Links of Interest

Research Interests

University-Community Partnerships, research engagement, and equitable practice and design
Environmental Justice and Policy, toxic substances, risk management, and promoting holistic health
Indigenous / Native American Studies, treaties and the government-to-government relationship, food sovereignty, and Indigenous wisdom in the Great Lakes region
Environmental Stewardship and the Seven Generations Philosophy